The City of Toronto is now stepping in to oversee a number of urgent repair works at 500 Dawes Road in East York – a significant escalation in enforcement against the landlord who has an extensive history of property standards violations.
The building has become notorious for a lengthy repair backlog and thousands of complaints related to crumbling ceilings, deteriorating balconies, and numerous pests. Last summer, Mayor Olivia Chow visited in person to get a first-hand look at the situation, signing a pledge to take remedial action.
That action is now underway, at a cost of about $120,000, which the city says will be billed back to the landlord through their property taxes. In a statement, city officials tell CityNews that work began on Monday with City-authorized contractors addressing pest issues in the common areas of the building.
“We continue to work with the building owner to obtain compliance for all other outstanding deficiencies at the property,” read the statement.
Tenant and ACORN member Ryan Endoh has been among the tenants leading the charge to hold the landlord accountable and force the city to take action.
“It’s been very challenging for tenants from just a morale standpoint because this is a decades-long issue,” said Endoh. “The fact that the concerns of tenants are being acknowledged the way that they are, and it’s not just a matter of lip service, the city’s actually stepping up and getting that work done, is just welcome news to everyone.”
According to the City, the landlord was recently hit with $200,000 worth of fines by the Ontario Court of Justice for failing to comply with a 2024 Property Standards Order. That’s in addition to numerous fines and fees dating back to 2017.
Councillor Brad Bradford acknowledges that while it would have been better for the city to step in sooner, the process is necessarily slow.
“We have to be able to defend those remedial actions, you have to show a documented paper trail of escalation, and again, I think that’s the rub that’s difficult, it takes too long to get there.”
CityNews reached out to Carolyn Krebs, the owner of the building, but was told she was not available for comment.
