What happens when you report an illegal rooming house in Toronto?

October 26, 2009 2:52 PM

What is the likely result of reporting an illegal rooming house in Toronto? e.g. How often do they end up getting cleaned up, repaired, and properly licensed vs. shut down (whether by the inspectors or by an owner who doesn't want to bother fixing it up)?
posted by anonymous to law & government (5 comments total)

What neighbourhood is it in? If you happen to be near me, I can connect you with some people who work on this type of stuff for our community association.
posted by heatherann at 3:24 PM on October 26

Tricky. What type of illegal? There are serious laws about fire alarms and extinguishers, fire doors, exits, etc. for legal rooming houses, so infractions can be reported to the fire dept. Similarly, debris and garbage left around the building can be considered a fire hazard. I'd try your local fire hall first as they do community inspections, usually. Then there's shouldn't be allowed by zoning laws, so that's city hall zoning which is probably a long haul. Then there's vermin, which goes to the city board of health. They're the ones concerned with bedbugs and termites as both are spreading in the city. If it's home to mentally challenged or ill persons, then the provincial government, probably Community and Social Services or CAMH can direct you to someone to complain to. There used to be a part of the city government inspected buildings and ordered work orders which have a complete by date attached to them. The worst case is if it's owned by a charity. Then you have a problem. Last resort is the newspaper: doesn't the Toronto Star have a reporter who gets things fixed, mostly potholes and missing stop signs; his column is in the Sat paper.
posted by x46 at 8:06 PM on October 26

The city has a difficult time dealing with known crack houses. Unless there's something really serious, or the local residents' association has a lot of pull, don't expect anything to happen too quickly.
posted by Chuckles McLaughy du Haha, the depressed clown at 6:24 AM on October 27

I live in Blansdowne, and there are several known crack houses in the area. They are still around. My guess is that it would take some concerted effort on your part to get the city to do anything about your rooming house.
posted by chunking express at 9:14 AM on October 27

(Well that's not true, there are some that got shut down. I think they usually go after them on issues unrelated to drug use -- like fire safety, as noted above.)
posted by chunking express at 9:15 AM on October 27