Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) evictions are at a 10-year high, according to new data obtained by CTV News Toronto, prompting some tenants and their supporters to call for greater leniency to avoid forcing vulnerable people out of their homes.
Shadman Rahman is a long-time TCHC tenant in Regent Park who is facing eviction. He’s lived in his unit for 15 years, first with his parents and siblings, now with his own family.
Rahman says he lives with symptoms of mental health disorders and is on ODSP.
“I have a one-year-old child and it’s not fair my child has to face imminent eviction,” he said on Monday.
Rahman broke the rules of his tenancy. While away on a trip to get married, he says he allowed refugees needing a home to stay in his unit. And while they’re now gone, they refused to leave for two years.
“We’re not ready to live on the streets … We just need stable housing,” he said.
And although evictions at Toronto Community Housing are under one per cent, they have reached a 10-year-high in the city, with 246 in 2015. Then, for those behind in paying their rent, there was a moratorium during COVID-19.
The latest data shows between January and October 2025 there were 391 evictions.
Former TCHC tenant Reem Saad and her mother, who both have serious medical issues, were evicted from their TCHC unit in North York’s Pleasant View neighbourhood over broken rules.
Saad says their eviction stems from two incidents: one violent, involving her mother’s guest, and another where a guest allegedly caused extensive damage to the building, says TCHC.
“It was not our fault. If we said we are not going to allow these visitors to come, what are we going to do? We said no, you’re not allowed in…,” she said.
“Thank God everybody’s like, taking us in, family, friends, if we have a big support was like, How long do we really expect them to really take us?
But despite tenants breaking rules, some housing advocates argue eviction is still not the answer and will make homelessness even worse.
“It’s a contradiction. We’re not solving the problem,” says Walied Khogali Ali, the co-chair of the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association.
Ali says he’s been referred to 10 eviction cases this year from around the city.
He says tenants need better community and legal support to prevent them from losing their homes in the first place. And if eviction rates continue to rise, be prepared for further undue hardship.
“We will have more deaths and most importantly we will be impacted the challenges that come with homelessness, specially when it comes abuse of drugs, when it comes to crime,” he said.
Toronto Community Housing, meanwhile, says the increase in evictions stems from the backlog of cases during thee pandemic, adding its goal is to always keep people housed.
“We have responsibility to ensure our communities are safe and that all tenants are able to live comfortably in their homes. And when the actions of a tenant or their guests impact this, TCHC has to act,” Lindsay Viets, TCHC’s director of operations planning and program services, told CTV News Toronto.
She said they take a lot of care to avoid evictions, adding that rules need to be applied consistently to maintain safety.
And while TCHC can’t speak to specific cases, it says evictions are a tool of last resort.
