AGM
2025 Community Champion Award
Tenants of 2757 Kipling Avenue
The Tenants of 2757 Kipling Avenue, led by Fadumo Mohamud Mohamud, Warsame Abdirahman, Brenda Nairn, Albert Charles, Laura Loeppky, Alicia Crichlow, and Deo Bisnauth – supported by Bruno Dobrusin of the York South-Weston Tenant Union, are the recipient of the 2025 Community Champion award. They were nominated for the award by Rexdale Community Legal Clinic and were introduced by Yodit Edemariam, Directors of Legal Services at the clinic.
This year, we have experienced a profound example of not only the importance of maintaining a commitment to our systemic work, but also of the practical reasons to ensure we are doing this. Tenants of two buildings in our catchment area faced extraordinary retroactive rent charges earlier this year in the range of up to $5000- $6000, based on the Landlord and Tenant Board (“LTB”)’s approval of two above guideline increases (“AGI”). An AGI allows landlords to obtain rent increases that are more than the regular, allowable guideline based on things like capital expenditures or municipal taxes and charges. When multiple tenants from these buildings began attending our office, we recognized that this was not an individual problem. We recognized that legal advice about AGIs, as well as the rental arrears and eviction processes, was not enough to really help. It also felt deeply problematic that we might continue to refer these tenants to access financial support from the precious public funds of under-resourced City of Toronto eviction prevention programs. As a result, we reached out to both local media and tenant organizers at the York South-Weston Tenant Union. The West End Phoenix interviewed tenants and the tenants also connected with the incredible Bruno Dobrusin of the York South-Weston Tenant Union. Then, they began organizing.
Fadumo Mohamud Mohamud, a tenant at 2757 Kipling Avenue, led the effort to spread the word and have tenants sign up if they were interested in doing something about their collective issues. This seemingly simple act, which was in fact a lot of work, was the start of a truly awe-inspiring process. Tenants, represented by the above-mentioned core group, then led a campaign that included tenants coming together in meetings as
large as 120-people strong in their lobby, a powerful petition and, ultimately, meetings with their landlord’s upper management. The tenants showed dedication, bravery and a deep sense of togetherness in facing their extremely well-resourced landlord. This was truly a David and Goliath scenario. The tenants not only came together around a common goal but also managed to have the landlord agree to waive all retroactive AGI charges for both of the buildings in question. While the tenants must pay their higher rent going forward, this was still a fantastic and unprecedented outcome as thousands of dollars were waived from each tenant’s rental account. It is an outcome that simply would not have been achievable through formal legal processes and meant about one million dollars back in the pockets of tenants.
Our role as a legal clinic in such efforts became one of providing practical and legal supports, but we did not at all lead the tenants’ efforts. This experience was an important reminder of the vital need for community organizing that occurs in a grassroots way and the manner in which legal clinics can support such efforts without taking centre stage. Apart from the exceptionally successful outcome for tenants in this case, their win also meant that a vast majority of the individuals who would have come to our office for individual legal assistance because of the retroactive charges did not have to. By supporting tenants collectively, we ultimately ended up being able to save significant resources.
Perhaps most significantly, however, is that tenants in multiple rental buildings in Rexdale have been meeting with their neighbours and organizing around important issues. Such organizing recognizes that individuals alone cannot successfully respond to increasingly crushing systemic issues such as poor rent control, AGIs, unaffordable rents fuelled by vacancy decontrol (Ontario landlords do not face any limits on the rent they can charge new tenants), as well as the cost of living crisis caused by issues such as abysmal social assistance rates and a low minimum wage in the province. The seed of this remarkable and exciting tenant movement in Rexdale over recent months was planted by the extraordinary tenants of 2757 Kipling Avenue, and supported by the York South-Weston Tenant Union.
About the Award
The Community Champion Award is given by the ACLCO each year to an individual or an organization that champions the causes of our clients and communities. Our goal is to celebrate those who stand up for the most marginalized and disadvantaged in our communities. Community Legal Clinics are very well placed to identify and recognize these champions. This is an Award from the clinics to our allies and community partners and is presented to the recipient at the ACLCO AGM.
The impressive list of previous winners includes: BaBF, a neighbourhood engagement group in Willowdale, Yvonne Kelly, a housing advocate from York Region, Omar Khan, an advocate for youth, refugees, newcomers, and seniors in Thorncliffe Park (TP), and Flemingdon Park (FP) in Toronto; Susie Neves, a Parent Support Worker working hard for equal access to resources for students in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood in Toronto; the Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario; Aline Akeson, a tenant and ant-poverty activist; Fred Franklin of the Toronto Refugee Affairs Council; Kerry Lee of the Safe ‘n Sound’s Homeless Initiative; the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups; The Dream Team; Colour of Poverty/Colour of Change; Steve Mantis, injured worker advocate; the ODSP Action Coalition; the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), and Linking Hands.
The Community Champion Award is a way of recognizing those who advocate and fight on behalf of our clients, often in the trenches with clinics. It’s also a way of raising the clinic system’s profile and improving the linkages with our friends and allies.