Toronto Tenant Support During Covid

[Ashwin Samtani]

Hi fellow Torontonians,

I wanted to share a couple of tenant resources that I learned about recently which you could use or recommend to your tenant other than the standard EI benefits that most people already know about:

1. RentBank

Provides Toronto renters an interest-free repayable loan to low-income families to help cover one month's rent
To qualify: Must live in Toronto with ongoing source of income or currently receive income through social assistance, and the rental unit must be covered under the Residential Tenancies Act

2. Emergency Care Benefit

Provides up to $900 bi-weekly, for up to 15 weeks and is administered through the Canada Revenue Agency.
To qualify: Workers and self-employed who are themselves or quarantined or sick with COVID-19 or are taking care of a family member sick with COVID-19 (such as an elderly parent) but do not qualify for EI sickness benefits. Parents, regardless of whether they qualify for EI, who need to stay home with children due to school or daycare closures and are unable to earn also qualify for this benefit

Hope you find this information useful,

[Huong Luu]

Thank you for sharing this. A contact of mine from the landlord court side shared with me that this info is already out of date! Things are changing daily. Additional and new support is coming out daily. This is what I was told (which may be outdated by the time you read it): 

Most municipalities have rent banks. They are often difficult for folks to obtain. Some people go to legal clinics to help them advocate to get access to rent bank funds.Also, #2 is no longer accurate. It is called CERB program now. All workers which includes self employed folks can get 2k per month for 4 months if they lose their job due to covid.This is the new EI benefit. Application available in April.https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2020/03/introduces-canada-emergency-response-benefit-to-help-workers-and-businesses.html. 
And, to answer your question, it is a federal benefit program. That means all Canadians have access to it.