A new collection of research from the Balanced Supply of Housing exposes the forces pushing renters out of their homes, from financialized landlords to uneven legal protections, and calls for housing to be treated as a human right.
Stable housing is more than a roof overhead. It is the foundation from which people rest, raise families, build friendships, and participate in community life. Yet for a growing number of renters across Canada, that foundation is being pulled away. Evictions are on the rise, and the consequences, ranging from displacement to homelessness, are being felt most sharply by those who can least afford them.
A new edited volume drawing on the work of Balanced Supply of Housing (BSH) researchers and collaborators brings together years of rigorous study on evictions in Canada. The chapters examine who is being evicted, who is filing evictions, and what the laws governing these processes actually protect, or fail to protect.
Read the Evictions BookThe Financialization Problem
At the core of many eviction stories is a structural shift in how housing is owned. When housing is treated not as a home but as a financial asset, the interests of tenants and those of landlords diverge sharply. The BSH has dedicated more than half of its 40-plus funded research projects to this phenomenon, known as financialization.
In Ontario, an analysis of over 4,100 above-guideline rent increase (AGI) filings found that nearly half of all affected units were owned by financialized landlords. These are institutional owners that use improvement filings to pass costs onto tenants, often with little meaningful recourse available to those tenants. The result is an accelerating cycle of rent increases and economic displacement.
“Financialization transforms housing from a basic human need into an asset for financial gain, exacerbating rental unaffordability and eviction rates.”
In the Greater Toronto Area, a landmark analysis of 385,707 eviction filings between 2010 and 2021 linked each filing to property ownership data, enabling a level of scrutiny never before applied to Canadian eviction research. The findings are stark. Renters in Black-majority neighbourhoods were nearly twice as likely to receive an eviction filing from a financialized landlord compared to renters in other visible-minority, renter-majority neighbourhoods, and three times as likely compared to those in white renter-majority neighbourhoods.
When the Law Fails to Protect
Some Canadian provinces, such as Saskatchewan, include proportionality provisions in eviction law, meaning adjudicators are empowered to consider alternatives to eviction. In theory, this is a meaningful safeguard. In practice, the research tells a different story.
An analysis of 1,906 cases involving rental arrears found that adjudicators ordered eviction in 99.27% of them. The legal protection exists, but it is rarely exercised. The researchers recommend shifting the culture of these hearings away from speed and efficiency and toward a more thorough examination of evidence, with eviction prevention treated as a genuine priority.
A Patchwork of Protections
Because landlord-tenant law falls under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, tenant protections vary dramatically across the country. A renter in one province may have meaningful security of tenure; a renter in the next province over may have almost none. This variability is not just a legal technicality; it shapes the daily reality of millions of Canadians who rent their homes.
The availability of data mirrors these inequities. Eviction filings in Ontario were linked to property-level data for the first time in this research, yielding detailed insights into who files evictions and why. In British Columbia, no comparable property-level data was available, limiting the analysis that could be done. The disparity is itself evidence of how unevenly eviction transparency is distributed across the country.
What the Book Covers
Chapter 1
The right to housing in international law
Maps the constitutional right to housing globally and traces Canada’s obligations under international law.
Chapter 2
Landlord-factor evictions
Drawing on 84 interviews, researchers propose an updated typology of evictions that includes retaliatory evictions and accounts for landlord type.
Chapter 3
Proportionality and rent arrears
Analysis of 1,906 cases finds eviction ordered in nearly all rent-arrears hearings, revealing the gap between legal principle and practice.
Chapter 4
Above-guideline rent increases in Ontario
Nearly half of AGI-affected units are owned by financialized landlords, who pass improvement costs onto tenants with limited recourse.
Chapter 5
Eviction filings in the Greater Toronto Area
A first-of-its-kind linked data analysis of 385,707 filings reveals deep racial disparities in eviction rates by neighbourhood.
Chapter 6
Eviction Filings in Metro Vancouver
53,115 filings show that the pandemic eviction moratorium stalled displacement rather than preventing it.
Chapter 7
Tenancy Laws across Canada
A province-by-province analysis finds wildly uneven tenant protections and offers recommendations for strengthening security of tenure.
Chapter 8
Home Ownership, Condofication, and the Rental Crisis
Federal mortgage programs that fuel ownership and condo conversion are contributing to higher rents and rental precarity.
The Path Forward
The research collected in this volume does not treat evictions as an unfortunate, but inevitable part of renting. It treats them as a policy failure, one with identifiable causes and addressable remedies. Among the recommendations that emerge:
- expanding community and non-profit housing supply
- strengthening tenancy protections nationally
- reforming mortgage programs that favour ownership over affordability, and
- delisting residential real estate investment trusts from capital markets.
Underlying all of these recommendations is a shift in framing. When housing is understood as a human right rather than a commodity, the policy choices become clearer. The question is no longer what the market will provide, but what people need and what governments are obligated to ensure.
For more, listen to our recent podcast episode with BSH Director, Dr. Alexandra Flynn and Research Manager, Dr. Alina McKay and watch the recording of our Evictions Research Across Canada Book Launch webinar.
Read the full book on CANlii’s website by clicking the button below.
Read the Evictions BookThe Balanced Supply of Housing (BSH) is a SSHRC-CMHC funded partnership grant led by Dr. Alexandra Flynn at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law, focused on land use and housing financialization across Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
