#TorontoIsFailingMe: My apartment tower is infested with cockroaches and bugs
Abbas Kolia, 51
Thorncliffe Park
When I first came to Toronto in 1980, I was 24. I remember thinking, What a beautiful city. I came from a very small village in Gujarat, India, and had no idea how to live in a western country, but I learned quickly. I got a good job at a factory on Kipling that made the foam for mattresses and pillows. I worked 12-hour shifts seven days a week to pay for a Thorncliffe Park apartment I rented with my two brothers and sister. I eventually married and raised three children here.
Thorncliffe Park is the place where people come to start a new life in Canada. Families arrive from all over the world, they work hard, and then they move to wealthier suburbs. I’m the one who stayed—this is the place I love, so why leave the community? It’s a safe neighbourhood with people from all over the world, where you can walk to grocery stores, schools, mosques, churches.
What makes life hard here is the housing. In 1982, I moved my growing family into our own apartment. These Thorncliffe buildings are 40 years old. When I arrived here there were maybe 9,000 people living in the neighbourhood. Now there are more than 30,000. The buildings are infested with cockroaches, mice, bedbugs and anything else you can name. Our landlord rarely cleans the carpet in my hallway. I can’t bring my friends into my tower’s common area without feeling embarrassed about the dirt. Our last councillor, John Parker, blamed tenants for the conditions, saying they don’t know how to live properly.
In 1992, a neighbour encouraged me to get involved with tenants’ rights. She said: “You have energy, you will fight, you can talk to the immigrants.” I’m now the president of the tenants’ association, and I do my best to help newcomers who don’t know their rights—that the landlord is responsible for leaky pipes and broken toilets, not them.
People always talk about a divide between downtown and the suburbs, but never mind downtown—just look at Leaside, the expensive suburb next door. We’re in the same ward, but the difference between what councillors have done for them versus us is huge. We don’t have any resources for seniors, anything for youth, anything for women. There’s not enough space where people can just get together and enjoy their lives. Walk to Leaside and there are playgrounds, all sorts of facilities for children, beautiful parks.
The difference? We’re immigrants. People think this is all we deserve.
—as told to Nicholas Hune-Brown
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/toronto-is-failing-me-my-apartment-tower-is-infested-with-cockroaches-and-bugs/&title=#TorontoIsFailingMe: My apartment tower is infested with cockroaches and bugs&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/toronto-is-failing-me-thorncliffe-park.jpg&description=Toronto's inner suburbs have become shorthand for crumbling postwar apartment blocks, underfunded schools or gang warfare. They’re among the neighbourhoods with the lowest incomes in the city, the longest trek to a TTC stop, and the highest concentration of immigrants and visible minorities. This month, we're sharing stories from Torontonians who live in the inner suburbs, told in their own words. Some are shocking, some tragic, some hopeful. Together, they convey an urgent truth: Toronto is failing too many of its citizens. Have a story of your own? Tweet, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #TorontoIsFailingMe to tell us.
[caption id="attachment_304353" align="aligncenter" width="656"] Abbas Kolia in Thorncliffe Park. (Image: Eamon Mac Mahon)[/caption]
Abbas Kolia, 51
Thorncliffe Park
When I first came to Toronto in 1980, I was 24. I remember thinking, What a beautiful city. I came from a very small village in Gujarat, India, and had no idea how to live in a western country, but I learned quickly. I got a good job at a factory on Kipling that made the foam for mattresses and pillows. I worked 12-hour shifts seven days a week to pay for a Thorncliffe Park apartment I rented with my two brothers and sister. I eventually married and raised three children here.
Thorncliffe Park is the place where people come to start a new life in Canada. Families arrive from all over the world, they work hard, and then they move to wealthier suburbs. I’m the one who stayed—this is the place I love, so why leave the community? It’s a safe neighbourhood with people from all over the world, where you can walk to grocery stores, schools, mosques, churches.
What makes life hard here is the housing. In 1982, I moved my growing family into our own apartment. These Thorncliffe buildings are 40 years old. When I arrived here there were maybe 9,000 people living in the neighbourhood. Now there are more than 30,000. The buildings are infested with cockroaches, mice, bedbugs and anything else you can name. Our landlord rarely cleans the carpet in my hallway. I can’t bring my friends into my tower’s common area without feeling embarrassed about the dirt. Our last councillor, John Parker, blamed tenants for the conditions, saying they don’t know how to live properly.
In 1992, a neighbour encouraged me to get involved with tenants’ rights. She said: “You have energy, you will fight, you can talk to the immigrants.” I’m now the president of the tenants’ association, and I do my best to help newcomers who don’t know their rights—that the landlord is responsible for leaky pipes and broken toilets, not them.
People always talk about a divide between downtown and the suburbs, but never mind downtown—just look at Leaside, the expensive suburb next door. We’re in the same ward, but the difference between what councillors have done for them versus us is huge. We don’t have any resources for seniors, anything for youth, anything for women. There’s not enough space where people can just get together and enjoy their lives. Walk to Leaside and there are playgrounds, all sorts of facilities for children, beautiful parks.
The difference? We’re immigrants. People think this is all we deserve.
—as told to Nicholas Hune-Brown){kind=link}
It’s not a matter of deserving anything, or a racial or an immigrant thing, this is the whole problem, people like this are making it a “racial” or “its because I am an immigrant”. its pretty simple, you get what you pay for. I am not sure what the issue is, if you don’t like the conditions you can afford to move into when you get here, don’t move here go somewhere else that is not as expensive.
The article says he is 51. Yet he says he was 24 when he came to Toronto in 1980… making him 59. Which is right, and which is wrong?…
Brian, the Residential Tenancies Act legally applies to ALL Ontario tenants, not just those who can afford to “get what they pay for.” I admire Abbas for staying in his neighbourhood to fight for the rights of those who do not yet know what their rights are. And it is an “immigrant thing” when the neighbourhood is mainly comprised of immigrants who are not receiving the same legal right to standard of living that the rest of the city does.
Well, it’s not that simple.
First, I don’t see Kolia as trying to make this “racial”. He’s simply saying that immigrants (those without money) frequently get the short end of the stick.
New to this country, they often do not speak English, and they are unfamiliar with Canadian laws, politics and means of getting things done. It can harder for them to assert their tenant rights with landlords, or to even know what their rights are. That’s one of the things he is trying to change. One doesn’t have to look too hard to find numerous examples of landlords taking advantage of tenants, and the tenants in question are usually new Canadians. Some people clearly do think immigrants can be taken advantage of, or to put it in Kolia’s words, deserve less.
As a community, it’s also easier to get ignored by politicians and bureaucrats at the City. Sit through a few community council meetings here in Toronto and you’ll see — the most assertive neighbourhoods, the ones demanding funding and services, almost always tend to be wealthier (and whiter) than average. They have the means and the connections. That doesn’t mean those residents are wrong or wrongly privileged — they are involved and care about their neighbourhoods. It’s just harder for immigrant communities to do the same, when so many of your residents work multiple minimum-wage jobs, are much less comfortable speaking English and do not have the same knowledge of City Hall or the same connections. Again, this isn’t race-baiting — it’s simply a fact of life. He’s calling on the City to share resources more evenly. Whether one agrees or disagrees, his appeal is not an unreasonable one to make.
And given the rental market in this city, and the options available to low income earners, the less said about your comments on moving the better.
If I had a choice between living in a dirty, vermin-infested, crumbling tower in Toronto and a clean rental unit somewhere else in Ontario or Canada (at the same price), I would defintely choose the latter. Hell–you could prolly easily buy your own home in a less expensive community.
Canada’s a big country, why not try another postal code?
Toronto is like any other place in Canada – there are good rental units and bad ones. Moving to another place isn’t a magic bullet. People live in particular cities for numerous reasons — family, friends, jobs, opportunities, love of place — and telling them to simply move elsewhere isn’t much help.
For me personally, I would rather provide my children with a decent home and opportunities for a good life than live in a roach motel and attend substandard schools. Often this will mean moving to where there’s more opportunity–so, actually it does help.
Canada’s big and beautiful country–it’s worth trying other communities.
Yeah, and most people live in Toronto because it offers far more opportunities than other places in Canada. There are crappy schools and substandard housing across this country – given income levels, much of it is far from Toronto. People live where they want to live, where it makes sense for them to do so. Telling them to try other communities is vacuous and unhelpful advice.
Telling people to try other communities is most definitely not vacuous and unhelpful advice–especially for new immigrants. It has been proven that new immigrants integrate and establish themselves faster and more successfully when they settle in areas outside the GTA. I have also seen this anecdotally.
I have also seen (and personally know) immigrants who languish because they won’t leave their comfort zone–like this poor chap who has lived amid cockroaches in the same building since 1980.
I daresay he may have found himself in more comfort if he’d been willing to move around a bit.
I’m not an immigrant. I was just between places and was renting at Sheppard and Bathurst and my apartment was infested with cockroaches!!! It was revolting!!
Nothing beats the square footage and space you get in an older place…but the flipside is a new condo with zero space at all—and more $$$ to boot. Now I’ve moved to Oshawa because Toronto is too congested and bloody expensive.
The point is….people, regardless should not be living in these conditions !!!
Stop making this all about race , you get what you pay for , some work hard and saved alot of money and can afford a nice place , others dont work at all and live of well fare and complain all day …….. Go back to India if you dont like it here , Im sure its 100X better here then it is there so stop complaining please !!
Please stop being insanely ignorant. Thanks.
Please provide a link to this so-called “proof”. Where are the studies to which you refer? Forgive me, but I am pretty sure your anecdotal evidence is a lot of hot air.
I will take the last word on this silly argument. People can live where they choose, but they should know that in a country as massive and diverse as Canada, there is plenty of opportunity outside of one metroplitan area on the shores of Lake Ontario.
You’re right–it’s expensive to live in Toronto. People should seriously consider less pricey postal codes to establish themselves. If I didn’t live in Toronto, I would look at Hamilton, Ottawa, Kingston or KW–all nice spots.
Wow, no empathy in these comments:
“You get what you pay for” doesn’t mean much when you’re in a city where housing is unaffordable.
“So go somewhere else.” When you move to a new country with no connections, you need to go where the jobs are. Jobs aren’t in the middle of nowhere, where housing is cheap. Jobs are in cities like Toronto and Vancouver, where housing is expensive.
Too many cutthroat capitalists in these comments who don’t understand the harsh realities that most people face.
As someone who has lived in Thorncliffe Park and still has family in Thorncliffe Park, I disagree with a lot of these comments. What this article is arguing for is the basic right to safe, clean housing regardless of the area – whether it is rich or poor, full of immigrants or not. Secondly, it’s not as simple as “if you don’t like it, move somewhere else.” People have built relationships in these communities that make it hard to move; I’m not sure why that’s difficult to understand. I admire Kalia for staying in this community to make it better. And lastly, “you get what you pay for” is a ridiculous comment. The majority of people in this neighbourhood hover, if not fall below, the poverty line. Should these vulnerable people have less rights to a clean environment than those with money? Kalia isn’t asking for gold gilded elevators; he’s asking for a living standard that SHOULD BE standard across the board, regardless of income level.
Still waiting on your proof. Also, do we want a city only for the rich? Is that what you want? Because it sounds like it. No one here is asking for granite countertops and jacuzzi tubs. They just want a hygenic place to live and schools that aren’t falling apart. You shouldn’t have to leave your community and network to get those things.
That’s right. Everyone gets an equal start and we live in a total meritocracy.
I know I will never sway your thinking because you are so adamant, but I did see some research on better outcomes for immigrants outside the GTA while writing a report on IEPs. I don’t have time to look for it BECAUSE I”M WORKING, but I think it may have come from TRIEC or the Maytree foundation.
Anecdotally, I will point to my wife. She also came from India and settled in Vancouver where she was educated and built a network. When things didn’t pan out career wise, she moved to Ontario where THERE WAS MORE OPPORTUNITY. She found a job and built a career, another network and a life.
Now she has achieved professional success, bought herself a couple of comfortable homes in great neighbhourhoods (with the schools that come with that) and has moved up in the world.
Bottom line? Luck favours the bold–and that often means making a move to where the opportunity is.
There are many cities in Canada, not just Toronto and Vancouver and many of them have lower unemployment rates. There is opportunity in less expensive places.
I will Google the Maytree study. That’s good enough. Thanks for that.
And yeah, I guess I am pretty adamant that Toronto shouldn’t just be a city for the rich, that all public schools should be good schools, and a clean, no frills apartment should be affordable for every working person.
When I first moved to Toronto I lived in some not so nice buildings up in the Jane and Finch area as it was what I could afford. These buildings had issues due to their age and due to some infestation issues. This is probably what made them affordable for me. I had a few issues over my time there with them but in the end they always complied. I got a new refrigerator placed in my unit. Wash room tiling replaced. New carpet placed in the hallway. None of it was easy to get done but I fought for it and got it.
What I couldn’t fight or stand in the end were some of my neighbours. No matter how many signs were put up in garbage rooms people still couldn’t be bothered to put their garbage down the chute? They’d just toss bag after bag into the room and leave it there. Hell sometimes people would just toss bags into the stairwells. Magnets for vermin of al kinds. Pets would urinate on the new carpet I had fought to get replaced in the hall and they couldn’t even bother to try to clean it up or notify the super. People would take old furniture, put it in an elevator, and hit the ground floor button and leave. Now don’t get me wrong it wasn’t most people but there were definitely some that were just horrible neighbours and they caused way more problems then our building management ever did.
We also had a dirty common area in our building. It annoyed a few of us greatly so we finally gave up, gathered up some cleaning supplies one Saturday, and went down and cleaned it ourselves. Should we have had to do that? No. But if you want to take pride in your building and community sometimes a little elbow grease can help. After that our super was quite good at keeping the area clean. A few weeks later we went outside and picked up garbage around the property. We had put up signs to try to get as many people out to help as we could. We got two people to show up that weren’t there two weeks earlier.
Same thing every other time we tried to get the people involved. Many people say they want something in this world but many don’t want to work for it. You want live in a clean and safe building then help make it that way. Rally your community. Get the property management company involved with you not just for you. Work together where you can. Push them when they need it. Help them when you can. Keep your unit clean. Help keep your common areas clean. Pick up that candy wrapper or chip bag on the floor in the lobby and put it in the trash can don’t just walk right past it.
There’s no support system in those remote areas. No jobs for people who don’t speak English well.
They are paying the rent that the landlord asked for. Are you saying only overpriced condo units are required to be clean and vermin-free? And inexpensive housing is expected to be filthy? That’s bullshit.
Some of these comments make me cry. It’s discouraging to see such heartless, thoughtless comments.
Hamilton, Ottawa, Kingston and KW are remote areas? LOL. You need to get out more.
Yes, well. We aren’t all as privileged and oblivious as you. Have a great day.
Canada tried giving everyone an equal shot now look what happened , mass immigration from indian / pakistan , and Asia has flooded Toronto , just look at Brampton , NO ONE wants to live there anymore , people are starting to call it Brownpton . Same as Scarborough , huge population of indians and pakistani living here , everyone wants to get out because no one wants to live next to these people . Most of those people are rude and give off a very bad smell .
This problem wont stop unless we do something , more and more will immigrate here and we have to put an end to this if we dont want to mess up the image of our country .
if the advice is to move to find better opportunity, then can we have everyone moving from one part to the next in constant pursuit of this opportunity ? I think there has to be a recognition that there are limitations- not everyone can afford to move, not everyone can be qualified to work in one field or another- but everyone does have a right to decent affordable housing (provided of course they do their part to keep it clean and free of vandalism).Residents are responsible for their surroundings, they need to make the effort and if necessary pick up after their neighbors if their neighbors fail on their part.It takes an effort, but where the effort is made there is no reason they shouldnt be helped in turn. Where the landlord fails to clean the carpet, then one should take a vacuum cleaner and clean it themselves. I think positive actions create more than complaints do.
I have said before, canadian winters are not as cold as many canadians are.
and spending more time living in vehicles stuck on the highways commuting, right ? your simple solution is only contributing to other problems
Actually no. Am on Mat leave, but am looking to work here in Oshawa instead of commuting. And even if I was commuting, I’m one of the few people in this city than can actually DRIVE—so I’m not the problem!
You can enjoy your traffic and inflated housing costs.
Next!
I like your thinking. God helps those who help themselves. (although I bet picking up after your neighbours would get irritating very quickly.)
People like you mess up the image of our country, far more than any Pakistani or Indian national. I’d be ashamed to know you.
Dont wrry mate , in 10-20 years , the asians will be the majority , there will be tons of pakistani and indians everywhere and you will see how messed up Canada will look then . Just go to Any suburb where indians are the majority and look at that crap , would you live there ? ask yourself that
Thank rent control and Bob Rae. My parents moved into CF bldg. across from Fairview mall in 70’s and you could eat off the floor in the lobby. With rent control and resulting cutbacks in maintenance and change in the tenant population , by the time they moved out middle 90’s cockroaches were climbing the walls in the hallways. Hate to be a buyer of those new condos they just built next to these bldgs. Bugs will travel
Another case of white privilege. Same ward, the Councillor doesn’t mind fighting for the rights of White Wealthy People in Leaside, but of course the people who need his help the most, the immigrants, he swiped them under the rug…. We, the immirgrants/people of colour are not trash.
Don’t take our coldness personally Laszlo, it’s our British roots that make us this way. It’s just the way we are.
I don’t. I am just stating an observation, as appalling as it is.
appalling?!?!? that’s a bit much. If you hate us so much, why stay?
I admire Abbas. To be success it sometimes takes a village. Having a good leader to motivate others helps. Food helps bring people together – having a potluck, providing some inexpensive snacks just to intice people to come out and discuss the issues helps. Everyone has the right to a clean, safe environment to live in, shouldn’t matter which neighborhood that place is.
I just moved to Toronto from London about a year ago, and before that I was in Kingston (where I grew up). Good luck getting a decent job in either of those cities. In Kingston it’s all retail, and with the closures of Target and Future Shop there are now even less jobs.
London is okay if you don’t mind temp work, but if you want stability then temp work just won’t cut it.
I also lived in Belleville and Brockville, and there are no jobs there either….Ottawa? Good luck if you’re not bilingual French. To live in those places you also would need a car, as getting around without one is a pain in the ass. Don’t go telling people to establish themselves in cheaper areas when it definitely isn’t as simple as that. Those cities area cheaper to live in for a reason, because most people don’t have much money, and a good number of them don’t have well-paying jobs.
Toronto may have a lot of substandard housing, but out of all the cities I’ve lived in in Ontario (London, Kingston, Belleville, Brockville, Ottawa) there is definitely more opportunity here, particularly for jobs. Ottawa you’re basically screwed if you can’t speak French, Belleville/Brockville are too small to really have anything for jobs, and Kingston just had two large retail closures…seeing as most of the people in Kingston either work for the universities or in retail, that’s a huge shot to the job market there. London, while a nice city, has a lot of temp work available but it’s temp – not good if you want a stable income and job security.
Not to mention, if you live in those cities, it’s definitely easier to get around if you have a car. Kingston/Brockville/Belleville are small enough that if the weather is okay you can generally walk to wherever you need to go in a decent amount of time, but the transit is awful and a lot of places don’t have sidewalks, making it dangerous for pedestrians. London transit is the same price as it is here, but the buses are pretty unreliable, the route maps are hard to understand, and it’s too big to walk to most places. It took me two hours to walk home from one job I had, an hour for anything I had downtown (i lived on the west side of the city).
Sure, these places may have nicer housing that’s cheaper, but there is definitely more opportunity as far as jobs here in Toronto and Toronto is waaay easier to get around via transit than any of those other cities.
White privilege? You’re the one who has the privilege to move to a country and civilization that you had no part in building. Leaside is up kept by the people who live there, not by the government, conversely, your neighbourhood is beginning to resemble the country you left. I’ve never heard such arrogance, moving to another people’s country and then complaining it’s not good enough when you run it into the ground.