Revenge Of The Renter

Hundreds of tenants, struggling to afford skyrocketing rents, are refusing to pay their landlords at all. They call it a rent strike. The landlords say it's illegal. An inside look at the frontier of a growing class war.

- By Jason McBride. Photography Ian Willms

The organizer Sharlene Henry has lived at 33 King Street, in Toronto's Weston neighbourhood, for 20 years. Frustrated by rent increases above and beyond rent-control caps, she's now helping lead a rent strike that has spread to hundreds of tenants throughout Toronto.

SHARLENE HENRY moved into 33 King Street, a 27-storey apartment building in Toronto's Weston neighborhood, 20 years ago. She was 30 years old and working as the manager of a Foot Locker. Her one-bedroom apartment, shared with her boyfriend, Peter, cost only about $700 a month, parking and cable included. Her mother, Theresa, moved into an apartment in the building a few years later.

Henry had grown up in Weston, and she loved it. Wedged between downtown Toronto and the city's inner suburbs, the working-class neighbourhood was diverse and tight-knit. The Humber River flowed serenely along its west side. On weekends, Henry and her family would spill onto the main drag, Weston Road, to buy produce at the farmers' market and visit the area's Caribbean restaurants and shops. Henry calls herself a "Toronto ride-or-die girl," but her Toronto is, first and foremost, Weston.

33 King was an inexpensive, aging highrise, but it was a bastion of affordability in a city that seemed to grow more expensive every year. In 2010, the couple moved into a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor that rented for less than $1,000. Two years later they had their first child, Xavier.