KNOCKED OUT

This advocate launched a black-tie charity event to end homelessness while evicting his own tenant and listing the unit on Airbnb. The Landlord and Tenant Board found it 'deplorable'

- JESSICA BURGESS

While they both lived in London, Ont., their worlds were very far apart.

Tech entrepreneur Adam Malamis was wellknown in London's business and charitable sectors. He had been on the Chamber of Commerce board and recognized as a "Top 20 under 40” by London Inc. magazine. His web-development firm, Simalam, caters to non-profits and government agencies and he helped launch a nationwide volunteer snow-shovelling network described as "an experiment in kindness."

Meanwhile, Erwin Long was living a reclusive life in a small duplex. He preferred the company of his cat, Boo-Boo. "I always had cats all my life. I'm from a big family," Long, 61, said in an interview. "Everybody had their own pet. Eight kids, eight pets."

His unit at the front of the small bungalow had a porch, big kitchen and a small bedroom just wide enough to fit a queen-sized bed. After a workplace injury dislocated his hip and injured his back, he said his mental health worsened and he could no longer work. But at $550 per month, he could afford the rent on his disability pension.

Their worlds collided in 2019. That was the year Malamis

launched an annual charity boxing match dubbed “Fight to End Homelessness” — envisioned as a Vegas-style, white-collar, black-tie boxing match where business leaders square off to raise money for the homeless. Sponsored by the city’s biggest developers, the event has raised more than $700,000 for shelters run by Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

It’s also the year a company for which Malamis is the sole director bought Long’s duplex and illegally evicted him, leaving him sleeping on the street and bouncing between shelters, a rooming house and a motel room.