Empowered Tenants Project Final Report: From Awareness to Action to Collective Power
The Regent Park Neighbourhood Association is proud to share the Empowered Tenants Project Final Report: Expanding Legal Knowledge and Justice for Housing Rights, submitted to the Department of Justice Canada.
This report marks an important milestone in RPNA’s ongoing work to strengthen tenant rights, prevent evictions, and build community-led access to justice. The Empowered Tenants Project was designed to support tenants with accessible legal information, practical tools, and trusted community-based support so that residents are better equipped to understand their rights, navigate housing systems, and advocate for themselves and their neighbours.
Read the report here.
Why This Report Matters
Across Toronto, tenants are facing growing housing insecurity, rising rents, maintenance issues, displacement pressures, eviction threats, and complex legal processes. Many tenants know they have rights, but the project found that knowing your rights is not the same as being able to act on them.
The report highlights a critical access-to-justice gap: while many tenants have some awareness of their rights, only a small number reported high confidence in navigating formal legal systems such as eviction processes and Landlord and Tenant Board procedures. More than half of survey respondents reported experiencing housing-related conflict, yet many did not seek support because of fear of retaliation, lack of awareness, and system complexity.
This finding is at the heart of the report: tenants are not simply lacking information. They are navigating systems that are difficult, intimidating, and often inaccessible without support.
What the Project Accomplished
Through the Empowered Tenants Project, RPNA and its partners delivered a comprehensive, community-led public legal education and information initiative rooted in equity, lived experience, and access to justice.
Key activities included:
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A city-wide Tenant Town Hall with approximately 120 participants;
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Targeted public legal education workshops for seniors, youth, TCHC tenants, and other tenant communities;
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More than 40 outreach events;
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A multilingual tenant rights and legal knowledge survey;
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Multilingual digital resources and tenant rights videos;
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Community-based engagement through trusted local networks;
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The launch of the RPNA Evictions Response Unit in May 2026.
The project reached tenants across different housing tenures, including private market tenants, Toronto Community Housing tenants, rooming/shared housing residents, and tenants experiencing housing precarity.
What Tenants Told Us
The tenant survey generated a strong community-driven evidence base. The survey received 851 total responses, including 619 completed responses. The findings show that tenants are experiencing significant housing challenges, including unsafe conditions, rent increases, eviction threats, harassment, discrimination, and barriers to accessing support.
The report found:
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87.08% of respondents identified as tenants;
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52.7% lived in private market rentals;
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22.9% lived in Toronto Community Housing;
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55.7% had experienced housing-related conflict;
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Only 12.8% reported high confidence in understanding and navigating their rights;
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Nearly 80% wanted more tenant education and support.
The top barriers identified by tenants included fear of landlord retaliation, lack of knowledge of rights, lack of awareness of supports, language and access barriers, and time constraints.
These findings confirm the need for accessible, multilingual, plain-language, and community-based supports that go beyond one-time information sessions.
From Awareness to Action
One of the most significant outcomes of the project was the launch of the RPNA Evictions Response Unit in May 2026. The Unit was created to respond directly to the project’s central finding: tenants need support to act on their rights.
The Evictions Response Unit helps turn informal contact, such as a phone call, walk-in, or referral from a trusted neighbour, into a documented file with a pathway for advocacy, representation, or referral.
During the pilot period, the Unit supported:
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24 intakes;
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13 active advocacy files;
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10 referrals to legal and social services;
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A caseload where three in four files involved social or non-profit housing.
The report emphasizes that documentation has been one of the most effective tools in successful tenant advocacy. Recording every meeting and every commitment made by a housing provider in writing helps tenants hold institutions accountable and follow up when commitments are not met.
Key Community Insights
The report identifies several recurring themes from tenant experiences and casework:
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Housing disrepair remains a major issue, with tenants reporting unsafe conditions, delayed maintenance, and limited access to enforcement tools.
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Displacement pressures from evictions, renovictions, and gentrification continue to destabilize communities, particularly Black-majority and low-income communities.
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Housing affordability is a central driver of precarity, forcing tenants to make difficult trade-offs between rent and basic needs.
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Power imbalances discourage tenants from asserting their rights, especially where fear of retaliation and lack of accountability are present.
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System navigation barriers prevent tenants from accessing legal processes, completing forms, enforcing orders, and connecting with supports.
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Community-based solutions are urgently needed, including peer support, tenant leadership development, and resident-led advocacy.
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Women whose housing depends on a partner’s tenancy may face serious housing insecurity when relationships end, particularly where they are not named on the lease.
These insights show that housing justice requires more than legal information. It requires practical support, follow-through, resident leadership, and systemic accountability.
A Community-Led Model for Access to Justice
The Empowered Tenants Project demonstrates that trusted community organizations can play a vital role in improving access to justice. RPNA’s model combines public legal education, resident engagement, multilingual tools, referral pathways, case documentation, tenant advocacy, and systemic monitoring.
The report recommends a next phase that includes:
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A Community-Based Eviction Response Team;
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A Tenant Legal Navigation Hub;
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A Tenant Advocate and Peer Leader Program;
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Expanded scenario-based public legal education;
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A systemic advocacy and monitoring function.
This model is designed to support earlier intervention, reduce eviction risk, increase tenant confidence, and strengthen housing stability before matters escalate into crisis.
Gratitude to Our Partners
RPNA is deeply grateful to the Department of Justice Canada for supporting the Empowered Tenants Project through the Justice Partnership and Innovation Program – Tenant Protection Fund.
We also acknowledge the many community partners, tenant advocates, legal service providers, residents, staff, and volunteers who contributed to this work. This project was made possible through collaboration, trust, and a shared commitment to housing justice.
The Path Forward
The Empowered Tenants Project Final Report makes one thing clear: tenants are not lacking awareness. They are navigating a system that is structurally complex, inequitable, and difficult to access.
The path forward is clear:
From awareness → action → collective power.
With continued investment and partnership, the Empowered Tenants Project offers a scalable, community-driven model to strengthen tenant rights, improve housing stability, prevent evictions, and advance a more equitable housing system across Toronto and beyond.
RPNA remains committed to building tenant leadership, supporting residents at risk of eviction, and working with community partners to ensure that every tenant has the knowledge, tools, and support they need to remain safely housed.
