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Follow us on TwitterI attended a day-long seminar on a topic of significance to our housing clients called “Hoarding: New Approaches to Community Management” on October 20, 2016. The session, hosted by VHA Home HealthCare (VHA), was well attended by mental health agency staff, housing providers, and assorted others – like me – serving housing providers who encounter the problems resulting from tenants’ and members’ excessive clutter. The fifth of such events in Toronto, there is heightened awareness of problematic hoarding since the fire at 200 Wellesley Street, just over six years.
Posts Tagged ‘Hoarding’
Dispatches from “Hoarding: New Approaches to Community Management,” October 20, 2016
October 21st, 2016 by Celia ChandlerBuried Alive: The Human Rights Implications of Compulsive Hoarding in the Landlord-Tenant Context
January 27th, 2014 by Iler CampbellLauren Blumas, our articling student, has an article in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Poverty Law. Read her article here (pdf).
The Responsible Housing Provider ‑‑ Excessive Clutter
March 18th, 2013 by Celia ChandlerThis is information only and is not intended to be taken as legal advice. If you have a case of excessive clutter, we urge you to talk to your lawyer and work out a plan that meets your duties and minimises your liability.
Housing providers often ask: (1) how to clean up an excessively cluttered unit (often this is referred to using the term “hoarding”), and (2) whether they can evict the occupants. These questions raise a number of legal issues.
Human Rights: Excessive clutter can result from mental illness. The Human Rights Code obliges a housing provider to accommodate mental illness to the point of undue hardship. Undue hardship is a very high threshold, assessed on cost (including external funding), health and safety. Where there is a suspected or known mental illness, consult with a lawyer to find a way to satisfy the duty to accommodate. For example, providing the most appropriate help with fumigation preparation, often necessary in cluttered units, helps defend against allegations that you have not met the duty to accommodate.
Continue reading “The Responsible Housing Provider ‑‑ Excessive Clutter”
