Renoviction and the Right to Stay Put: Informality, Tenant Organizing, and the Landlord–Municipal Relationship

Abstract

Tenants at a large, slumified Ottawa rooming house continue to fight a renoviction by their landlord Smart Living Properties in Ottawa, Canada since summer 2020. In their refusal to accept the impositions of the landlord and the municipality, tenants worked together, formed an informal organization, developed networks of support, and implemented the self-imposed right to stay put. This process involved a high level of organization and documentation, and an escalation of direct-action tactics. Informality from below is employed by tenant organizers through an avoidance of legal and political mechanisms and institutions, while informality from above is executed by the landlord and the City of Ottawa through familiarity and backdoor co-operation. Contributing to existing literature on tenant organizing, urban displacement, and informality, and making recommendations for informal, non-institutional interventions, this article documents resistance to gentrification driven renoviction and offers solutions to displacement.