In Ontario, we have rent control on buildings occupied before November 15, 2018. That means the landlords for these buildings can only raise rents for current tenants once a year at a percentage or "guideline" set by the Province. If they want to raise the rent higher, they have to apply for an Above Guideline Increase (AGI), and their stated reasons have to meet certain criteria such as paying for expensive improvements to the building or hiring security.

But researchers have been studying these increases to how and where they're applied, who is affected, if they're being used appropriately.

Two of the researchers studying AGIs are University of Toronto Scarborough Professor Julie Mah and University of Waterloo Associate Professor Martine August. They worry these above guideline increases are being used by landlords as an extra revenue tool or even a means to push tenants out.

To find out how these AGIs affect tenants, we spoke to Douglas Kwan, director of advocacy and legal services at Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario. He questions whether AGIs are even necessary in many cases, when the landlords make more than enough from current rents.

Are rules around rent increases being exploited for profit?

The October 2026 Toronto election may seem like a long way off, but intentions to run have already been declared and campaign plans are well underway. So we asked Spacing co-founder and Toronto Star columnist Shawn Micallef and community crisis worker Diana Chan McNally what we need from our Toronto political leaders.

And we speak to Petra Matar and Alea Reid, winners of the Toronto Public Space Committee's  "To the Loo!" competition about their winning design for the perfect public toilet.

A good news story in recent years is the amount of progress Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have made in communities across the country.

New CLTs are being established, and existing ones are winning by-in from various levels of government, as well as buying up land to preserve as affordable housing in perpetuity, sheltering units from the runaway, unaffordable housing market.

Often, CLTs preserve often overlooked and stigmatized housing such as rooming houses and single room occupancy hotels.

Joshua Barndt is executive director of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust (PNLT) in Toronto, one of the first CLTs to rekindle this model in Canada. First, the PNLT was able to acquire property for affordable housing, then the City of Toronto created the Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition program (MURA) to help create CLTs across Toronto. We asked Joshua what is needed to scale up, and out, and replicate for other communities.

Norm Leech is the president of the Downtown Eastside Community Land Trust. They're just begging their mission in Vancouver's famously impoverished downtown. Norm tells us how this CLT uses a decolonized governance structure, co-led by Indigenous peoples, and with tenant-led programming.

How can we help communities secure affordable housing for their neighbours?

On previous episodes of this series, we've talked about the impact of an over-financialized housing market. It adds to the affordability crisis, and leads to eviction and displacement.

In this episode, we ask two experts if it's possible to decommodify housing. To build housing that isn't simply a product to be bought, sold, and traded.

We speak to David Wachsmuth, associate professor in the School of Urban Planning at McGill University, and Leila Ghaffari, assistant professor of geography, planning, and environment at Concordia University.

Is it truly possible to decommodify housing when it's become one of the biggest industries in the country?

This year has been one of major change. But what doesn’t change here is talking about transit. It’s the return of Tricia Wood (York University urban geography professor and Spacing contributor) and Matt Elliott(Toronto Star columnist and publisher of the City Hall Watcher newsletter). They help us unpack the state of public transportation in Toronto and the surrounding region, warts and all.

We talk about restoring faith in the TTC, the battle of competing transit projects, the Federal budget, and why cars still take priority over transit in Toronto.

THIS EPISODE: Indigenous-led Housing

What does Indigenous housing look like? Are there special forms of housing needed by Indigenous communities in particular to address specific health and community needs? And what kind of housing can be built when Indigenous people in charge of the plans? In this episode, we try to address each of these questions.

First we speak to Maggie Low, assistant professor at the School of Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia. She's been studying how municipal governments respond to Indigenous housing needs.

Next, we speak to Alexandra Flynn, associate professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, UBC, about Indigenous zoning and housing developments in Metro Vancouver.

Finally, we speak with Bailey Waukey, a youth policy analyst with the Aboriginal Housing Management Association, about the different housing models Indigenous youth have asked for themselves through a special engagement process.

What does housing by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people look like in an increasingly urbanized world?

Change in cities is often slow, when using official channels. There is a desire to achieve the perfect plan, one that balances everyone's needs an preferences. But sometimes you need to get down and dirty.

In this episode, we talk to three of the co-editors of the new book Messy Cities: why we can't plan everything. Spacing Executive Editor Dylan Reid, public interest designer Zahra Ebrahim, and CivicAction CEO Leslie Woo talk about this collection of essays that embraces the beautiful messiness of urban communities.

And Danielle Goldfinger, executive director of The Laneway Project, tells us about a recent project aimed at helping communities make the most of their laneways.

In this episode we bring you the highlights from Global Placemaking Summit which took place in March at Evergreen in Toronto.

First, we drill down into the meaning to the term with some of the event organizers: Placemaking Canada's Andrew Pask, Evergreen's T.J. Maguire, and Placemaking X's Ethan Kent.

We speak to Melbourne Australia's Gilbert Rochecouste, founder of Village Well, about lessons Toronto can learn from his city's famous laneway network.

Tim Tompkins of the Sustaining Places Initiative tells us how parts of Manhattan, NYC was pedestrianized, and how to keep momentum beyond pilate projects.

And PlacemakingUS's Madeleine Spencer talks about placemaking in communities who are under assault from the current American government.

In the federal election just passed, we heard many big ideas about how to tackle the housing crisis. And we could sure use a major effort from our new federal government. But there is also a lot of research and advocacy done about smaller-scale approaches that would have outsized impact on housing affordability and availability. And we examine two of them.

First, we speak to two people from the advocacy group Vivre En Ville: Director of Housing Adam Mongrain and housing advisor Ines Zerrouki about the role non-profit housing can play in this crisis.

And we spoke to McGill University Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning Nik Luka and LGA intern architect Conrad Speckert about how adding gentle density or missing middle hosing to existing neighbourhoods can increase supply, if we just allow it to be built (as many Canadian cities did in the past).

How can small-scale housing fixes make big impact in Canada?

In this episode, with Prime Minister Mark Carney's pick of former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson as Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, we reached out to longtime urban affairs writer Frances Bula to learn about Robertson's housing legacy, and how he might approach his new job.

And we speak to Howard Tam, a city builder and founder of Eat More Scarborough food tours about the variety and quality of cuisine there, and how the people of Scarborough are taking back their own story.