SOLO's 2024 Year-End, Happy New Year!
Let's look back on 2024 and forward to a strong 2025.
Greetings SOLO Landlords,
A Special Message From Our Chairman, Boubah Bah
Effective January 1st, 2025, I will be stepping down as Chair of Small Ownership Landlords Ontario Inc. (SOLO), our beloved lobby and support group, dedicated to advocacy and advancing the interests of small-scale housing providers across Ontario.
What a journey!
The result is from 24 hours / 7 days non-stop work by the SOLO Board members and the dozens of dedicated volunteers who gave their precious time and money to defend the rights and educate on the responsibilities of small scale housing providers.
I am pleased to announce that the journey will continue under the new Chair of the Board, Kevin Costain, a tireless hard worker, author, and landlord supporter and advocate.
In solidarity!
Boubah Bah (aka as "Bro Blad" on SOLO Facebook 😜)
Outgoing Chair Board of Directors
2024 is ending and we look forward to a new year of new possibilities in our struggle for small landlord’s justice. A ton of work has been done over 2024, and we’re just getting started! Here’s a look back at our work this year.
Media Appearances
We were featured on just about every media outlet this year from CBC, to CityNews, to Global. We could be found on the radio, in blogs, on podcasts, and in our own webinars getting the word out. 2024 was the year we built a ton of recognition and momentum in the media. You can always see our most recent appearances at solo.ca/InTheMedia.
Lobbying
In 2024, SOLO became an official lobby group working to take our message directly to the Government of Ontario. This led to the first “SOLO Day” at Queen’s Park where we invited all MPPs to stop in for breakfast while we asked for reform. This wildly successful event has built the groundwork for what comes next. SOLO also built a direct mailer program that updates MPPs with our many landlord stories.
Blog Content
In 2024, SOLO increased our efforts to write more about the landlord affected by ‘professional’ tenants, but also managed to fight back. Some of the great stories we posted this year, if you missed them:
1. Landlord story # 29 – A mentally and physically disabled woman assaulted in a group home can’t move back home
2. Landlord story #28 – Victimized by a non paying tenant and LTB enabled delay tactics
3. It takes a Thief – North Bay, ON
4. Serial Tenant Fraudster Convicted
We’ll continue bringing you more of these impactful stories in 2025. If you’re willing to talk about your own struggles (we will protect your privacy), please reach out to us by filling out this form.
Educational Content
This year also saw a rapid expansion in our educational offerings. We ramped up our webinars offering no less than 10 incredible webinars delivering help on topics ranging from taxes, to financing, to criminal charges, to creating and financing additional dwelling units. And, the best part is that every one of these webinars was made available, for free, to all our members at solo.ca/webinars.
We also expanded our landlord Wiki with additional content including pages about working with a sheriff, Landlord Tenant Board (LTB) performance indicators, case-law landlords can use, pets, and much, much more! We continue to expand this vital free resource at solo.ca/wiki.
Protests
In 2024, we ran several successful protests all over the Greater Toronto Area. These protests brought a ton of attention to our cause and created a great deal of positive momentum. We held protests in Mississauga and Toronto’s Queen’s Park.
Events
SOLO is a big proponent of getting like-minded people together and building coalitions. In 2024 SOLO ran its second annual SOLO Dinner Celebration to a packed house and incredible presenters. This year our keynote featured OpenRoom’s Weiting Bollu with a spirited look at what’s coming next. They have 32,000 orders and counting!
Continued Outreach
Through our open phone line - (647) 792-4951 - and our efforts to assist SOLO landlords wherever possible, we’ve been able to help countless struggling landlords directly. We’ll continue to help in 2025!
On to 2025! We want to wish everyone a happy New Year!
This coming year we have so much more work to do! We’re looking for every single small landlord, past, present or future to get involved in this fight . Justice is within reach, we just have to keep pressing forward.
Keep an eye out for what’s next. We’re going to surprise you. If you know someone who should be on this mailing list, we kindly ask you to forward this email to them or point them to our website to sign up.