By Negar Khorasani

As a property manager in Grey-Bruce County, Ontario, Canada, I’m sounding the alarm on an urgent and worsening crisis.

Government programs like the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), meant to help vulnerable people, are being grossly abused—and landlords and working taxpayers are paying the price.

ODSP is funded by taxpayers—the hardworking class of this province. No need to mention these taxes are collected by force, and the money is spent on things for which we never gave our consent—yet much of that money ends up in the hands of people who are not truly disabled, but rather long-time drug users, alcoholics, or those unwilling to work. I deal with these individuals as tenants.

Many use ODSP not to stabilize their lives but to avoid responsibility and accountability. A common pattern? They stop paying rent, damage the units, cause daily disruption in the buildings, and then hide behind an overburdened Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). This is an escalating downward spiral.

In one case I’m involved in, we’ve been waiting 18 months for a non-payment hearing. During that time:

• We’ve lost rent.
• We’ve lost access to the unit.
• We’ve still paid taxes to fund the system that enabled this abuse.

All the while we are legally obliged to maintain the premises, services, and utilities for the rude and entitled non-paying tenants.

The LTB process is so slow and imbalanced that it effectively punishes landlords four times: once by losing rental income, again by being denied timely justice, then a third time because we, as taxpayers, also fund the ODSP income that’s not being used responsibly, and a fourth time through biased scrutiny of the landlord’s performance. The police often can’t act because of how the laws are written, and landlords are left holding the bag.

The system appears broken—or worse, by design.

I urge others in this region or in other parts of the country who face the same problems to speak out. We’re being taken advantage of. Many of us are reaching the point of considering leaving this province or Canada altogether because of how dysfunctional things have become.

The government must stop enabling abuse, reform the LTB, and restore fairness to taxpayers and landlords who play by the rules.

If the state cannot provide basic justice or safety, then why are we being forced to fund it? What is government’s role, if not this?