With record-breaking temperatures—July 15 being the hottest day ever recorded globally—students living on campus are in danger.
The AMS and local organizations, including 350 Kingston, and SCAN! Kingston are petitioning the City to pass a by-law which would mandate landlords to maintain rental unit temperatures below 26 degrees Celsius without imposing additional charges on tenants. The petition, posted to the AMS Commission of Environmental Sustainability’s Instagram, garnered 269 signatures by June 24.
The by-law, however, will not go into effect this year. The provincial government first needs to finalize Bill 97, Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act. With temperatures on the rise, student renters not equipped with proper cooling systems are in danger of illness and death.
“This is about protecting student health and well-being, but also about adaptation and being proactive about acting on the health risks that climate change is going to pose to people,” Anne Fu, AMS commissioner of environmental sustainability, said in an interview with The Journal.
Fu considers students the most vulnerable group of renters in Kingston, a city with the highest number of occupied units in the province. In a recent study of over 450 tenants in Kingston, 48 per cent of respondents said their apartments were too hot during the summer.
“It was very clear to me that this was a big issue students wanted to deal with. Not just for their personal comfort and safety, but also because a lot of students are concerned about what this might mean for their future,” Fu said.
Without any formal legislation, City staff and Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health (KFL&A) shared with Kingstonians ways to stay cool and set-up cooling centres in public libraries and community centres.
“We know that [these resources are] not enough. We’re going to develop a heat strategy that will go further,” Conny Glenn, city councillor for Sydenham, said in an interview with The Journal.
Landlords will be provided resources from the heat strategy to make their units more comfortable in the summer. For example, the City will help landlords enhance insulation or install ceiling fans, improving their building’s infrastructure.
The strategy will utilize resources already in place—such as as the Better Homes Kingston Program, offering zero-interest loans to homeowners hoping to make their properties more climate-friendly—and will look at other funds provincially and federally.
These steps are paramount as, without the heat by-law, residents are responsible for creating cool, liveable conditions themselves. Megan O’Connor, MA ’24, questions whether airconditioning units should be seen as a luxury, or if they’re simply a necessity for healthy living.
O’Connor rents a unit in a low rise, multi-unit apartment building with no air conditioning or central air. While all utilities are included in her rent, her landlord charges an additional $50 per month to use self-supplied portable air-conditioning units, O’Connor said in an interview with The Journal.
While O’Connor could pay the extra fee, like many students, she’s on a budget. She visits air-conditioned buildings on campus, keeps windows curtained during the day, and opens them at night, uses fans, and swims in Lake Ontario to cool off.
“I am also lucky to be a healthy younger person who can withstand some heat stress. I feel for my neighbours who do not have these luxuries,” O’Connor said.
Tags
Advocacy, AMS, bylaw, FYIF2024, heat
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