This renter suffers vertigo and migraines after landlord forced tenants to remove AC

Finding it a bit steamy this summer? You're not alone. Across Canada, people say they are really feeling the heat, especially in their homes. And we're tracking it. CBC teams have installed temperature and humidity sensors in dozens of homes in several cities, including Windsor, Ont., to see just what happens to people when things go from hot to sizzling to seriously dangerous. This is one of those stories. 

Trade sunbathing, sweet treats and cooling off indoors with vertigo, migraines, and insomnia.

Those are the signs of summer for Windsor's Jessica Mailloux-Lesperance, who was forced to remove her air conditioning last spring and could not afford a replacement.

It's a situation a lot of households in Ontario may face if they live in a multiple-storey residence, due to new housing legislation introduced in Toronto in 2019. For Mailloux-Lesperance, that means contending with several health concerns.

"I get overheated very easily, so I'm prone to passing out in the heat," she said. Her kitchen is muggy and hot, despite being on the basement level of a 1920s heritage building.

"It is very hard. I had insomnia [last year] for most of the summer because of how hot I was. My migraines and vertigo were through the roof. I was in bed a lot through most of the summer."

When Mailloux-Lesperance moved into her apartment with her husband James and cat Spook, they had a window unit for air conditioning. In the spring of 2022, they received a letter informing them that the unit had to be removed.

In 2019, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) started removing units like the one Mailloux-Lesperance used to have, after an improperly installed wall AC caused the death of a toddler. The decision has led many Ontario landlords to follow suit. Mailloux-Lesperance, however, lives on the basement level. 

"I can understand the safety of other units, higher up, but we're on the ground floor," she said. "So it kind of didn't make any sense to me."

After complying with the new change and removing the window unit, Mailloux-Lesperance reached out to her property management to ask for help.

"They wanted us to go out and replace the [wall units] with portable air conditioners, [or] the ones with the hose that goes through the window," Mailloux-Lesperance said. "Those can run anywhere from between $300 to $1,000 depending on what you need and what you want. And we have a big apartment."

Mailloux-Lesperance's property management sent out a letter offering help to those who might need it. In a written statement provided to CBC News, Skyline Living explained the offering.

"Knowing that the purchase of a new air conditioner is not something all of our tenants were prepared for, we put a plan in place to provide financial assistance for tenants that need it," it says. 

"[W]e have provided financial support to tenants to purchase new air conditioner units. In some cases, that means we fully purchase the unit for a tenant, while in other cases, we purchase the unit, and the tenant pays the amount back through a monthly payment plan."