`The Man Who Sold Parkdale´ campaign targets real estate agent over `displacement realty´
(The Star Movies)

Nick Brewerton’s face is plastered across Parkdale.The Toronto realtor has become the target of an anonymous campaign, “Nick Brewerton is the Man Who Sold Parkdale.� The anonymous tenant group behind the posters, signs and website say residents are being forced out of Parkdale through the sale of low-income housing, including rooming houses, to new owners who charge higher rents.“Nick Brewerton is far from the only force at work in making Parkdale unaffordable, but he is a significant player who is profiting more than most from the displacement of low-income communities in the neighbourhood,� the campaign’s website reads.Brewerton confirmed in an email to the Star that he has seen posters and postcards distributed across Parkdale. He said he supports affordable housing and, as a realtor, has “no role or ability to intervene in any situation of tenants who are being displaced, as this would be a matter between the landlord and the tenants.�The Man Who Sold Parkdale campaign says they are taking a stand against ‘displacement realty,’ which they define as selling affordable homes at inflated prices, where new landlords force the old tenants out to increase rents. The campaign declined an interview with the Star when reached through the email address provided on their website.“As tenants in Parkdale rental housing — some of us in buildings sold by Nick Brewerton directly — we have experienced the realities of living with both old- school slumlords and new investor owners and their property managers. We have felt the impacts of speaking up, raising awareness and getting organized. ... In order to protect ourselves, we have chosen to remain anonymous,� the campaign said on its website.The campaign is distributing “Nick-Free Zone� signs and have compiled a list of a dozen properties they say Brewerton sold or is in the process of selling.Brewerton said he’s sympathetic ...