‘Appalling’: Kingston seniors push back against Homestead’s paid visitor parking

“This is our home. If somebody wants to visit us — like my daughter, for example, who comes quite frequently — the idea that she’s going to have to pay to come up and visit me is appalling,” he said.

Beginning Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, visitors to the Kingston apartment building that Richard Brown and his wife Marilyn have called home for nine years will be expected to pay to park.

For the 88-year-old couple and many of their neighbours, the issue is about considerably more than parking.

Residents petitioned Homestead to reconsider the change, arguing that free visitor parking has long been part of living at The Wellington, located at 745 Highway 15, and is particularly important to the many seniors who call the building home.

For those residents, visits from adult children, friends, caregivers, and other supports can be part of the ordinary business of living independently — not simply occasional social visits.

Kingstonist reviewed the petition, which contains 128 signed entries opposing the change. Marilyn said 99 per cent of residents approached agreed to sign.

Homestead rejected their request.

In a July notice supplied to Kingstonist, Homestead said it was partnering with parking management company Target Park to introduce paid visitor parking. The company said visitor spaces can become scarce because of misuse and that paid parking and regular enforcement would help ensure spaces remain available for legitimate visitors.

In response to questions from Kingstonist, Homestead said the program at The Wellington is part of its “ongoing efforts to ensure visitor parking spaces remain available for their intended purpose and are used by legitimate guests of residents.”

“The aim of the program is to provide a consistent and effective approach to managing visitor parking and addressing unauthorized use,” the company said.

The Browns said the problem Homestead describes simply doesn’t exist at their building.

“There isn’t a problem with parking,” Richard said, explaining visitor spaces are routinely available.

Kingstonist asked Homestead what specific problems or unauthorized use had been documented at The Wellington. The company did not provide examples.

More than social visits

One of the Browns’ biggest concerns is how the policy could affect older residents who depend on other people coming to their homes.

Homestead’s notice said residents who regularly receive assistance from personal support workers, home care workers, or family members can apply for a digital visitor parking pass.

Marilyn said the building manager told residents they could obtain a pass for a regular caregiver if they obtained a doctor’s letter — something she pointed out may also cost money. And she questioned how practical that would be when a home care provider sends different workers, or when help is informal and unpredictable.

“We don’t need home care, but we do need help on occasion with lifting or moving the carpets, or just if we’re sick, [for someone] to come and help us,” Marilyn said.

Richard questioned how an approval process would work when that need arises unexpectedly.

“Let’s say next week… we need someone to come in and give us a hand,” he said. By the time a pass would be approved, he suggested, “the person’s come and gone and done everything they needed to do, and we had to pay in the meter.”

Homestead said it recognizes that some residents rely on family members, personal support workers, and home care providers.

“Accommodations are available, and residents with specific accessibility or accommodation needs are encouraged to contact their site office who will be more than happy to assist them,” the company said.

Kingstonist specifically asked how residents needing occasional or unexpected assistance from people who may not qualify for a regular pass would be accommodated. Homestead did not explain how it would handle those situations.

Concerns raised at other Homestead buildings

The Wellington isn’t the first Homestead property in Kingston where residents and their families have objected to paid visitor parking.

In April 2025, longtime resident David White contacted Kingstonist after Homestead announced it would replace free visitor parking at The Forsythe, 42 Leroy Grant Drive, with a paid system administered by Target Park. White raised concerns about the effect on residents who depend on visits from family and friends.

The following month, Amanda Babcock raised similar concerns with Homestead after paid parking was introduced at 200 Queen Mary Road, where her elderly parents live.

Now more than a year later, Babcock told Kingstonist her concern remains less about parking itself than about “accessibility and equity.”

“The system assumes that everyone has a smartphone, mobile data, a credit card, and the ability and confidence to use QR codes or digital payment systems,” she said. “That simply is not true.”

Some seniors may not own smartphones, she said, while others may face financial, disability, or digital literacy barriers.

“A policy can apply equally to everyone on paper and still have a very unequal impact in practice,” Babcock said.

For Babcock, the issue has become personal. Her mother has been living with cancer, and family members regularly visit to check in, bring meals, and help around the apartment.

Her sister also relies on their father to help with her disabled son before school while she works shifts in the Kingston General Hospital (KGH) emergency department. Babcock said her sister received a $65 parking ticket during one of those routine visits to their parents’ apartment.

“A few dollars may not seem significant on one visit, but it becomes something very different when an adult child, neighbour, friend, or caregiver is coming several times a week,” Babcock said.

Homestead made a caregiver pass available, she said, but her family found the system “difficult and unreliable,” requiring forms, email access, and supporting documentation.

“There is rarely one formally designated caregiver,” Babcock said. “It is often adult children, neighbours, friends, extended family, and service providers, all filling different gaps.”

Babcock said she proposed alternatives to Homestead in 2025, including time-limited free parking, resident visitor permits, and a more practical caregiver system. She said she did not receive what she considered a substantive response to her broader accessibility concerns.

She also copied Member of Parliament Mark Gerretsen, Member of Provincial Parliament Ted Hsu, and Mayor Bryan Paterson on her original correspondence but said she received no response. Babcock later contacted Councillor Don Amos, who she said acknowledged the importance of social supports for older adults and offered to raise her concerns with Homestead.

For Babcock, what is happening at The Wellington reinforces a concern she raised more than a year ago.

“We talk a lot about helping seniors age in place,” she said. “In reality, that depends heavily on other people being able to show up. Housing policies should support that, not make it harder.”

Kingstonist asked Homestead how many of its Kingston properties currently have paid visitor parking and whether it plans to expand the program further. The company did not answer those questions.

But what does the lease say?

The dispute at The Wellington also raises a more complicated question: What were residents promised when they rented their apartments?

Kingstonist reviewed a photograph of a lease supplied by a resident that lists “Guest Parking” among its services and utilities.

Beside guest parking, both “Yes” and “No Charge” are checked.

The same form provides a “Pay Per Use” option. That option is not selected for guest parking — but is selected immediately below for on-site laundry.

Residents pointed to that wording when they asked Homestead to reconsider the new program. In its response to their petition, Homestead maintained that visitor parking is different from a service provided directly to a tenant.

The company told residents the Landlord and Tenant Board generally considers visitor parking a convenience extended to people visiting a property rather than a service provided to tenants. Consequently, Homestead said changes to visitor parking policies do not affect the landlord-tenant relationship and are not governed by tenants’ leases.

Kingstonist asked Homestead to identify any Landlord and Tenant Board decisions, guidelines, or other authority supporting that interpretation and to explain how its position could be reconciled with a lease expressly identifying guest parking as being provided at “No Charge.”

Homestead did not address those questions.

But an Ontario housing lawyer consulted by Kingstonist said the issue may not be as straightforward as Homestead’s response to residents suggests.

Seema Kawar, supervising lawyer of the Housing Division at Downtown Legal Services, an educational legal clinic at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, said Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act broadly includes “parking and related facilities” in its definition of services and facilities and does not specifically distinguish between parking for tenants and parking for their guests.

Whether visitor parking constitutes a service or facility in a particular case, she said, would depend on the circumstances.

The wording of the lease may also be important.

Kawar noted that the lease reviewed by Kingstonist does not indicate that guest parking is included in the tenant’s lawful rent. That could make it more difficult to argue that charging for it amounts to a reduction or discontinuance of a service for the purpose of seeking a rent reduction.

But the express designation of guest parking as “No Charge” raises a different issue.

“I think it is relevant what is included in the lease,” Kawar said.

Because the lease specifically says there is no charge for guest parking, Kawar said that wording could be interpreted as a term of the tenancy, meaning guest parking will be available without an additional charge. That could shift the legal question away from whether Homestead has reduced a service included in the rent and toward whether a landlord can unilaterally change an existing term of a tenancy agreement.

Kawar said that, in these circumstances, it may be more viable for a tenant to argue before the Landlord and Tenant Board that imposing the charge interferes with the tenant’s reasonable enjoyment, contrary to section 22 of the Residential Tenancies Act.

Such a claim could potentially be pursued through a T2 tenant rights application rather than the T3 rent reduction process.

Kawar stressed that the circumstances matter. She said she was not familiar with authorities establishing a general rule governing visitor parking of the kind described by Homestead.

“The [Residential Tenancies Act] includes parking and related facilities as a service broadly and does not distinguish between parking for tenants or guests,” she said, adding that whether guest parking forms part of the lawful rent would be an important consideration for the Landlord and Tenant Board.

The precise legal effect of The Wellington lease would ultimately be for the Board to determine if a tenant challenges the change.

Homestead also did not answer Kingstonist’s questions about what visitors will be charged or whether it receives a portion of parking revenue collected through Target Park.

The City isn’t involved

The City of Kingston confirmed that Homestead’s paid parking program is a private arrangement and is not connected to the municipal parking system.

“The City has no involvement in private property owners charging fees for parking on their own lands,” the municipality’s communications department told Kingstonist.

The City said property owners are generally permitted to manage parking on their own property, including charging visitors, and the City does not regulate the pricing or business practices involved.

Municipal ticket enforcement is different. Under Kingston’s Private Property Parking Bylaw, property owners or their agents must be authorized by the City before they can issue municipal parking tickets on private property.

“Without that authorization, property owners cannot issue City parking tickets,” Bradley said.

The City’s response addresses Homestead’s general ability as a private property owner to manage and charge for parking. It does not resolve what rights individual tenants may have under their leases or Ontario’s Residential Tenancies Act.

Residents suggest another solution

The Browns aren’t opposed to keeping people who have no reason to be at The Wellington out of its visitor parking. They simply don’t believe charging their guests is necessary to accomplish that.

Richard suggests returning to something much simpler.

“It seems… the simplest thing Homestead could do would be to give each resident one or two passes, which we can then give to a visitor to stick in their car when they’re here,” he said.

He said Homestead previously managed overnight visitors with passes residents could obtain from the office.

For Richard, it ultimately comes back to the distinction between an apartment building and a home. His daughter isn’t simply a member of the public looking for somewhere to park, he said: she’s coming to visit her parents.

After unsuccessfully petitioning Homestead, the couple turned to Kingstonist because they felt they had few options remaining before September 14.

“It might shift their position a little bit. It may not,” Richard said. “But that was about the only thing we had left to do. We tried everything else.”

Homestead indicated it intends to proceed with the program.

“We appreciate that changes to parking procedures can require an adjustment, and we remain committed to working with our residents as the program is implemented,” the company said.

The Browns still hope public attention might change that.

“Maybe with public awareness,” Richard said, “somebody in Homestead might decide this isn’t a good idea.”