In a residential backyard at a house on Heale Avenue in Toronto, you won’t find lounge chairs, a barbeque or signs of a relaxing outdoor space.
Instead, if you stroll up the paved front driveway and continue beyond the unfenced space behind the pavement, you’ll see piles of used automobile tires stacked high on the grass, their sizes taped on the outside.
Not just a few tires, but, by a rough count, more than 800, standing one row beside another.
“We can’t use the backyard, can’t use anything,” said Don Stephenson in an interview at the end of March, a tenant in the rooming house where the yard is located.
Stephenson says he’s one of nine tenants in the rooming house, owned by Zaid Hossain, someone he calls a “slum” landlord.
The tires showed up a few weeks ago and caused immediate concern for many on the street, in addition to those at the home.
They want the tires gone. Now.
“It’s a fair request to make sure our neighbourhood is not turned into a city dump by a property owner,” said Jim Koutsiouris, who lives in a nearby house.
Residents on the street complained to the City of Toronto and have been in regular contact with their local councillor, Parthi Kandavel, who represents Ward 2o.
On March 25, municipal licensing and standards staff issued a notice of violation to Hossain under Chapter 548 of the Municipal Code.
Under “deficiencies to be remediated,” Hossain is ordered to “clean and clear the stacks of used tires located on the backyard of the property.”
The order gave Hossain until April 1 to carry out the cleanup. As of April 6, the tires were still there.
Some neighbours aren’t surprised Hossain appeared to ignore the directive.
“We’ve had multiple complaints, a lot of our neighbours have complaints — from [tall] grass, or a lot of garbage, to litter in front [of the house],” Koutsiouris said.
The tires aren’t just an eyesore. One neighbour is worried they’ll be a breeding ground for mosquitoes this spring.
They’re also a potential fire hazard.
Used tires are stacked in the backyard of a Toronto home on Monday, March 31, 2025.
Enzo Arimini/Global News
Tires that catch fire can be extremely difficult to extinguish. In 1991, in Hagersville, Ont., millions of tires burned at a recycling lot. It took 17 days for fire crews to put out the blaze.
Global News showed up at the home as Hossain was leaving the property in a taxicab he was driving.
Asked on camera why he had hundreds of tires in the backyard of the property he owns, Hossain paused to say he was storing the tires “temporarily.”
“I’m just helping my family,” he told a reporter as he closed the driver’s side door.
When the reporter asked whether and when he’d be removing them, Hossain lowered the window to answer again.
“Yeah, very soon,” he said, before driving off. “We’re going to remove the tire from there.”
Global News spoke to Hossain by phone on Monday, he re-iterated the tires belong to a family member. He added they will be removing the tires on April 16.
To some of his tenants and nearby residents, Hossain is known as someone who plays by his own rules.
Don Stephenson, 64, who pays $600 a month to rent a room inside, says the home lacks a central furnace. He says those living inside use electric space heaters to stay warm.
Stephenson says living conditions inside the home are deplorable, leading to what he described as frequent complaints to the city.
He pointed out to Global News that smoke alarms inside aren’t working and said Hossain refuses to change the batteries. Smoke alarms are required by law in Ontario in rental properties.
“We had the cockroach problem…. We’ve got no furnace, we’ve got mice like you wouldn’t believe, we’ve got rats around” the outside of the home, Stephenson said.
Stephenson showed Global News his laptop, which he said had become a home to cockroaches living under the keyboard.
“When the [technician] took it apart at the repair shop, he had to take it outside; the [cockroaches] were running around, little ones,” Stephenson said.
When Global News spoke to Hossain on Monday, he said there is “portable heating” such as electric heaters, in every room, but avoided answering directly if the furnace was working.
As for the cockroaches, Hossain said he sprayed the house and blamed the tenants for “putting food everywhere.”
When asked about the smoke alarms, Hossain said “one is already there” but did not confirm it was working.
“They need a battery … the tenant is supposed to change the battery,” Hossain said.
Hossain also said that he has a hearing with the city on April 22 to have the house demolished.
Meanwhile, the City of Toronto told Global News in an email that should the tires remain at the property after April 1, staff would “proceed with remedial action to have the property by a City contractor.”
“The cost of the waste removal will then be charged to the property taxes of the homeowner,” the city statement concluded.