There's a battle brewing at a downtown apartment building for low-income seniors in Windsor. Tenants at the I.L. Peretz House on Ouellette Avenue say their rent has jumped anywhere from 20 to 60 per cent since last year. But the landlord says the increases were unavoidable and needed after years of low rates. CBCs Emma Loop explains.

At 90, Sylvia Berk doesn't know where she'll go if she's forced to leave her small apartment in downtown Windsor, Ont.

Berk doesn't have any family nearby and health issues have confined her to a wheelchair.

"I'm very happy because I have good friends here and they help me every day with what I can't do for myself," she said recently.

Berk, a lifelong musician who loves to write, has lived at the I.L. Peretz House, a 71-unit apartment building for low-income seniors in the city's core, for a dozen years.

But in the last year, the monthly rent for her unit has jumped by more than 50 per cent, from $447 to $700. It's still below market rate for a one-bedroom like hers, but she said her low fixed income isn't enough to cover it.

Now, with the help of her neighbours, she's fighting an eviction notice.

The I.L. Peretz House in downtown Windsor on Friday, September 19, 2025. (Emma Loop/CBC)

The building is run by the I.L. Peretz Senior Citizen Corporation, a non-profit affiliated with the Windsor Jewish Federation. Built in the 1980s, the apartment tower along Ouellette Avenue was meant to provide a landing place for seniors in the local Jewish community.

But as that community has shrunk over the years, so has the number of Jewish residents in the build