NEWS: Reaching out to senior renters

NEWS: Reaching out to senior renters

Source: Westender 10/15/2009
By: Jackie Wong

Sharon Isaak, co-founders of tenants’ rights group Renters at Risk, says many seniors would sooner move out of their home than deal with the stress of fighting unfair eviction. Credit: Doug Shanks

Since the landmark mass eviction of tenants from the West End’s Bay Towers apartment building three years ago, the advocacy work of local organizations such as Renters at Risk and the West End Residents Association has resulted in stronger public awareness of the precarious housing situation facing renters, who make up 80 per cent of households in the West End. But awareness of the issue hasn’t stopped mass evictions and volatile landlord-tenant relationships from continuing in the neighbourhood.

The stress of finding and keeping affordable rental housing takes a particular toll on seniors, says Sharon Isaak, who co-founded Renters at Risk after taking her Bay Towers eviction notice (issued by the now notorious Hollyburn Properties) to B.C. Supreme Court, where she and other tenants fought for — and won — the right to continue living in their apartments during renovations Hollyburn claimed would necessitate eviction.

“One of the seniors that got thrown out of my building… had been living in the building for years. She was the first one to go,” Isaak recalls. “Watching her move out and move into her daughter’s place in Kamloops was heartbreaking.”

Since her Bay Towers experience in 2006, Isaak has counselled and educated numerous tenants on their rights under B.C.’s tenancy legislation. Seniors, she says, continue to be among the most vulnerable tenants she meets. Fixed incomes and limited resources can put a cap on their ability to advocate for themselves, which often results in their being displaced and moved around, especially when they face an eviction notice that other tenants choose to fight. “The first people to leave are the seniors, because of the stress of the situation,” Isaak says. “They quite often have no other option but to move in with family in another city, another province, and they have to leave everything behind.”

As part of efforts to raise awareness of tenant rights and to address the many affordable-housing concerns facing West End residents, Isaak has started holding weekly outreach sessions at Gordon Neighbourhood House under the title of Senior Housing Outreach Coordinator. The position is the product of a $25,000 United Way Seed grant that partners Gordon Neighbourhood House, the West End Residents Association, Women in Search of Housing Society (WISHS), and the West End Seniors Network. Isaak will be available to assist renters with their tenancy concerns on Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

When WE interviewed Isaak on her first day of outreach work last week (October 8), she already had two appointments. “There has been a real increase in evictions over the last three years because of the tight [rental] market, and because other companies are recognizing the opportunity to make significant profits by evicting tenants to do renovations [and then] increase the rent,” she says. “We need to have a review of the [Residential Tenancy] Act on certain issues to stop and solve these problems.”

John Lucas, executive director of the Gordon Neighbourhood House, says he has seen many seniors come through the neighbourhood house in search of advice on disconcerting rumours they hear about the rental buildings in which they live. “A number of seniors are in the position of not knowing exactly what’s going to happen to them,” he says. “A lot of seniors become stressed because they hear rumours about their apartments, [such as that] they’re going to be sold and it’s going to be renovated.”

Moderate- and low-income renters over the age of 40 are a vulnerable population that Leslie Stern, of the Women In Search of Housing Society, has been working with for years. “If we don’t help people at 45 and above to start earning more money and saving money and doing personal planning, they’re going to go into their senior years with even less,” she says. “Landlords don’t want these people anymore, because they don’t have the ability to pay the high rents that they think the market can take. That’s where I think we’re at a crisis in housing.”

In addition to Isaak’s weekly work at Gordon Neighbourhood House, the project, called the West End Seniors Affordable Housing initiative, will host public forums this winter and next spring on tenant rights and affordable-housing concerns. The first forum, called “The Right to Rent: Aging in Place,” happens November 22 at 2 p.m. For more information, contact Sharon Isaak at isaaksharon@gmail.com

Families are being priced out of Vancouver, study shows

By Don Cayo, Vancouver Sun  September 23, 2009

Families are being priced out of Vancouver, study showsVancouver is growing steadily, yet the number of children, especially in east Vancouver, is plunging — one school has lost half its enrolment — because families can’t afford to live here.

While the city continues to offer plenty of choice for singles or couples to rent or to own, families find themselves ever-harder pressed to find a place to live, especially at an affordable price.

This is the nub of the findings in the first of what’s evolving into a fascinating series of Vancouver-focused research reports from BTAworks, a new research arm of Bing Thom Architects.

The first of these was a detailed look at the city’s condominiums and who lives in them. It found condos to be underrated as a source of rental housing: The majority are neither left empty by speculators and absentee owners, as the urban myth often has it, nor occupied by their owners. Rather, they are let out to tenants.

But condo rentals are heavily tilted towards studio and one-bedroom units, which aren’t suitable for families.

A second report, not yet published, shows sharp declines in east Van elementary school enrolments. The city-wide loss is more than 3,500 over five years. For the 20 per cent of worst-off schools it averages 20 per cent, and it’s almost 50 per cent for one, the small Sir William Macdonald Community School.

Private schools have siphoned off some of these students, said Andy Yan, the planner who heads the BTAworks research projects.

And some are no doubt being sent by their parents to what are perceived to be better schools, which are still showing modest increases in enrolment, on the west side of the city.

But, as the condo study shows, “Families with lower incomes are simply being squeezed out.”

Yan noted that census figures from 2001 and 2006 show that two-thirds of the population increase in Vancouver was accounted for by people over 55.

And that jibes with building statistics that show a major increase in housing that’s suitable for seniors and young singles and couples, but not families.

Eighty per cent of downtown’s 27,000 condos have been built since 1990, Yan said, and fewer than 40 per cent of them have more than one bedroom. Most are owned by people who don’t live in them, and most of these owners live elsewhere in B.C.

Typically, owner-occupied units are worth $30,000-$40,000 more — in other words, they’re larger — than rented units.

And, “A family with one child earning the median income of $75,000 a year would have difficulty in finding and paying for a condo bigger than one bedroom, even if condo prices were to fall 25 per cent below 2008 assessment levels.”

The upshot is that many families flee to more affordable suburban cities like Surrey. And, said Yan’s boss Michael Heeney, a partner in the Bing Thom firm, some — mostly skilled urban professionals who can work wherever they want — leave the region and Canada for places like Chicago or San Francisco.

The reason for the imbalance in the impact of Vancouver’s lopsided growth pattern on east-side and west-side schools isn’t fully explained by the figures. But Yan speculates it may be because the west side is a magnet for high-income people who, whether they have children or not, are less likely to be daunted by high housing costs.

“If Vancouverism 1.0 is embodied by tall, skinny towers and one-bedroom, investor-driven condominium projects for downtown Vancouver, then Vancouverism 2.0 needs to redress this imbalance,” he said.

What’s needed are creative ways to provide more affordable, family-oriented housing.

To that end, Heeney is floating the idea of a major policy change at city hall to foster the development of larger laneway housing units that would be suitable — and affordable — for families.

As it stands, the city will approve a maximum unit size of 750 square feet for laneway homes on 50-foot lots, and 500 square feet on the much more common 33-foot lots. In other words, more homes for singles, couples and seniors.

“We do not actually need more of this kind of housing,” Heeney said.

“What we do need are rental units with two or more bedrooms that can be occupied by young families.”

dcayo@vancouversun.com

Watchdog group files human-rights complaints over 2010 Olympics

Am Johal of Impact on Communities Coalition says democracy and human rights shouldn't be suspended during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Photograph by: Jason Payne, The Province, The Province

A 2010 Olympics watchdog group has filed two human-rights complaints with the United Nations against the governments of Canada and B.C. and the Olympic organizing committee, VANOC.

The Impact on Community Coalition say hundreds of renters will face the threat of eviction prior to the Olympics because of “loopholes” in tenancy legislations.

“Hosting the Olympic Games doesn’t mean we suspend democracy and human rights for a period of time. It’s completely unacceptable in our view,” said Am Johal, chairman of the IOCC.

Johal warned more than 1,000 renters could be evicted before the Games.

“People are being evicted for renovations, rents are skyrocketing and the Olympics is definitely an issue that is creating this environment,” said Janine Fuller of Renters at Risk.

The IOCC is also complaining about the violation of civil liberties after Vancouver City Council passed bylaws preventing leafleting and protest signs during the Olympics. Access to public space will be permitted after security screening. Megaphones will not be allowed and posters “must include information that celebrates the 2010 Winter Games.”

David Eby of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said VANOC boss John Furlong is breaching a promise, understood that protests would take place and knew that protests were part of Canada’s democratic traditions.

VANOC spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade said the bylaws were created to prevent posters that advertise or promote commercial products.

“If you want to hold up posters that are against the Games, not only is that OK, but we have set up zones where you can protest the Games safely,” she said. “You can protest anywhere in the city except in the venues.

Smith-Valade said security checks are necessary as a safety precaution.

cchai@theprovince.com

TRAC to handle Olympic-related tenant disputes

TRAC to handle Olympic-related tenant disputes
By:  Jackie Wong

Source: The Westender
08/06/2009 12:00 AM

As part of its efforts to prevent unfair evictions during the lead-up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the City of Vancouver has hired the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre (TRAC) to help renters deal with Olympic-related tenancy issues. The City had originally set aside $40,000 for a tenant-assistance worker to start work this past spring, with the position remaining active through Games time. The position will now be shared among TRAC staff, who will hire additional part-time workers to help run a drop-in office at an as-yet-undetermined location.

Games-related tenant-assistance work will focus on helping tenants understand and exercise their rights under the Residential Tenancy Act, help them prepare for dispute resolution hearings at the Residential Tenancy Branch, and assist them with landlord-tenant disputes. TRAC will also have a supervising lawyer on hand to act as a resource to tenants. TRAC has set up a special tenant-assistance phone line and e-mail address for dealing with Olympic-related tenancy issues (604-255-5102; help@tenants.bc.ca).

TRAC spokesperson Judy Johanson says she expects an increase in tenants contacting her as the Olympics draw nearer, and as one-year leases signed in December or January come to an end. “The whole idea is to foresee that this is happening,” she says. She also expressed confidence that the City and local advocacy groups have done a good job in spreading the word about increased tenant-advocacy services during Games time. The City has set up an online tenant registry (Vancouver.ca/OlympicsTempAcc_Net) for renters who are concerned about unfair displacement during the Games.

The West End, a neighbourhood in which 80 per cent of households rent, has been the site of a number of eviction cases that have been hotly disputed by tenants, some of whom have taken their cases as far as BC Supreme Court. West End Residents Association (WERA) director Christine Ackermann fought an eviction in advance of renovations — known as “renovictions” — at the Glenmore building (at Barclay and Nelson) last May. After disputing the eviction at the Residential Tenancy Office, she was able to keep her apartment. Since then, she has been heavily involved with tenant advocacy in her neighbourhood. Given what she has learned in the past year about dealing with B.C.’s tenancy laws, she’s not sure if TRAC is the right organization to be dealing with Olympic-related evictions.

“Based on my own eviction, and through my volunteer experience gathering feedback from Vancouver tenants, I am very skeptical that TRAC will be a true advocate for Vancouver renters during the Olympics,” Ackermann told WE. “Answering phones to simply answer questions from a rule book will not provide any lasting legacy for Vancouver renters who lose their homes because of Olympic greed. It certainly will not provide any increased support to Downtown Eastside residents who are dealing with a completely different renter’s ball game in the SROs.”

Instead of the current TRAC model for Olympic-related tenant-assistance work, Ackermann would like to see a more community-based model, in which volunteers who have personally experienced evictions hold education forums in neighbourhoods with high renter populations, such as Mount Pleasant, Kitsilano, and Fairview. “Educating tenants in a meaningful way now would provide benefits beyond the March 2010 end point of this [tenant advocacy position],” she says. “WERA will be watching and monitoring this new service from TRAC to measure its effectiveness for West End tenants.” 

‘It will probably put me on the street’

‘It will probably put me on the street’
newton: Proposed rent increases have residents fretting

Source:  Cassidy Olivier, The Province

Published: Sunday, July 12, 2009

Cedartree Apartment residents Kerri Russo (left) and Tresa Alkins say proposed rent increases -- some as high as 67 per cent -- are unreasonable.Nick Procaylo , the Province

Tenants of a Surrey apartment complex say they may be forced to live elsewhere — possibly on the streets — if their landlord get his way on proposed rent hikes.

Tenant Tresa Alkins says 97 of the 150 units at Cedartree Apartments in Newton will see rents rise by as much as 67 per cent, or several hundred dollars per month, if the owner’s bid for parity with other rental complexes in the area is approved.

Alkins, a single mother of a 10-year-old daughter, says rent on her two-bedroom suite would jump from $745 to $1,050, or 41 per cent.

That would make it nearly impossible for her to live off the money she makes working at a warehouse — so Alkins says she would likely have to move.

“I don’t mind paying the regular rent increase, but to have it bumped like that. … It will probably put me on the street, because I can’t afford that per month.”

For Kerri Russo, who’s lived at Cedartree for 17 years, the streets seem where she’s headed. The 43-year-old, who works sporadically as a traffic controller, faces a $400 increase on her two-bedroom unit that currently rents for $600 a month.

“If it goes through, I am going to be homeless,” she said. “It’s just that simple.”

The manager of Cedartree could not be reached for comment.

The Residential Tenancy Act fixes 2009 rent increases at 3.7 per cent. Landlords can apply for hikes beyond that to match rates in the geographical area.

According to provincial officials, the onus is on the landlord to prove to the tenancy branch that neighbouring units comparable to theirs are renting for substantially more.

Surrey-Newton MLA Harry Bains says he’s familiar with the case and that it highlights a crucial flaw in the act.

“It is full of loopholes that will allow any unscrupulous owner to go well beyond what is required in the act,” he said. “It allows the owners to leapfrog each other and continue to raise the rent higher than what is allowed.”

Alkins and Russo say what makes the proposed increases even more unjustifiable is the deteriorating state of the 40-year-old buildings.

Both say grounds maintenance is poor and that many of the units suffer from mould problems. Alkins said there is even a section of the roof that is visibly falling apart. Neither tenant had heat last winter and they say security, full-time under the previous owners, has since been slashed to part-time.

Four teleconference hearings will take place later this summer before the Residential Tenancy Branch for residents to voice their concerns about the proposed hikes. colivier@theprovince.com

© The Vancouver Province 2009