As eviction deadline nears, worried tenants wonder where they can go

Article content

Carol Rogers says she’s at her wit’s end.

Diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer, Rogers faces a deadline of Sept. 30 to vacate her apartment unit at 435 Nelson St. in London’s SoHo neighbourhood.

Nelson received an N13 eviction notice in May from her landlord, 435 Nelson Inc., who said she had to move out of the unit she’s lived in for more than 10 years because the company intends to demolish the two-storey apartment building with 23 units.

Article content

“I had no intention of moving from here,” said Rogers, 66, “I thought I’d die here.”

For the London chapter of ACORN Canada, an organization that advocates for tenants, what’s happening to tenants at 435 Nelson St. is a case of “demovictions” – evictions for the purpose of demolishing a building to make more profit from a property.

“While the landlords focus on making their next buck, tenants are left facing the prospect of losing their affordable homes, all while dealing with metre-wide holes in their walls and ceilings, leaks, mould, and intimidation and misleading tactics from their landlords trying to push tenants out,” ACORN said in a news release.

The organization hosted a demonstration Tuesday at the building to draw attention to what is happening to tenants and to give them an opportunity to share their experiences.

Rogers, who pays $677 a month in rent, is one of five remaining tenants in the building. The other tenants have moved out, pocketing an offer of three months’ rent in compensation from Amanda Bouck of Elite Rental Management Inc.

Rogers said all her applications to rent units in other buildings have been turned down.

Article content

“I don’t know what it is, and they won’t tell us. I figure it’s the amount of money we don’t have and don’t make. The rents are just ridiculous,” she said. “I can’t afford to move.”

Under Ontario law, tenants can legally be evicted from their units to make way for major building repairs or upgrades but they’re entitled to first right of refusal to return once the work is done at the same rent they paid.

So-called “renovictions” occur when bad-faith owners, trying to cash in on hot housing markets, evict tenants for upgrades, hoping they’ll move on. Once their units are declared vacant, they often then jack up the rent to higher rates the market will bear.

London city council will debate a proposed renovictions bylaw at its Sept. 24 meeting. The bylaw would require landlords to get a licence for an N13 at a cost of $600 and provide an affidavit from a qualified professional that the work being done is necessary and requires vacancy. 

The wrinkle with the N13 notice at 435 Nelson St. is that the landlord says it intends to demolish the building.

Bouck, who sent the N13 notice to Rogers that listed 435 Nelson Inc. as the landlord, declined an interview.

Article content

“We are demolishing (the building), rezoning and building a 12 story (sic) and roughly 200-unit building,” she said in a text message.

“This is not a ‘renoviction,’ as has been claimed in the past.”

Tenants say their costs have been increased and their units left with holes because of the installation of baseboard electric heaters.

Ken Thompson said heat used to be included in the rent, but the addition of an electric heater has added $200 a month to his utility bill and left holes in his wall that he covered with cardboard.

“If I didn’t put that there, this place freezes,” he said.

Tenant Karan Lumsden said she has lived with a gaping hole in her wall and ceiling for more than a year.

Thompson said his financial situation has been complicated, and he goes to food banks twice a month. He said he was living in his truck and was “very happy” when he found a unit at 435 Nelson St. three years ago.

“Right now, it’s been so hard to wonder what I’m going to get for food,” he said. “Three months of rent will not help me move out. What’s that going to leave me? I’m not crippled, but I’m a senior. This house means a roof over our head.”

For Rogers, losing the apartment without having another place to go is unthinkable.

“I just can’t handle all of this now, and I’ve just had enough. I will not leave unless I knew I had a place. There’s no possible way I can go on the street. I’m not going to be one of them. I’d be dead tomorrow. And I’m not ready (to die) yet.”

Article content