A New West woman is appealing for the city’s assistance to help her from becoming homeless.
Tracy-Ann Beyer said her housing situation is uncertain as the city has ordered her landlord to evict her and another tenant from a home at 1402 Sixth Ave. Beyer said a lack of affordable housing within her budget is putting her at a “very real” risk of becoming homeless.
“I will have to leave New West,” said Beyer, who has lived in the city her whole life. “The affordable housing stock is minimal.”
According to Beyer, her building has four one-bedroom units, one two-bedroom unit and a bachelor suite. At the Aug. 26 council meeting, she said tenants include three refugee families, one working tenant and two tenants, including herself, who are on disability.
“I have lived at this residence for seven years and nothing has ever been cited regarding the safety concerns of the units by the New West fire department when doing their previous inspections, until this spring when a bylaw officer accompanied the New West fire department,” she told council Aug. 27. “We were then informed that our units were deemed unsafe and also unauthorized. The city mandated that the landlord serve us with a four-month eviction notice on the grounds that the zoning only permits four units rather than six.”
Beyers asked the city to provide a special dispensation, where the landlord is able to continue providing housing while the two impacted units are being brought up to code. She also asked the city take steps to rescind the eviction order until the two tenants impacted by the order are able to find alternative housing.
Emilie Adin, the city’s director of development services, said the eviction is based on safety concerns. She said the city is looking at how it can support tenants impacted by the eviction.
“We certainly don’t want to have anyone to have to be evicted,” she told Beyers. “We are looking at our legal rights in this case. We will report back to council on any latitude we have in terms of interpretation of our bylaw with respect to requiring the landlord to cover the cost of your accommodation elsewhere while the safety concerns are being addressed.”
According to Adin, the Sixth Avenue property is a legally non-conforming fourplex, with two additional unauthorized units.
“In spring 2019 the New Westminster Fire Department identified serious life-safety issues in the two unauthorized units and issued notices of violations to vacate the units,” she said. “The owner of the building complied with the notices and issued notices to end tenancy.”
In an email to the Record, Adin said the city’s tenant displacement policy, developed in 2011, provides procedural guidelines for tenant displacement resulting from various situations including displacements occurring as a result of city action.
“However, B.C. local governments (outside of perhaps the City of Vancouver, which has been afforded additional authorities under provincial law) cannot apply our tenant relocation policies except as a condition of rezoning; and on a voluntary basis,” she said. “The procedures and timelines that were developed in the city’s tenant displacement policy are also not an exact fit for situations arising from significant life-safety concerns.”
Adin said the city is currently exploring a variety of options available to assist with this situation and will be reporting back to council.
Fire Chief Tim Armstrong could not be reached to comment on the life-safety issues identified by the fire department.
