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I have moved, or been forced to move, seven times over the past 18 months.  I’ve just been evicted from my current residence, where I’ve lived for one month, and so am being forced to move again at the end of June.  Housing, and more aptly, affordable housing, is a huge issue in Victoria BC, and in many cities across the country.

In May 2009, I moved out of a community house I was living in, because the number of people and animals living there created too much stress and social contact for me to live comfortably.  It was a five bedroom house which we made affordable by having 7 people living there – all of the bedrooms were filled, and we also had roommates living in the dining room and in a basement crawl space.  Because so few landlords allow tenants to have dogs and cats, and ours did, we also had up to five dogs and two cats living there at once.  And, because we had illegal occupants, we lived in a constant state of stress about our landlords’ impromptu drop-ins, and frequent visits to the house to do “yard work.”  We knew well that is was illegal for her to attempt entry to the house without first giving us 24 hours written notice, but we also knew that she would not take kindly to being refused entry, and would make our lives more difficult if we complicated hers. 

 From there, I moved into another community house where I lived from June 2009 – September 2009.  The house was reasonably affordable, but residency required living underneath our incredibly disruptive and abusive landlord, who co-owned the house with his sister and mother.  I would be woken up regularly (3-4 times per week) at 4am, 5am, or 6am by him blaring music that caused my bed and walls to shake.  When I went upstairs to request that he quiet down, he would turn it down momentarily, until I went back down to my suite, flatly refuse, or toss me a set of earplugs.  He would enter our apartment unannounced, and help himself to our beer, cigarettes…whatever.  One of my roommates once returned home to find him in our kitchen, with none of us home, rifling through our freezer.  He once let himself into our apartment on the first of the month, and walked directly into my bedroom, where I was in bed in my underwear, and demanded his rent cheque.  Flustered after having woken up to my abusive landlord in my room, I got up to write the cheque, and while I was leaning over my desk filling it out, he picked up a leather studded belt from the floor of my room, and struck my butt with it.  Twice.  On top of the difficulties he imposed, his family was completely unreceptive to our complaints, the kitchen ceiling leaked constantly, the driveway filled up with the garbage our landlord threw from his third story window, and our stairs were on the brink of collapse.  I moved out, and subletted from a friend who had gone traveling.

 I informally subletted my friends apartment from September 2009 to January 2010, when her lease expired.  Upon its expiry, the landlord wished to sign a new tenancy agreement that would see my rent raised by $150.  I couldn’t afford it, and so was forced to move.  During the last month of my tenancy, I discovered that the landlord had been showing my suite without giving me any notice or informing me that she had.  One day, as I was getting dressed (it was a bachelor apartment) I heard keys in the door, and she barged in with two huge young men.  My apartment was a mess, with many personal and private items on display, and I was in my underwear.  When I told her what she was doing was illegal, she said simply “Well, I don’t even have your phone number, ” which I had given her upon moving in.

 Unable to find affordable housing for several months, I moved into my mom’s tiny apartment for one month, and then into my sister and brother-in-law’s basement for three months.  In April 2010, I moved into an apartment I couldn’t afford because I had outstayed my welcome at my sister’s.  I stayed in my new residence until June 2010, when I moved into an inexpensive and clean apartment with some friends.  Our landlord then attempted to impose an illegal rent increase of $150, and when we refused, she served us an eviction notice on the grounds that an immediate family member would be moving into the suite.

 That brings us to now.  Eighteen months, seven moves, and another coming at the end of this month.  Meanwhile, the tenants of the original community house I lived in were evicted in March 2010, with the minimum notice the landlord was required to give – two months – and under the pretense that her daughter would be moving into the house.  Similarly, two other community houses that I know of in Victoria – and within two blocks of one another – have been evicted on the grounds of “renovations.”  These are the only two reasons that landlords can impose evictions in Victoria – an immediate family member moving in, or renovations.  My suspicion is that these landlords are in collusion with one another, driving tenants out, and then driving up the rent.

In my own life, and in the lives of people in a similar income bracket as myself, affordable housing is virtually impossible to find or keep for any length of time.  Landlords exploit loopholes in the residential tenancy act to get their way, or simply wear their tenants down with authoritative vigilance, bullying, and aggression.  It strikes me that landlords, as people who “own” land and housing, have a great deal more resources – with financial resources at the top of the heap – than their tenants.  They are able to exploit them and circumvent justice to get their way and continue making the most revenue possible off of their suites.  I have considered moving from this city, but I have not, as of yet, been able to gather enough funds to make the costs of a move feasible.  With $20, 000 of student debt, and a maxed out credit card from the time I was a student, on top of $600 ++ rent each month, I still barely get by despite working a well-paying job.  

We need a cap on rental costs.  We need better and more accessible affordable housing non-profits and programs.  We need tighter legislation around residential tenancy, and stronger laws preventing landlords from exploiting or evicting their tenants.  We need co-ops.  We need less starkly class-oriented tenancy requirements, that suggest each person in a tenancy needs a separate room of their own.  We need greater rights and freedoms for tenants.  We need a tenancy arbitration system that is timely and that affords tenants legal resources and representatives.  We need government-sponsored housing initiatives that disallow the free market from compromising our human right to housing.  As far as I  know, there is no longer any government funding for cooperative housing initiatives in Canada, and affordable housing grants are few and not easily procured, especially by the people who might need them most.  

What have your experiences trying to find stable and affordable housing taught you?  How do you think the affordable housing crises across the country might be resolved?

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