Imagine being told you must leave your home. You must give it up for months of construction and then return, unable to recognize it – or afford it.

According to community organizers and disgruntled tenants, this process is happening to the benefit of landlords across the city.

“There is something to be said about loyalty,” said Brian Grant, housing development co-ordinator for the West Broadway Development Corporation (WBDC), a non-profit community organization that deals with housing issues and advocates on behalf of tenants. “Landlords have no loyalty.”

The Residential Tenancies Act – provincial legislation that outlines landlord responsibilities – gives landlords the right to apply for large-scale renovations, called a rehabilitation scheme. A rehabilitation scheme requires that landlords get the approval of the Residential Tenancies Branch (RTB), the government branch responsible for administering the act.

Rehabilitation often involves renovations that require tenants to vacate their suites entirely and for months at a time. After the rehabilitation is completed, landlords are exempt from provincial rent controls for up to five years, meaning that many tenants may find their suites unaffordable after the renovations.

According to the most recent RTB annual report, the RTB received nearly 150 rehabilitation applications in 2008 alone. The number of vacated tenants was unavailable.

“The RTB doesn’t care about social justice; they are just following a formula outlined in the [Residential Tenancies] Act,” said Grant. “The act needs to be amended to make it more difficult for landlords to break with [provincial] rent controls.”

Winnipeg’s vacancy rate hovers just below one per cent, making it difficult for displaced tenants to find new homes.

The human element

Blair House at 43 Roslyn Rd. is an apartment block in Osborne Village. Tenants there say they have been subject to highly unethical practices by Shindico Realty Inc., a property management company that runs their block.

Shindico issued a rehabilitation notice on Jan. 28, offering tenants $250 to break their lease if they leave by Apr. 30. The notice said that construction will make the building uninhabitable for five to six months, but outlined no plan for tenants who decide to stay until the end of their lease.

“It’s irritating and stressful and a huge pain to find another place to live,” said Jayson Laplante, a tenant and Manitoba public servant.

Laplante spoke with both the RTB and Shindico, who assured him that the application for a rehabilitation scheme had not yet been approved. However, a Shindico representative explained that construction is likely to begin on May 1, he said.

“I have no intention to leave before the end of my lease just because someone wants me out,” said Masha Giller, a single mother who has lived in the block for nearly six years. She added that Blair House is the only home her four-year-old daughter has ever known and that this isn’t the first time Blair House tenants have received a vacancy notice.

“The last time I went through this I felt that something good would come of it, and I still do in this situation,” she said.

Several tenants received notice on Apr. 30, 2009, telling them to leave their suites upon the expiration of their leases. Shortly thereafter, Shindico decided not to act on the notice, and yearly leases were renewed and new renters were welcomed into the building.

Among the new renters was Cecelia Wren, a single mother of two children, who is now being asked to break her lease after moving in just over three months ago.

“This is disgusting and evil,” she said. “They should have told me about this when I moved in, [because] they clearly knew what they were planning at that point.”

Wren, a musician, added that the money offered for moving expenses is not enough to move her piano and other belongings before May. Wren moved to the building to be closer to her friend Masha Giller, whom she has known for over 10 years, and to provide a stable environment for her children.

“They must think people in this block have shit for brains,” she said.

A Shindico representative responsible for the Blair House declined an interview.

In defense of the free market

The Blair House is not an isolated case in Winnipeg.

Virginia Scott, resident manager at the General Grant at 1281 Grant Ave., has seen a flood of interest in her apartment building from displaced tenants in the area.

“I’ve gotten many requests from people who used to live just down the street,” she said, including a place called Morgan Manor.

Morgan Manor at 1205 Grant Ave. has been undergoing a rehabilitation scheme since Oct. 1, 2009 according to Pat Gilson, property manager at Towers Realty Group, who manages the building.

“Some tenants have chosen to leave while others have decided to stay during the renovations,” she said, adding that the building was old and required extensive work. “There will be a rent increase, but the amount is up to the RTB.”

If Gilson can prove expenses of over $12,000 for each suite, the building will be exempt from rent controls for the next five years.

Landlords like Gilson maintain that Manitoba’s rent controls are too harsh and that the province hurts tenants by needlessly limiting the rental market.

Avrom Charach is property manager with the Professional Property Managers Association (PPMA), an organization representing Manitoba landlords. Charach agrees with Gilson.

“For almost a decade the RTB has received record numbers of applications for rent increases ... because it ignores rising costs faced by landlords,” Charach wrote in a Winnipeg Free Press article published last September. “Disrepair due to low rent guidelines has caused many buildings to be boarded up.”

Ron Penner, president of the PPMA, was unavailable for comment before press time.

This is Part II of a two-part series. To read Part I, visit www.uniter.ca/view/3088 . To read more about 43 Roslyn Rd., visit Ethan Cabel’s blog at www.uniter.ca/blogs or http://43roslyn.blogspot.com .

Published in Volume 64, Number 19 of The Uniter (February 11, 2010)