I’ve fallen behind on updating my website on the work I’ve been doing, but in April of 2024, I moved a motion to direct staff to explore and implement tools to protect tenants from development-induced displacement in secondary rentals city-wide. Burnaby’s current Tenant Assistance Policy is the strongest in North America, but it only covers purpose-built rentals. What this motion means is for tenants who rent from individual landlords in older strata apartments, that there is direction for those tenants to receive the same supports as tenants who live in purpose-built rentals.
Often, tenants living in older homes are paying affordable rents not because they are officially non-market rentals, but because of the age of their units/buildings. Renters living in these older homes deserve protection too. This displacement will be magnified as the new provincial legislation triggers development. Landlift coming from the provincial changes should be shared amongst those impacted.
With the province signalling new authority to municipality for improved tenant assistance policies, that was the time to bring forward this kind of direction to staff. And, with our Housing Needs data now four years old, the motion also directed to collect new data and to better understand which renters living in secondary rentals are at risk of displacement.
Comments