Demand for housing assistance, legal aid support on the rise since renoviction ban lifted
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Tenants at two Dartmouth buildings facing renoviction
Claudia Chender, MLA for Dartmouth South, said she’s also heard of landlords who’ve tried to informally evict tenants in her constituency.
Chender spoke to the Examiner the week the province lifted the state of emergency. The day after the renoviction ban was removed, she said, tenants in two side-by-side rental complexes in her neighbourhood were told the buildings’ new owner planned to evict the residents to renovate.
Chender didn’t want to disclose the buildings’ addresses due to privacy concerns for the tenants, but CBC’s Shaina Luck reported a similar story in late March.
“Certainly, offhand verbal notice by the landlord’s agent does not constitute the proper requirements to evict a tenant for renovation, but they will very likely eventually lose their homes,” Chender said. “These are eight households paying affordable rent there and they include seniors and young children and everything in between. And it’s massively concerning, because there’s really nowhere for them to go.”
Since the Examiner first spoke with Chender, her office said the residents in those two buildings have hearing dates with Residential Tenancies in May and two tenants have found alternative housing. In the meantime, another Dartmouth building with six units has since been threatened with renoviction.
Chender said given the current rental climate, the NDP is advocating for a continuation of the renoviction ban until the vacancy rate increases. Right now, HRM’s vacancy rate sits at 1%, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
“It’s simply inhumane, frankly, to evict people when there is no place for them to live,” Chender said.
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