CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Charlottetown resident Emily Acorn was enjoying a night out with friends, celebrating her birthday, when she received an email from her landlord, who lives in Bangladesh.
She and her roommates were being ordered to vacate their home on Bayfield Street in Charlottetown. They had to be out before Nov. 15.
“For better maintenance of my house I’ve decided to do some renovations work. I will be painting the room(s) which is not possible with tenants inside the house,” the email read.
Acorn was one of the concerned citizens who filled the P.E.I. Farm Centre in Charlottetown Thursday, Oct. 25 to voice concerns at an event labelled The Fight for Affordable Housing: Reclaiming our Communities.
Aimee Power, one of the organizers, said Acorn’s experience is being repeated around the city as landlords look for ways to capitalize on the short-term rental market, as well as student housing.
“A lot of long-term rentals have been turned into eight-month rentals, with four months of Airbnb in the summer,” Power said. “I bet a lot of people have experience with… getting a letter from your landlord saying, ‘Oh I have to do a bunch of renovations,’ or something like that… It is really tragic.”
“There are many evictions, some within the law and others not.”
-Rosalind Waters
Sometimes it can be very difficult to fight evictions.
Rosalind Waters, who has worked as a community legal worker for tenants’ rights in Toronto and Victoria, B.C., says it can be difficult to fight these kinds of evictions.
“There are many evictions, some within the law and others not,” she said.
Waters, who also worked for 20 years in P.E.I. with adults who have intellectual disabilities, says many residents get a notice saying the landlord needs vacant possession of the property to do renovations.
“P.E.I.’s landlord-tenant law doesn’t provide tenants with the right to sue for damages when they have been evicted for bogus reasons,” Waters said.
Acorn says she thought the reasons she was being asked to leave her home were questionable, so she took her landlord’s email to IRAC.
“The people at IRAC basically laughed because the document was completely illegitimate,” she said.
After threatening action, Acorn negotiated a deal with her landlord.
“There was a date for the hearing and everything. I dropped it because I found a new house and my landlord gave me $300 off my last month’s rent, as long as I dropped the appeal against him,” she said.
“But I was going to win.”
She hopes other tenants who hear her story learn they can fight to stay in their homes.
“Young people aren’t really thinking about their houses because they are working minimum wage and trying to get out to their desired careers. It can be hard to focus when you are being moved from the town you love.”
Related: Charlottetown mayoral candidates agree that affordable housing major priority
