BURST
Oscar Carrillo has spent the past eight years living in an affordable housing unit at Kwantlen Park Manor in the Surrey neighbourhood of Whalley.
He can’t think of anywhere else he’d rather be.
Carrillo, 62, receives a monthly $1,500 disability benefit, which helps cover his $1,200-a-month rent for a two-bedroom unit that he shares with his dog, Milo.
“It’s nice, I like it here. There’s (everything) I need. … I go for walks with Milo,” he said.
But pressure is building for Carrillo to vacate his apartment. A developer, RBI Group of Companies, is eager to start redeveloping the site into two six-storey residential buildings that will include 10 below-market rental units, 48 market rental units and 70 market strata units.
In comparison, Kwantlen Park Manor is three storeys and has 31 affordable units.
As of last week, three of those units remained occupied by tenants, including Carrillo. They said options for alternate accommodations presented to them by the property management company overlooking the tenants’ transition, Pacific Quorum Properties, were not suitable.
“I could never have seen this happen to me,” said Carrillo.
He and the other holdouts also said they were told that water and power would be shut off on Aug. 1, prior to an Aug. 9 eviction date. While neither the shut-offs, nor the evictions, have happened, it has created a stressful situation.
“I was very worried, to have no light and water, it’s crazy. I have too much stress. I’ll take anything, I’m getting worried now,” Carrillo said, adding that his stress has heightened to the point of needing medication for his high blood pressure and mental health.
The residents and their supporters protested outside the property management company’s Surrey office on Friday.
The 15 protesters were joined by representatives of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN, a tenancy rights advocacy group.
Residents were only emailed a few Craigslist rental listings occasionally, according to ACORN.
ACORN representatives shared with Postmedia an email sent to the remaining residents on Aug. 7 by Leslie Brock, vice-president of property management at Pacific Quorum. In it, she wrote: “Our notices about shutting off the power/water to the property are simply as a courtesy to the 2 last remaining tenants in the building.”
Brock noted that all tenants were provided the required four months notice to vacate the property “as the demolition permit has been approved and set for early August” and that her office has been “consistently emailing tenants links to various properties available in the area as well as properties listed by Pacific Quorum.”
The property management company did not respond to Postmedia’s request for comment.
ACORN also shared with Postmedia correspondence between the city and the developer that it obtained through a freedom of information request. It showed that city staff pointed to concerns that the development did not fully meet Policy 0-61, the city’s rental housing redevelopment policy.
The policy states the replacement of purpose-built rental units is required to include, at a minimum, the same number of total bedrooms as in the original development and provide the same number of affordable units. Under this policy, the new development would be required to have 51 bedrooms in 31 affordable units for low- to moderate-income households.
But RBI’s plan only includes six one-bedroom units, three one-bedroom units with a den, and one two-bedroom unit that are classified as affordable.
Director of construction for RBI Trevor Massey stated in an email to the city the right of first refusal would be granted to the older tenants, but it would be on a first-come, first-serve basis as there are not enough below-market units in the new space to replace the existing ones.
In an email to Postmedia Monday, the city acknowledged the development “deviates” from its own policy, but added that because there are more overall rental units proposed than what currently exists and would increase the city’s housing supply, the project was presented to council.
Council approved the project on Jan. 13.
Massey said he and Pacific Quorum have been doing “everything we can” to help the Kwantlen Park Manor tenants.
“We don’t want anybody in a bad spot and we’re going to help them however we can,” he said Tuesday.
He added that Carrillo was the only resident remaining in the building, and that as soon as he found out someone was still there, he cancelled the utility shut-off.
“There was nothing threatening,” he said.
Massey could not answer why the same number of affordable units that exists currently could not be included in the new development.
“I asked Pacific Quorum to find some incentives (for replacement housing), whether it’s discounted rent for the first month or something, to provide even further benefit than what we’re obligated to provide,” he said.
Moving into a new apartment seems out of the question for Carrillo, who said he might have to settle into moving into a trailer.
“I’m looking for an apartment, but it’s difficult for me. I have a dog. My dog is my support, he’s like my son,” he said, wiping away tears from behind his sunglasses.
He said his children have offered him housing, but his dog is not allowed in their buildings.