Christine Boyle’s proposed bill puts tenancy rights in hot water
The BC NDP housing minister is seeking to gut Residential Tenancy Act protections for people in “supportive housing”
With video by Molly Henderson
Earlier this month, BC housing minister Christine Boyle tabled legislation that would weaken protections in the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) for people in “supportive housing” units.
If passed, Bill 11 – or the Residential Tenancy Amendment Act – would give the housing minister and government cabinet permanent powers to make changes to existing RTA protections for supportive housing without having to pass them through the legislature.
Bill 11 would formalize a sub-categorization of tenancy rights for people in “supportive housing” across BC. This proposed categorization sets up supportive housing landlords to “restrict access” to tenants from their own unit prior to going through the Residential Tenancy Board (or any other judicial process).
This effectively means landlords could ban residents from supportive housing premises with broad discretion — even prior to a landlord’s allegation going through arbitration.
The legislation creates a new clause that permits supportive housing landlords and managers to end an eviction based on a suspicion that a tenant or any of their guests “has been” in the possession of a weapon. Neither a retroactive time limit on this possession, nor “weapon” are defined within the Act. (A participant in a P.O.W.E.R. study reported having his pliers seized by police after they deemed them a weapon, for example).
The bill also creates an exemption for the confiscation of personal property by landlords from renters’ individual units, by creating an exemption for “seizure of any personal property of a tenant” within supportive housing units.
Because Bill 11 provides current and future housing ministers and cabinet sweeping powers to make changes to “supportive housing,” landlord powers could expand further without any legislative oversight.
Bill 11 has not passed yet, and to read in full: click here. | Housing Minister Christine Boyle can be emailed here: christine.boyle.mla@leg.bc.ca
WATCH: P.O.W.E.R. members discuss tenancy rights and conditions in supportive housing.
BACKGROUND
Housing in crisis: A qualitative study of the socio-legal contexts of residential evictions in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: International Journal of Drug Policy
Housing, homeless & carcerality in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: Our Homes Can’t Wait
Increases in housing rules and surveillance during COVID-19: impacts on overdose and overdose response in Vancouver: Harm Reduction Journal
CLAS and Pivot Condemn Province’s Continued Rollback of Tenant Protections: Pivot Legal Society
The Social Housing Tenants Fighting for Renter Protections: The Tyee