Renoviction or demoviction? A senior wonders after 17 years in North Shore

Stories like Haynes’s are becoming all familiar in the City of North Vancouver as seniors and low-income residents are pushed out of the city they loved and have lived all their life.

By Gagandeep Ghuman

Change is in the air in the City of North Vancouver, and recently it came knocking on Rebecca Haynes’s door. Haynes, 74, has lived in an apartment building on 20th street for the last 17 years. For years, she made a living as a limo driver but quit it recently and now only works part-time. She pays close to a $1000 for a two-bedroom apartment, which she shared with someone so she pays only half the rent.

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She has family in Vancouver and friends all over the North Shore, a place she loves and would like to stay. And that is where the unsettling change begins. She—along with others who live in her building—were told they would have to leave as the building in which they live was old and must be replaced by a new apartment building.

Depending on the time they have lived there, the developers are offering them money to move, and the right to rent an apartment in the new building once it’s complete in a few years. Haynes says the money being offered is good, but she is not sure she would be able to move back with the new rental rates that would be charged. “I could rent a one-bedroom unit in the new building for $1200, and it will be around 550 square feet, which isn’t much. I’m glad they have made that offer but as a senior retiring with limited income, well, it ain’t happening,” she said.
Haynes said she would ask the city staff at public meetings why the City of North Vancouver hadn’t seen any seniors housing for the last 10 years despite a desperate need for it. She said she was told very few developers wanted to invest in seniors housing, even when they were offered incentives by the city.

Haynes said she would ask the city staff at public meetings why the City of North Vancouver hadn’t seen any seniors housing for the last 10 years despite a desperate need for it.

Haynes said stories like hers were becoming all familiar in the City of North Vancouver as seniors and low-income residents were pushed out of the city they loved and had lived all their life. Haynes knows several such people. One of her friends moved to Ontario after living in North Vancouver for many decades because she just couldn’t find any affordable rental. One of her friends is thinking of moving to Surrey while the other hopes to find a spot in the Kiwanis seniors housing in the District of North Vancouver.

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Moving east in the region or the country isn’t something Haynes plans to do. With her daughters in Vancouver and close friends in North Vancouver, she is determined to find a place in North Vancouver. She has her name on the BC housing waiting list for affordable housing for seniors and she hopes she can get a spot at Capilano Housing, a senior retirement home.

Haynes said she wanted the local government to be proactive in finding affordable housing for vulnerable populations such as low-income seniors who had lived all their life in the city but faced renoviction now. Haynes is struggling to come to terms with the rapid gentrification of the city and finds the changes quite confusing. “I have seen housing prices and rentals just keep going up in a way that is quite unbelievable. I think a lot of people who are working minimum wage jobs or seniors on low income, they are really struggling. I think they need some compensation in housing and being able to live in the city they love,” she said.

Communications manager for City of North Vancouver Connie Rabold said the city didn’t have a specific policy that focused on seniors, although the housing action plan recognised them as a vulnerable population. She said the primary policy that the city used to encourage developers to provide affordable housing was through density bonus and community benefits policy, under which developers of strata projects were encouraged to provide non-market rental housing. She said the city had several non-market rental projects specifically tailored for seniors including Legion Towers, Twin Towers and other projects operated by Kiwanis.

Patrick McLaughlin, the president of Kiwanis North Shore Housing Society, said redevelopment had certainly displaced seniors but there was also some forward movement on accommodating senior housing needs.

The society has submitted an application for a 106-unit apartment building, which he hopes would be rezoned for housing in the summer. He said the district was also working on housing needs in Delbrook Lands as well as Lower Lynn.

While it seems like there is some work being done for keeping new rentals affordable, the real test would come soon when seniors like Haynes are out looking for a place in the North Shore. Will she get to stay in one of those developments both McLaughlin and Rabold mention? Haynes hopes so for she just doesn’t want to be ‘demovicted’ from the city she loves.