Tenants rally to stop ‘profit-motivated’ eviction of East Vancouver senior

Tenants of a building in East Vancouver are rallying against their landlord's attempt to evict a senior resident.

Residents of an East Vancouver apartment building gathered with supporters on Wednesday outside the downtown office of their landlord in an effort to get him to drop the planned eviction of a long-term tenant.

Terry McIntosh has lived at 1177 E. 14th Ave. for 27 years. The building’s owner Andrzej Kowalski recently issued a notice to end McIntosh’s tenancy so that a live-in caretaker can move into his unit.

The Vancouver Tenants Union sees the eviction attempt as “profit-motivated,” noting in a statement Wednesday that the building contains only seven units, and that Kowalski attempted to evict all of the tenants and convert the property into condos in 2023.

“The tenants all sent a letter to the landlord about a month ago, demanding that Terry’s eviction was dropped,” said Sydney Ball of the VTU.

“They all see this as profit-motivated, and every suite signed on.”

Ball said the tenants had not received a response to their letter. Wednesday’s gathering – organized by residents and the VTU – was an attempt to deliver the letter to Kowalski in person.

In addition to maintaining that a caretaker is unnecessary for such a small building, the tenants argue that the landlord has an incentive to evict McIntosh in order to avoid having to compensate him under the city’s tenant relocation and protection policy for redevelopment happening due to the Broadway Plan.

“Last year, when we were battling this landlord with the evictions for the whole building, he always maintained that it was going to be under redevelopment, eventually,” Ball said. “If that’s still his plan, then it seems like (it’s) definitely profit-motivated to kick Terry out of his home of 27 years.”

CTV News made multiple attempts to contact Kowalski on Wednesday, but has not received a response. This story will be updated if one is received.

Ball said the VTU has seen a sharp uptick in evictions for landlord’s use – such as a family member or caretaker moving in – since the province cracked down on renovictions.

“That’s now the most common way to get people out of their homes to jack up the rent, and it definitely always targets long-term tenants, who are often seniors just like Terry,” Ball said.

Speaking at Wednesday’s event, McIntosh himself highlighted this connection, saying his situation is “one of many.”

“There are a lot of other tenants that are also under pressure,” he said.

The VTU has been calling for the provincial government to remove the motivation for landlords to evict long-term tenants by tying rent controls to the unit, rather than the tenant. Such a policy, sometimes referred to as “vacancy control,” would limit the amount by which a landlord could raise the asking rent between tenancies.

Currently, B.C. law prohibits landlords from raising rents more than once a year and limits the percentage by which they can be raised.

The landlord organization Landlord BC has told CTV News in the past that it opposes all rent controls, describing them as a “blunt and ineffective” tool that discourages building maintenance and ultimately drives up housing costs by suppressing the construction of new supply.