BRITISH COLUMBIA

To hear the government, the Rentalsman,
_ and some media personalities tell it, British
Columbians have a wide-open housing
Market, making rent controls and other pro-
tective legal measures redundant.

That claim, constantly repeated during
the last few months, i is known by thousands
of B.C. tenants to be a lie. And, countering
it, are the several tenants’ organizations that
have sprung up in the wake of provincial
_ legislation abolishing rent controls, protec-
tion from unwarranted eviction, and even-
tually the Rentalsman’s office itself.

Bill 5, the Residential Tenancy Act, has
yet to be proclaimed. But some of its worst
features have already been levelled against
tenants, by order-in-council.

Rent controls, : which had been steadily
whittled away by Socred governments ever
Since they regained power in 1975, were
completely abolished with the introduction
of the government’s infamous legislative
package July 7. And irrespective of the fate
of Bill 5, the Rentalsman’s office — a far
“from perfect arbitrator in tenant-landlord
disputes, but one which afforded some pro-
tection for tenants — is slated to disappear
completely by Oct. 1, 1984.
iS The myth used to justify these actions

comes in two pat arguments: That the bad
‘old days of 1980 and 1981 are over with
thousands of new rental units lying vacant;
and, because of the plethora of available
| housing, landlords themselves have driven
|} down or frozen rents in order to attract
tenants.

Piled on top of these arguments are
Statistics which purportedly show that rent
hikes have averaged relatively low — around
10 per cent — since the removal of controls
last summer.

These figures ‘‘present an essentially false
picture. of the overall rental situation,”’
charged Jim Quail, chairman of the B.C.
Tenants Rights Coalition.

“As more and more housing escaped
from rent controls over the years, it was pric-
ed completely out of reach. Those high pric-
_ ed rental units are the ones standing empty,

with landlords offering various gimmicks to

and a

to our affiliates

%» Happy New Year

9 their members and families

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attract renters,’” Quail explained in an inter-
view.
“But its the 30 per cent at the bottom of

the scale that we’re concerned with. Now .

that rent controls have been lifted, those
rents are skyrocketing.’’

‘Rents have doubled or even tripled on
units at the bottom end,”’ said David Lane,
co-ordinator of the coalition’s new tenants

DAVID LANE . . . tenants using action

centre.

action centre. He reported rent hikes of 15
per cent or more in some nine per cent of
B.C.’s housing units — hikes which affect
some 60,000 British Columbians on low or
fixed incomes.

Lane noted that not only the rental picture
is distorted by statistics: “‘Figures show that-
the vacancy rate in the Lower Mainland has
dropped from 3.4 to 1.7 per cent over the

past year. But for low-income tenants, the -

vacancy rate has always been 0.1 per cent.
It’s a closed market, with no competition.”

Since its inception three weeks ago, the ac-
tion centre has been busy fulfilling its man-
date to offer assistance to tenants organizing
against the new round of rent increases. In

GEORGE JALAVA_ :
Sree es

Vancouver, tenants at two apartment
buildings have formed groups with the cen-
tre’s assistance.

Involved are rent hikes ranging, in one
case, from 20 to 100 per cent, and in the
other an average 25 per cent. Both buildings
are owned or co-owned by the Zen-Aquilini
group, but Lane cautioned that soaring rents
have also faced tenants of other landlords.

David Martin is a tenant at 2910 Alder St.
in Vancouver. He helped form the tenants’
group in his building after comparing notes
with other tenants who, like himself, receiv-
ed notice of impending hikes of between 21
and 36 per cent for apartments that are small
by any standard, and where much-needed
repairs were lacking,

Martin received notice in Seneenber that
his rent would be hiked to $384 from $318
monthly, for his 325 square-foot apartment.

“I got talking to another tenant upstairs,
and he reported a similar increase. It dawned
on me: why not forma tenants’ group? That
way we could farm out the work that had to
be done.”’

The ‘work’? involved listing the long-
neglected repairs to suites and common

' areas, and the more difficult task of doing a

study of the rental market in the area to use
as ammunition when the tenants’ casecomes
up before the rentalsman.

Organizing a building group has other
merits, said Martin, who also volunteers

some of his time at the action centre. ‘‘This .

way, you’re not just one person shouting
out.””

Martin’s tenants’ group — and another at
what Lane calls ‘‘a horrendously run-down”
building at 1455 West 8th Ave., — are sub-
mitting their cases to the Rentalsman’s office
for rent review.

Rent review is one of the few avenues of
redress open to.tenants following the aboli-
tion of rent controls. Under it, a Rentalsman
officer must decide which of two submis-
sions — the landlord’s or the tenants —
comes closest to the average market value in
the neighborhood.

The officer must pick one estimation or

the other. There is no third option.

‘hard.

JIM QUAIL...

Even that limited ‘“‘right’’ will be gone

next July, leaving tenants faced with uncons- _

cionable rent hikes no other recourse but
legal action through the B.C. Supreme
Court, said Quail.

Himself a lawyer, Quail estimated it
would cost a tenant between $1,500 and
$2,000 to take this route. The services pro-
vided by the Rentalsman’s office are free.

Despite recent meetings between the coali-
tion and Minister of Consumer and Cor-
porate Affairs, Jim Hewitt, the
Rentalsman’s office is still slated for the
chopping block, ‘‘so it’s clear that route isn’t
going to produce many changes, as if we
already hadn’t learned that,” says Quail.

- That means “‘heavy duty mass organiza-
tion” — on a building by building, or

‘neighborhood by neighborhood basis — is

on the coalition’s agenda, he said.

‘‘What everyone must learn is that mass
pressure is the thing that changes govern-
ments’ minds.””

Merry Christmas

to all our members and friends

RETAIL CLERKS
UNION UFCW
LOCAL 1518

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to the labor and Solidarity movements —

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