The Sunshine Coast Lions Housing Society says it has no plans to evict tenants from its older cottage-style units at Greenecourt in Sechelt – but despite those assurances, some residents fear they could end up homeless.
The Society wants to replace the older buildings, known as Block B and Block C, with a five-storey, 99-unit apartment building similar to the Jack Nelson Annex that opened in early 2012.
The people renting in Blocks B and C have known the plan was in the works since at least February, when they were sent notices from the Society.
“This will require that the units in these two buildings be vacated. We want to organize this so there is as little disruption, and as few homes as possible are lost. We envision that the construction will commence within the next 18 months to two years,” the notices said.
“As space becomes available in other buildings in Greenecourt, we would like to offer them first to existing tenants of Blocks B & C before making them available to other persons on the waiting list. This will help ensure that the tenants of Blocks B & C will have a home during and after construction.”
In a press release in advance of an open house on the project next week, the Society said it has been moving tenants to other buildings as suites become available, with spots offered to Block B and C tenants in order of how long they’ve been living at Greenecourt.
“The Society is doing its best to move all the tenants in Blocks B and C but it can't move them until another suite becomes available and that only happens if someone moves to another facility, moves away, or sadly, passes away,” the release said.
The Society said so far, 11 of the 29 units in Blocks B and C have been vacated and 18 tenants remain.
Michael Bowering is one of those tenants, and he took his concerns to social media recently. He also told Coast Reporter that he thinks the process for moving people into vacancies in the Jack Nelson Annex is working against people who require rent subsidies, claiming that in the past 10 months none of the subsidized tenants has been offered a new unit.
Bowering also said with affordable rental housing almost impossible to find on the open market, he fears those vulnerable tenants won’t be able to secure alternate housing if they don’t get a unit elsewhere at Greenecourt before Blocks B and C are removed.
The Society is expecting it could be a year to a year-and-a-half before the necessary approvals and funding are in place to allow it to have the cottage buildings removed, but it also acknowledges there could still be tenants in place when that happens.
“If there are still tenants in the cottages when the Society is ready to proceed with the new building,” it said, “they will be given proper notice to move and the Society would be pleased to welcome those tenants back to Greenecourt when the new building is completed.”
Bowering said he’s been speaking out about his concerns to “try to avoid a catastrophe.”
In an open letter to Greenecourt residents, dated Nov. 19, the Society said it was aware “that statements have been made by some individuals on social media and to various groups and organizations that the Society is evicting tenants from Blocks B and C (the Cottages) in order to build a new building on the Greenecourt property. This is not true.”
The letter said that tenants “are free to explore any other rental options now in anticipation of Society's future building plans… If the tenants are able to arrange alternate rental accommodation for themselves in the interim, the Society encourages them to do so and again, would welcome them back to the new building when completed.”
Bowering said tenants are getting contradictory messages from the Society.
“I can’t believe they’re denying that at the end of the process tenants will be asked to leave,” he said. “They don’t want to call it an eviction, I guess, but if you happened to be the one asked to leave – your sense of it is you’re being evicted.”
The open house on the project is scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 28, at the Lions Hall at 5810 Medusa St., behind the Greenecourt complex.
