Most of the residents at the Shady Acres mobile home park in West Kelowna, B.C., are gone.
They have been replaced by heavy equipment that is now dismantling their former homes.
“I’ve seen U-Haul truck … and we can see that trailers are being dismantled and taken away as we speak,” said Jim Carpenter, who owns one of the units but doesn’t live on site.
On Jan. 24, city council postponed third reading to re-zone the site to light industrial in an effort to give residents, all on low income and many with physical and mental disabilities, more time to find suitable housing.
But the developer, Kerr Properties, did end up issuing eviction notices to renters based on the province’s Residential Tenancy Act.
“We don’t know what kind of help these people got, where they ended up — are they in tent city? Did Interior Health help them?” Carpenter told Global News.
“I mean, a few found places but it’s kind of concerning.”
The situation highlights the urgent need for more affordable housing in the community.
“I understand the need for development in the city and whatnot. The question is, where do those folks go and the options are extremely limited,” said Capt. Jennifer Henson with the Westside Salvation Army.
Henson said her staff are seeing people on a daily basis with affordable housing — or the lack thereof — being a major issue.
“Our motto is ‘giving hope today,’ and so we are always looking for a hopeful solution and that’s one solution that we struggle to find options for folks,” Henson said.
In an email to Global News, a spokesperson for the City of West Kelowna said that it should have some new information to share about affordable housing later in the summer and that staff, as directed by city council, are prioritizing rental protection and tenant relocation assistance policies to address impact to residents who are vulnerable to redevelopment pressures.
Kerr Properties never responded to Global’s multiple inquires about the evictions or relocation assistance for the renters.
The situation is not unique to Shady Acres, but it’s one stakeholders say needs more attention.
“It’s a province-wide, country-wide problem where nobody seems to come up with an answer for providing homes, whether it’s provincial, city, Interior Health, Tenancy Act,” said Carpenter.
“It’s a whole lot of departments but no one’s responsible.”
Third reading of the re-zoning application for Shady Acres will go before West Kelowna council sometime this summer.
While the renters were served with eviction notices, the four owners have not yet received theirs.
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