CALGARY- A Calgary woman displaced by an apartment fire say she is homeless as a result of the city’s tight rental market.
When the building she lived in caught fire earlier this month, Francesca Annibale says she escaped with only a jacket and her dog. She says there’s no rental units available within her budget and now she’s relying on friends for a place to sleep.
“I had an amazing price at this apartment, there’s zero per cent vacancy in this city,” says Annibale. “I have been searching day in and day out.”
An employee with the company that owns the building Annibale lived in says it will take a couple of months to remediate. The Calgary Fire Department says the November 14 fire was sparked in a bathroom by accident when a repairman replacing a sink was working with a blow torch.
While the current vacancy rate in Calgary is actually sitting at just over 1% because of in-migration, Annibale says her need to find a pet-friendly suite is compounding the difficulty of her search.
“Rental demand is is very heightened right now,” says Pichu Kalenyiuk of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. “It’s just because we have a really robust labour market, a lot of people are coming here for work and that’s obviously bringing up our rental demand.”
Annibale, who works as a professional jazz dancer and instructor, says her $700 a month apartment made it possible for her to pursue a career in dance.
She says the rental company, Properties Plus, should offer affected tenants a suite at one of its other buildings since its contractor started the fire.
Properties Plus tells Global News it is returning damage deposits and pro-rated rents to the tenants from the 16 units.
-with files from Mia Sosiak
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