Residents of four apartment buildings in Trenton, Ont. may be sleeping on the streets this summer, after receiving so-called ‘renoviction’ notices from their new landlord.
Tenants say they are living in fear of what to do next, with many of them being elderly, disabled and single parents.
“I leave, I come home, is there one there?” says Charlene Butler, a renter facing renoviction.
Butler has lived in the 400 block of Sidney Street in the north end of Trenton for the last 10 years.
Now she’s waiting to find out if she and her intellectually disabled son will be forced to leave.
“I can’t do it,” says Butler. “I’m stressed.”
In February, Mississauga-based Bedford Properties bought her building, and three others on the street.
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Now, the new landlord has begun issuing renoviction notices.
Another tenant, Shannon Lawrence, is also supporting a disabled son alone.
“I don’t know what me and my son are going to do,” she says.
“We can’t afford to go anywhere else. Even if we could somehow afford to go somewhere else, there’s just not enough housing.”
Retired 74 year-old Keith Maybee has received his notice already, and has until the end of July to leave, or he could face eviction.
“Right then it was just kind of a numb feeling,” says Maybee.
“There had to be some more of a reason than doing renovations.”
The management company says they’re planning extensive renovations that will require the tenants to be out of the unit for a minimum of seven months.
Butler believes it will allow Bedford Properties to raise the rent outside what people like her and her neighbours can afford.
“Have some compassion for people,” she says.
“Where’s the humanity? It’s greed, too much greed.”
Global News reached out to Bedford Properties for a comment but did not receive a response.
While Butler has not received a notice yet, she says she was told by the building superintendent that all 120 units will get one eventually.
Most of the residents also have not received a renoviction notice, but those who spoke with Global News say they expect it any day.
Meanwhile, Butler and Lawrence hope drawing attention to the situation may change Bedford Properties’ mind.
If not, the two single mothers say they may be out on the streets.
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