Vancouver city councillor wants to track ‘demovictions’ to address loophole for Broadway neighbourhood

A Vancouver city councillor is bringing forward a motion to council in an effort to monitor renovations and demolitions related to the Broadway Subway Project.

Coun. Pete Fry says 2,000 renter households a year in the Broadway neighbourhood could be forced out due to the ongoing plan.

“With the vacancy rates in Vancouver, there is nowhere for folks to go and so the concern and the nature of this motion is to deal with some of the loopholes that can potentially lead to a more rapid pace of demoviction of tenants in Mount Pleasant, in Fairview, and all across the Broadway corridor,” he told Global News.

The goal of his motion is to shine a spotlight on loopholes developers could be exploiting.

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Vancouver council rejected a similar motion in March, tracking unprotected renovictions.

Fry said the city approves newly-renovated buildings for rezoning. He said it’s an emerging trend and a loophole developers use as it doesn’t give tenants much protection.

“It gives you the option to return at the new rents and that’s about it.”

Fry would like to see a mechanism in place that would limit the demolition of older rental stock as tenants feel they are being squeezed out of affordable rentals left in the city.

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“The rent is reasonable (here) and I actually make the appropriate amount of my budget in renting in this city and anywhere else I go I know it’s going to double immediately,” said Trevor Watt, a renter in a nearby building.

Watt’s building is just steps from the Broadway Corridor and is up for sale.

“I would think in the Vancouver market, it would be silly to try to buy (the building) and then maintain it. You would have to be an altruistic company to do that,” he said.

The motion is set to go before council on Tuesday.