Over 10 per cent of renters in B.C. report being evicted.
A new study out of the University of British Columbia finds the amount of evictions that take place in B.C. is far higher than in other provinces by 鈥渁lmost four percentage points.鈥�
鈥淲hen that number came out鈥� I was very surprised,鈥� said researcher Craig Jones. 鈥淚 knew that was going to be the key finding of the work that we were doing.鈥�
The Sept. 2021 study is called . It looks at data collected in 2018 from the Community Housing Survey to determine the extent of evictions and to compare them between provinces.
鈥滻n that survey, they asked people a lot of really interesting questions that to our knowledge weren鈥檛 really being asked,鈥� Jones said, adding that before the survey, 鈥渢here really was no way to compare that experience in B.C鈥� to the rest of the country. Now at least we鈥檝e got the beginning of an evidence base in this.鈥�
According to the study, 10.6 per cent of renters in British Columbia reported at the time being evicted within the past five years, 鈥渕ore than any other province or territory whereas less than four per cent of renters were evicted within five years in Manitoba, Qu茅bec, and Nunavut.鈥�
鈥淎fter controlling for other sociodemographic characteristics, being aged 45-54, living in British Columbia and having a shelter cost to income ratio above 50 per cent are risk factors for eviction,鈥� it continued.
The survey also concluded that people who are evicted have lower self-reported levels of health and mental health, as well as lower levels of life satisfaction and increased financial difficulty.
The way evictions work in B.C. is different than in other jurisdictions. Most of the time, landlords have to file a legal request to begin the eviction process. In B.C., the landlord just has to serve a notice to the tenant.
鈥淏ecause of that, there is a ton of cases where tenants may receive notices and then choose to move out and we wouldn鈥檛 know how many those are,鈥� said Robert Patterson, a lawyer with the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre (TRAC). 鈥淎t some point in most other jurisdictions, somebody in a position of power or decision making authority has to look at an eviction and say 鈥榳ell this makes sense鈥� or 鈥榯his doesn鈥檛 make sense.鈥� It meets the legal requirements or it doesn鈥檛. In B.C., our system doesn鈥檛 actually require anyone to do that.鈥�
Since many evictions do not get reported in B.C., the information from the survey provides a more accurate eviction rate, which could inform future policy.
One such route could be to change how landlords can evict tenants for 鈥渓andlord鈥檚 own use,鈥� which are when the landlord wants to use the property themselves. A recent change to 鈥渞enoviction鈥� rules could be an inspiration, Patterson says.
鈥淭he change that was made this summer is now that if a landlord wants to do that鈥� They have to be the ones who pay the filing fee and begin the legal process and puts their evidence on the table first so the tenants can see what is actually going on,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ne of the ways we can tell it鈥檚 been successful is that we can see a massive uptick in clearly bad faith evictions of other kinds, especially the two month notice for landlord use, where they say they鈥檙e moving in.鈥�
Not all evictions are in bad faith, but Patterson says that 鈥渞equiring landlords鈥� to begin the process with the Rental Tenancy Board, to file and provide their evidence first would be incredibly helpful in cutting down those bad faith evictions.鈥�
Some policy changes have already taken place since this data was collected. However, the pandemic, which started after the 2018 Community Housing Survey, has also had an effect.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a 20-25 per cent increase in people contacting TRAC for all sorts of reasons since the beginning of the pandemic. The number one issue has always remained evictions,鈥� Patterson said. 鈥淚t also just caused more stress on all the parties, which led to more conflict, tension and therefore evictions. There鈥檚 been a huge demand.鈥�
Another Canadian Housing Survey was conducted earlier this year, and Jones and his team plan to do a similar study of the data when it is available.
鈥淎s far as I know, we didn鈥檛 have any way of estimating what renter eviction rates are across the country,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 know how the different provinces and territories compared to each other. The fact that B.C. has a pretty high eviction rate compared to the other provinces, and that difference is statistically significant.鈥�
鈥淚 really hope this study brings more attention to how this process works and how many people are getting evicted,鈥� Patterson said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty crazy.鈥�
The full study is available .
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