A Port Moody senior with severe asthma says she has been pushed to the brink of eviction after her landlord put the house she lives in up for sale only hours after a provincial eviction ban was lifted.
Anna Nielsen, 70, is calling on provincial officials to amend the recent order that returned eviction powers to landlords so that the most vulnerable aren’t forced into risky living environments.
“If you can turn it one way in a day you can turn it another way too,” she said. “There are going to be people that are put in a really bad situation.”
Nielsen said she first got a call from the landlord less than a week before phase 3 went into effect. They wanted to sell the house.
On June 19 the B.C. government announced it was easing restrictions placed on landlords during the pandemic that prevented them from evicting tenants. Now, should the owner find a buyer, Nielsen could be legally evicted within a month.
“They phoned me three hours after that was enacted and said they were listing the house,” said Nielsen. “I’m on strictly pension, zero net worth… Finally a really nice place to live, with a place I could really make it, and I’ve been completely been thrown overboard.”
Nielsen said she counted 130 people coming through her living space on the first open house and another 55 more recently. “They were literally lining up groups going in,” she said.
Nielsen, a severe asthmatic, said at one point during the pandemic her symptoms got so bad her doctor had her tested for COVID-19. And while that test came back negative, she said her doctor told her to avoid hospitals as much as possible.
A note from Nielsen’s physician seen by the Tri-City News says she “is at a high risk of developing severe medical complications in the event of contracting coronavirus, and she should only have a very restricted number of people visiting her basement suite at any time.”
“I haven’t been to a grocery store in months,” she said. “I don’t even do takeout meals.”
But the visits kept coming and her options remain limited.
After five years in the same suite, her rent has been relatively frozen at roughly $1,100 and she doesn’t have the money to move into a new home at current market rates. Even if she could afford to move, she says the rental market has been especially tough.
“There’s nothing available. A lot of people are leery to rent right now because people are afraid of someone bringing COVID into their homes.”
“It just drives me crazy,” she added. “We have this pandemic and a person has to find a place to live, let alone in an economy where it’s impossible to find an affordable place.”
Nielsen said she has spoken with the NDP MLA for Port Moody-Coquitlam, Rick Glumac, but that his response boiled down to “we’ve been a victim of progressive conservative government and it takes time to change.” And when she contacted a lawyer, she was told there was nothing they could do.
“It’s just absolutely appalling,” she said.
