Tenants want city to help save affordable housing community
Posted Aug 25, 2015 08:40:23 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
In response to news that Harbour City Homes plans to sell their buildings, residents of the Brunswick Street Tenants Association are launching a campaign to help manage their residence going forward.
Residents received notices earlier this month and are worried a sale would require them to be forced out of their homes.
Chair of the association Deb Key told NEWS 95.7 affordable housing should still have a place in the local community.
“We have a real community here, and we don’t understand why the city is allowing Harbour City Homes to turn a profit from the sale of buildings that were given to provide affordable housing,” said Key.
Harbour City Homes acquired the properties from the city after responsibility for affordable housing was transferred to the province in the 1990s. They paid as low as $1 for some of the buildings, plus expenses related to the sale. Tenants say they believe the city has the right of first refusal on the sale.
She said her group hopes the city will instead turn the buildings over to the tenants to form a co-op.
“Over the last 7-years I’ve been here, the tenants pretty much do everything here on the property as it is, we get little to no help from Harbour City Homes for repairs or anything of that nature,” she said.
The tenants’ association requested a meeting Monday with the board of directors of the non-profit housing society who run the development.
Key said the group has asked for the minutes of the meeting where the decision was made to put their residence on the market.
