Housing agency eyes landlord registry
A Saskatoon-based affordable housing agency wants to help create a landlord registry with the aim of protecting vulnerable tenants from slum landlords, dangerous properties and unfair rental practices.
The project comes with challenges — chief among them is cost — but the executive directors of Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) says he is optimistic that conversations already underway could lead to action within a year or two.
“(We) need to do something to ensure that everyone has a safe place to live and an appropriate place to live. That’s sort of our vision, that everyone has exactly that,” said Shaun Dyck, who has been with the non-profit since 2011.
The number of people, many of whom rely on social assistance, struggling to find safe and affordable housing in Saskatoon at any given time is likely in the hundreds.
Community Legal Services for Saskatoon Inner City Inc. (CLASSIC) opened 151 files related to residential tenancy disputes last year, but experts have suggested the real number is higher, since many people choose homelessness or put up with poor conditions because they have nowhere else to go.
Sarah Buhler, a University of Saskatchewan law professor working on a research project about access to the government-run Office of Residential Tenancies, said it’s not uncommon for her interview subjects to propose a registry or other system for tracking landlords.
Dyck said shutting down the worst landlords will always be difficult due to high inspection and enforcement costs, and that a mandatory registry would likely result in the high cost of renovations and other necessary fixes being passed on to tenants.
Because that would effectively undermine SHIP’s work to make housing cheaper and safer, an optin model — perhaps one that could be made more attractive by property tax incentives — is almost certainly the best solution, he added.
“From what I’ve seen, the carrot philosophy — use a carrot rather than a stick, entice people into that — often brings more people to the table,” Dyck said, noting that any registry would also benefit upstanding landlords by sending business their way.
The executive officer of the Saskatchewan Landlord Association — which represents about 700 property owners responsible for 30 per cent of the province’s rental suites — said another option would be a program similar to British Columbia’s “Ready to Rent” initiative.
Education tends to solve all but the very worst rental housing problems, and giving landlords and tenants the opportunity to learn about both sides of the rental business and establish their credentials would likely have significant benefits, Chanda Lockhart said.
Slum landlords are not going to opt into any program “because they don’t believe what they’re doing is wrong,” so there is little alternative but to step up inspections and consequences for breaking the rules, Lockhart added.
CLASSIC’s executive director, Chantelle Johnson, said anything is preferable to the “carte blanche” landlords are given in Saskatchewan. One simple solution would be to clearly identify landlords who provide safe spaces for people on social assistance, she said.
Dyck acknowledged that Saskatoon’s housing problems are “not something that can be easily fixed overnight” and that shutting down the worst landlords is very expensive, but said SHIP is determined to keep pushing for change because of the potential benefits of a registry.
“We’re committed to working on this with everyone in the city … We want to be part of the conversation to ensure it’s done in a manner that is focused around both the needs of the tenant and the landlord to make sure we can find a win-win for everyone.”