Evicted on short notice
Two residents in city apartment building given one day to leave
Lisa Hughes says she and her common-law husband don’t know where they will go after being evicted from their apartment in Charlottetown on Friday.
Hughes and Leonard Scott Ryan left their home at 304 Richmond St. peacefully under the watchful eye of officers with Charlottetown Police Services and the city’s fire inspector, Kent Mitchell.
Chief Judge Jeff Lantz signed an order in provincial court recently authorizing Mitchell to have the residents evicted under section 6.11 of the City of Charlottetown’s fire prevention bylaw.
Hughes said Mitchell told her the apartment she and Ryan were living in has been deemed unfit to live in.
The couple was originally given an eviction notice on Jan. 19 to be out by March 1. But then things changed quickly.
Hughes said a police officer and fire inspector delivered a new eviction notice on Thursday saying they had to be out on Friday by noon.
“It has been deemed unfit to live (in), but I’ve been here seven years-plus. Why, all of a sudden, has it been deemed unfit to live in?’’
The province’s emergency shelter services division put the couple up in a local hotel for three days.
The rest of the tenants at 304 Richmond St. have also been given eviction notices, but they have until April 1 to find alternate accommodations.
“This is where social development puts us,’’ said Loretta Martineau, who lives in the
second floor. “This is the kind of place we can afford.’’
Martineau said the new owner wants to renovate the building. She took the matter to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission but lost.
She added that social services needs to give lowincome Islanders more money if they’re going to be evicted from what they can afford and expected to find new accommodations which are more expensive.
“Or, make more affordable housing and not put us in these dumps,’’ Martineau said. “I’m getting fed up with moving all the time.’’
Connor Kelly, tenant organizer with the Cooper Institute and P.E.I. Fight for Affordable Housing, helped Hughes and Ryan load their belongings into a taxi on Friday, including the couple’s two cats.
“I mean, this puts them in a hard predicament,’’ Kelly said. “Lisa has lived here for more than seven years and for them to be kicked out so quickly because it’s been deemed unfit to live in doesn’t quite make sense. I don’t understand why that has to be enforced so quickly.
“Ultimately, at the core of the issue is this property wasn’t maintained by the people who owned it.’’
Mitchell says the fire department became aware of concerns about potential fire violations at the residence in 2016. A hazard compliance order was issued to the owner due to the extensive fire code violations throughout the building. In particular, the third-floor attic space, where Hughes and Ryan resided, was converted into an apartment but was deemed a hazardous area due to the inability of occupants to safely evacuate in the event of a fire.
Several hazard compliance orders and a summary offence ticket were also issued to the owner between 2016 and 2019. It culminated in a removal order for the thirdfloor apartment, which was issued to the owner Nov. 27, 2020, with a deadline of Dec. 11. After a followup inspection, another summary offence ticket was issued Dec. 31 because of non-compliance with the removal order.
Subsequently, the city prepared an affidavit for a court-ordered removal, which was heard in court on Tuesday. Lantz signed off on the removal order with Friday at noon as the deadline.
“The tenants and owners were made aware of the application for a court-ordered removal and had the opportunity to represent themselves in court,’’ Mitchell said. “They chose not to do so.’’