Renters facing eviction need grace now
At each phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians were told that the safest way of life was to “shelter in place,” but what happens when that shelter is snatched away?
Thousands of families with eviction filings are anxiously queued up in Canadian courts; their cases began being processed this past week. Thousands more families are at risk of eviction, and living in fear that that day is coming quickly.
If staying home is the best way for communities to stave off the worst of the pandemic, then keeping people in their homes is an essential aspect of our nationally co-ordinated public-health response to this global health crisis.
This is paramount for the health, mental health, education and economic outcomes for the individuals and families at risk of losing their homes.
For fear of COVID-19 infection, home has taken on a new meaning in 2020. Home is the very last constant in a sea of rapid changes over the course of the past few months.
For many Canadians, their home is the only thing left to hold on to, and the only thing holding what is left of life together. Taking that away during this crisis is akin to ripping the life-jacket off a person’s back the very moment they face the deadly undercurrent below the surface of the water.
In this time when there is so little certainty, when the challenges are compounding and the solutions are dwindling, we need to see the roof and four walls of a secure home as the life preserver that it is.
This is what is required if dignity for human life is indeed at the centre of our governing principles.
During the pandemic there are fewer avenues to alleviate financial pressures, or find alternative housing options. As unprecedented numbers of families are living on the edge of homelessness, our shelter systems are not equipped to respond safely.
If political leaders don’t act swiftly, the coronavirus pandemic will result in an eviction epidemic of proportions Canada has never seen before. Grace is needed. Landlord and tenant tribunals must be postponed, eviction bans extended using emergency powers, and emergency funding distributed to close rent gaps.
It is vital that, as moratoriums are lifted, there are economic supports available, and rights are known by tenants and protected.
Many landlords are using the fear in place to squeeze people who are already in impossible situations. Or, as Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government in Ontario has made possible through Bill 184, manipulating tenants into signing unattainable payment plans that forfeit tenant rights to further proceedings ahead of an eviction.
All three levels of government could take leadership and work together instead of playing this game of political hot potato, passing off and avoiding responsibility for the most immediate effects of this crisis.
As short-term impacts are considered, response plans can’t ignore the longterm negative impacts.
In 2019, the federal Liberal government passed the National Housing Strategy Act, which speaks to the principles of long-term planning toward equitable housing outcomes. This was the result of decades of advocacy from grassroots organizations across the country calling for a dramatic change to our approach. Housing instability was a national emergency, even before COVID-19 catalyzed this unprecedented wave of evictions.
Over the coming years, any funding allocated to public initiatives related to housing needs to be increased greatly so as to build mixed-income communities across the country that are ready to catch families and see that they thrive on the other side of the pandemic. Provinces and municipalities can change their antiquated zoning laws that were designed to prevent affordable housing from being built.
Between family losses, job losses and dreams deferred, these last few months have brought on enough grief for a lifetime. Forcing people to uproot their lives when that rooting is the last thing holding these families together is as cruel as it is unnecessary.
For some, insecure housing during a pandemic is a theoretical debate, but for others, it means waking up each morning to a living nightmare.
If there is anything that can be done to alter this trajectory, now is the time to do it.