{"id":5851,"date":"2022-05-19T10:30:14","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T14:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/ottawa-citizen-city-staff-find-way-save-manor-village-homes-lrt-destruction-while-renovictions\/"},"modified":"2022-05-19T10:30:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T14:30:14","slug":"ottawa-citizen-city-staff-find-way-save-manor-village-homes-lrt-destruction-while-renovictions","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/acorncanada.org\/news\/ottawa-citizen-city-staff-find-way-save-manor-village-homes-lrt-destruction-while-renovictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Citizen: City staff find way to save Manor Village homes from LRT destruction, while ‘renovictions’ remove tenants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPosted May 19, 2022<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\"\"City staff are proposing a way to rescue the rental homes sentenced to destruction in 2020 by the council-endorsed route for the future Barrhaven LRT extension. But in Manor Village, where half those units are located, the low-rent townhouses that residents fought hard to save from the train are being renovated out of existence, and the owner is trying to evict those tenants who\u2019ve declined to move out to make way for unit upgrades.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tA majority of council members voted in November 2020 to endorse a route that would require the expropriating of land that hosted 60 rental units at Manor Village and another 60 at the nearby Cheryl Gardens complex, together housing more than 300 tenants at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tStaff were directed to form a working group to look at how to help the residents who would be impacted. According to a report published Thursday, staff revisited a previous option to have an elevated LRT guideway run down the centre of Woodroffe Avenue from Knoxdale Road to Hunt Club Road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tIt wasn\u2019t recommended previously for a number of reasons, city staff explain in the report, but they investigated options to address these issues and conclude that \u201cthis solution avoids displacement of tenants, loss of housing stock and mitigates increasing costs related to property purchases.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThis revised alignment recommended by staff could cost an extra $35 million to $50 million, bringing the total cost estimate for the Barrhaven LRT project to $3.52 billion, though there is still no timeline for when the project would start and no funding secured. The proposal will come before transportation committee and council for a vote in the coming weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, the owners of Manor Village have been hard at work transforming the low-rent townhouse complex at Majestic Drive and Woodroffe Avenue, offering buyouts, and more recently, eviction notices to tenants so they can upgrade the units they occupied. Townhouses that have already undergone renovations are being marketed right now to students and professionals for room rentals, and to those who can rent a home for $3,000-plus a month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThirty-five Manor Village households have received N13 eviction notices. According to ACORN Canada, a community-based social justice organization that a number of Manor Village tenants belong to, the move-out date they\u2019ve been given is August 31. Tenants are not obligated to leave \u2014 and some are vowing to stay \u2014 but the landlord can apply to the Landlord and Tenant Board for an eviction order.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen we acquired this property last year, it was in a state of poor repair and required significant refurbishment work to bring standards up including all new roofs, internal retrofits, new and additional windows and along with substantial electrical and plumbing upgrades,\u201d reads a statement Smart Living Properties sent to this newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThe Ottawa company manages and co-owns the Manor Village complex, which they purchased in September 2020. Ownership is shared with Toronto-based Forum Equity Partners, which develops, acquires and asset manages residential and commercial real estate, according to its website.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThey\u2019ve done as much of the work as possible in empty units in over the past few months, said Smart Living, but all units now need to be vacated \u201cto finish the extensive repairs safely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThe company\u2019s website advertises two available rental options at \u201cWoodroffe Place\u201d (the rebranded Manor Village): a four-bedroom house with a private yard for $3,200+, and a $750 roommate option for students and professionals, looking to share a home with others of that renter category. Units are fully furnished, equipped with granite countertops and smart TVs, and include utilities, internet and in-suite laundry, according to the website.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur team understands that having to move is inconvenient and stressful,\u201d said Smart Living. The company said it \u201csuccessfully negotiated relocation deals in which departing tenants were generously compensated, at a much higher amount than what is legally required,\u201d as well as provided home finding services and support with moving expenses. These \u201crelocation packages\u201d remain on offer for the tenants who\u2019ve been served N13s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tSmart Living Properties said its Manor Village project will deliver 111 \u201cnewly renovated and much needed modernized residential units\u201d to the rental market in west Ottawa, once completed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tIf the plan for a reworked LRT route proposed by staff is approved, those units will live on, undisturbed by the Barrhaven extension. But what won\u2019t survive, with the ongoing \u201crenovictions\u201d at Manor Village, as they\u2019re being described, is the affordable rental units that tenants and advocates fought hard to try to save in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a shame, Knoxville-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli said Wednesday, but he added that he\u2019s not sure what the answer is.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey are the property owners. They have certain rights. The tenants have certain rights. And it sounds like a number of these are going to end up \u2026 in front of the (Landlord and Tenant) board, which is appropriate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tPeggy Rafter is one of the Manor Village tenants vowing to challenge their eviction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tThe 63-year-old retiree has lived in the complex for more than 30 years and pays $1,145 monthly for her two-bedroom townhouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have no choice but to fight for my home. I live on limited money. The community is wonderful,\u201d said Rafter, in an interview earlier this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s an ACORN member and marched alongside fellow tenants at a protest the group organized Wednesday to call attention to the Manor Village evictions, and demand a meeting with the landlord and withdrawal of the N13s<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI can\u2019t even describe how mentally draining it would be, and it is already, the thought of having to be displaced,\u201d said Rafter. \u201cWhere am I going to end up? You know, just the what-ifs of everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tLegally, Ontario tenants who receive a N13 for repairs or renovations have the right to return to their rental unit when those are completed and pay the same rent the landlord would have been able to charge them had they never left. Exercising this right does require the tenant to tell their landlord they intend to do so, in writing, before they leave the unit, and to inform them of any change of address.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tBut Rafter doesn\u2019t believe she and fellow tenants will be allowed back. ACORN has argued that the fine for not respecting a tenant\u2019s right to return \u2060\u2014 up to $50,000 for an individual and $250,000 for a corporation \u2060\u2014 \u201cis just the cost of doing business for financialized landlords like Forum Equities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAsked if it was committed to allowing tenants who want it, their right to return to their units at Manor Village (now Woodroffe Place), Smart Living did not provide any assurances.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are ending the tenancy agreements for these units because we are making extensive repairs and parts of the units will be demolished and reconfigured in the process,\u201d they said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAll we\u2019re asking is for the (remaining) people to be left to live. We can live amongst students, I mean we\u2019re all people,\u201d said Rafter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI know it\u2019s all about the money, but have some dignity for people that have been here 30, 40, 45 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tAs for those who\u2019ve already left, Rafter and Amanda McMahon, another longtime Manor Village resident, said they believe some did so because they were resigned to the eventual destruction of their homes by the LRT route.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tStruggling to maintain her composure as she addressed the assembled protesters Wednesday, McMahon said she doesn\u2019t know where she\u2019ll go, if she has to leave the rental she shares with her mom and four children, and pays $1,414 a month for.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe will be homeless. We will be living in my van.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\tArticle by Taylor Blewett for the Ottawa Citizen<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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