We bring you the story this week about a rooming house being forced to close in the District of North Vancouver.
We’re aware of the images the term “rooming house” may conjure up but this was simply a home shared by a group of hard-working individuals. Their chances of finding equivalent accommodations here on the North Shore are going to be near impossible, with the absolute scarcity of legal suites available.
The district says the home was unsafe and it may very well be. But we know it’s safer than being on the street.
District staff and council members have put in hundreds of hours developing an affordable housing policy, which we fully support. But there isn’t one mention in that policy of forcing evictions of rooming house residents in the middle of a housing crisis.
At the very least, we’d suggest this is not the best use of the district’s staffing resources, which we are constantly hearing are stretched.
In the City of North Vancouver council chambers, they often like to boast about how theirs was one of the first councils to legalize secondary suites. They knew the city was full of them, but rather than running around forcing people out onto the street, they drew up bylaws to ensure the secondary suites could be made both legal and safe.
Perhaps it’s time for our municipalities to show some flexibility for rooming houses.
We believe the district, and all other municipalities for that matter, should take a first-do-no-harm approach when it comes to enforcement of their bylaws.
The Lookout Society’s North Shore shelter certainly doesn’t need any more people knocking on the door.
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