Renew Renter Office for Vancouver (Motion 15)

Amplify, bigger.

It's not as straightforward as the voting results, but that gives us how people voted.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks. That completes motion 14 on the agenda. Going to the next motion, the final motion, which is motion 15, renew rental office for Vancouver residents and is to be moved and introduced by Councillor Fry. Before we begin this agenda item, if anyone believes they have a conflict of interest, now is the time to declare it. Does anyone have a conflict of interest to disclose? Councillor Fry, you have two minutes to introduce your motion. Yeah, thank you, Chair. As you will, of course, recall... Sorry, Councillor Frye, we need to restart your time mark. Clerk, can we do that? Please go ahead. Yeah, thank you, Chair. Yeah, as folks will recall, we... In 2018, one of my first motions as a Councillor was to introduce a renter's office. In 2023, it was... delimited and phased out. We have an obligation to residents of our city to properly represent them. We continue to see issues that affect renters in the city of Vancouver. We represent more than half the population of the city of Vancouver. and issues that fall squarely within the jurisdiction of the City of Vancouver, not just issues that are necessarily under the Resident Tenancy Act or RTB tribunal appeals, but really issues around decisions that we make with regard to zoning, with regard to land use, with regard to our TRPP. We adequately consult with all manner of... experts and lobbyists in the course of our doing business. Developers have direct access to the planning department and to counselors and to influence decisions, not inappropriately in any way, but to influence decisions by having access to the policymakers. And we don't extend that to renters in our city in a really cogent way. And I think as we have even issues coming before us on our docket in coming days that reflect a really challenging space for a lot of renters in our city, since eliminating the renter's office, which was recommended to continue by staff at the time, things have not improved for renters in the city, despite the fact that vacancy rates have improved. And we continue to have, and I spend a great deal of my personal time as a city Councillor responding to renter issues. illegal SDRs, wrongful change of use and rent evictions.

And I see I'm out of time, but I'll have to come back on a regular speaking crew. Thanks, Counselor. Okay, we need a seconder for this motion. seconded by Councillor Maloney. We will now hear from the rightist speaker for this motion. Again, so please state whether you are in support or in opposition of the motion. And you may only speak once. And also, I will ask if you are a resident of Vancouver, if not on the list. The first rightist speaker is Nicholas Popel.

All right. Everyone can hear me? Yeah. Great. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Nick Popel, and I'm speaking today as the co-chair of the Renter Advisory Committee, and we are speaking in strong support of this motion. Renters represent more than half of the households in this city. The renter office was originally created because renters facing eviction, displacement, or unsafe housing were being sent between city departments, provincial agencies, and nonprofit organizations, often while the clock was running out on the time on their homes.

The office gave renters a front door. It provided information, referrals, and coordination. Over the three years that it was running, it cost approximately $1.8 million, an average of about $600,000 per year. When it was reviewed in 2023, staff recommended that it continue. Instead, council eliminated it, setting concerns about efficiency, duplication, and which level of government should take the lead. The problem is when everyone is partly responsible, nobody is truly accountable. Council recently approved nearly $5 million to extend the Granville Street pedestrian pilot for seven weeks, including $1.25 million for programming that we're still figuring out what it's about. To be clear, I'm not arguing against pedestrian streets or public events. I'm a theater grad, and I love this stuff. It's a question of priorities. That seven weeks expenditure is roughly equal to eight years of the renter office at its previous average cost. And I'm going to be honest here. I'm not just speaking theoretically. Personally, I have fought through three arbitrations. I won them, but it was hell. But it was nothing like the nightmare I saw my apartment neighbors go through just before that.

We had a new owner come in, and they issued fictitious notices claiming everyone in the building had to leave. They told us they had secured permits from this city. Their generous offer to vacate was well below what tenants were legally entitled to receive.

I personally fought hard.

I learned a lot about renters' rights and the RTA.

Almost every single one of my neighbors was scared out of their home. Seniors, single parents, immigrants, people who had been built their lives in that building. Only three of us fought back and remained. That building had 24 homes, almost 50 people. One call to a properly resourced renter's office might have protected not just me, but dozens of other people. Across Vancouver, that one call could protect hundreds. The motion today is not to bring the renter's office back. It's to have a study come back from staff that will likely go to the next council. The cost of studying is negligible. The cost of doing nothing is measured in people's homes. Sorry, that's your time. Strongly support this motion, please. Thank you. Okay, speaker number one is Timothy Ryan Bush. Speaker one is not on the line. Speaker number two is Tsuki Sohoda. Thank you, Chair. I support this motion because renters make up the majority of households in Vancouver. I'm also a renter, and they deserve accessible, coordinated support from their municipal government. Housing discussions often focus on building new homes, but we must also ensure that people already renting in our city can easily navigate the systems designed to protect them. Today, renters often have to deal with multiple agencies and organizations when facing maintenance concerns, displacement, relocation questions, or uncertainty about their rights. That can be confusing and difficult to navigate, as mentioned in the first speaker's experience. This motion proposes a practical solution, reestablishing a centralized renter's office to improve coordination, provide clearer information, support enforcement efforts, and help renters access the services they need. Importantly, this office would not duplicate the work of the residential tenancy branch or community organizations. Instead, It will strengthen coordination, improve data collection, identify service gaps, and provide council with better information to guide future policy decisions. Good government should be easy to access. We already dedicate significant resources to working with developers, builders, and property owners. It is equally reasonable to ensure renters, the majority of Vancouver households, such as myself, have a dedicated point of contact within City Hall.

Funding the office through empty homes tax revenues is also appropriate, given those revenues are intended to support housing-related priorities. Ultimately, this motion is about improving service delivery, strengthening accountability, and ensuring renters have a stronger voice within municipal government. For those reasons, I encourage council to support the motion. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 3 is Bridget Burns.

Speaker 3 is not on the line. Speaker 4 is Angela Liu. Speaker 4 is not on the line. Speaker 5 is Vincent Singh.

Okay, please go ahead. Hello, community members. My name is Vincent Shi. I'm a staff lawyer at First United Legal Advocacy Clinic. I'm also a resident of Vancouver's West End, and I'm speaking in support of the motion. For over 50 years, our legal advocacy clinic has provided support for tenancy issues for low-income renters in the downtown Eastside, including for unlawful evictions. Our advocates assist over 1,000 clients per year, including hundreds of renters. seeking urgent support to avoid homelessness. Nonprofit service providers like us take on enormous caseloads. Every day we work with people facing multiple barriers such as disability, language barriers, low income, or just simply not knowing what their legal rights are. These community members need resources to avoid displacement and homelessness, and so we continue to be troubled by the decision to close the renter's office given its critical role for the community. The renter's office had filled an important gap in resources. It provided advocacy and direct education to renters at risk of displacement and eviction. Importantly, the renter's office was not duplicative of the services that nonprofits like us provide. The office provided support where we couldn't and vice versa. For example, the office is the only place that can give direct information and assistance on the city's own tenant protection policies. No other organization is in the position to do so. Municipal policy is also outside the scope of what the RTB can help with. This becomes even more critical given the Broadway plan and downtown Eastside rezoning make TRPPs a fundamental part of the redevelopment scheme. And also, the terms of these policies are complicated and can be confusing even for a lawyer like me. While First United welcomes the expansion of TRPP coverage, it is just as important that city give information and assistance on these policies through a renter's office to make its protections accessible and meaningful.

For us, the loss of the renter's office has eliminated a critical service and important partner for homelessness prevention. It's raised barriers to help that has been devastating to both our organization and the clients we serve. So we urge council to reestablish the office to ensure that renters are protected. Thank you so much. Thank you. Speaker number six, Annette Riley. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Beautiful. Hi. Hello again. I'm Annette Riley. I'm a resident of Vancouver, and I am here to speak in support of this motion. I will keep it short. It's been a long day for all of you. I would like to actually say thank you so much for all your hard work today. You're almost there. I just have one number for you. It's 165,455. That's the number of households in Vancouver that rent. That's not the people that live in those houses. That's just the households. Voting to bring back this renewed renter's office means that you are showing each person in each of those 165,000 households that they matter to you. City Hall has an open door for almost everyone involved in housing, builders, developers, engineers, property owners. renters deserve access to city hall i i mean i can sit here and i can i can extol the virtues of this new renters office in city hall but honestly i shouldn't need to because the previous version of this office was a success the evidence is there we saw it working we know what it can do and this is just a new and improved version of that please show the majority of Vancouver residents that you care about their needs. I would appreciate that as a renter being shown through a vote that you care about us. I urge you to support this motion. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 7 is Matthew Thiessen. Thiessen.

Matthew. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Matthew Thiessen, and I'm the Managing Partner at Somerville Community Relations. Every day, my team is on the ground, working directly with residents to navigate TRPP and tenant plans. Our focus is simple, lead with empathy, prevent the loss of housing, and ensure renters are supported. Because we do this work every day, I'm here to speak in support of the intent behind Councillor Fry's motion. this motion correctly identifies a critical systemic flaw and problem, there is an unhealthy tension when the exact same department is responsible for writing policy.

regulating it, and serving as the primary public-facing support for renters. Right now, that system is broken, and tenants are paying the price. Recently, I wrote to the general manager of planning, requesting urgent action on two frontline issues, greater clarity around tenant compensation, and more consistent communication on how the TRPP interacts with the Residential Tenancy Act. The response, we were told these critical issues were deferred to future review with no concrete timeline. That means 40 plus tenants were left in limbo. Instead of addressing this policy gap, the GM and the housing division chose to build a wall. They created a new unlisted city email account to communicate with our team. And quite frankly, it's completely invisible to the public. The messages sent from it are entirely anonymous. Yet these anonymous emails... contain official city instructions that developments must follow for approvals. Following this, we began receiving official housing division memos, documents confirming that applicants have met requirements to issue tenant notices, circulated with no signatures. Mayor and council, anonymous emails and unsigned memos do not protect tenants. They do not resolve policy gaps. What they do do is shield public servants from accountability, create confusion, and slow down the delivery of housing and tenant supports. When the department responsible for tenant protections goes anonymous, it is a clear signal that the current system is failing. Whether the solution is a reestablished renter's office or a deep structural overhaul of the existing housing division, one thing is clear. The foundation of our housing administration must be built on transparency, accountability, and professional service. We cannot protect Vancouver renters with anonymous emails and deferred decisions. I urge Council to support the spirit of the motion, acknowledge the deep operational issues within the housing division, and demand a return to accountability, transparent public service for renters and housing providers alike. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. Speaker number eight is Daphne Smith.

Hi again. Yeah, please go ahead. Thank you very much. So in January, this council heard from tenants and tenant advocates about routine violations of the law in rental housing across the city. We heard tenants describe persistent threats to life and safety. We heard that there are landlords who avoid legal consequence by outlasting an overtaxed, uncoordinated system, leaving individual tenants responsible for systemic failures. And at that time, Council broadly supported doing more. This would be a really good way to do more.

The reason we knew about many of the issues that Council discussed in January was because of tireless organizing and reporting by tenants and allies at the Vancouver Tenants Union. Deep respect to the BTU for their work. But I would also say that the city shouldn't have to rely on crowdsourcing to get information about noncompliance with city bylaws. In my experience representing tenants, the lack of an adequate monitoring compliance and enforcement system coordinated with provincial partners and legal services has facilitated some of the routine abuses we see from exploitative landlords. I have a lot of respect for the work of city staff, but I have also represented tenants whose landlord was unlawfully emptying out a building in contravention of city bylaws under staff's notes. Staff in January thought that they were on top of serious fire safety issues in a building where tenants clearly reported the issues unresolved. Staff regularly report to council that tenant relocation and protection policies are operating as designed. when tenants and advocates clearly know otherwise. We hear stories constantly of tenants who are struggling to get systems that nominally exist to support them and protect their rights to function the way that they should. We are still dealing with landlords I first dealt with many years ago who are still breaking the law in exactly the same ways over and over again. This is not a problem as individualized lack of diligence. These problems have persisted across many years of my work and practice in the field. These problems are systemic. We still owe it to Vancouver's renters not to leave them to individually fight off landlords who are well resourced and determined to break the law. We need to make better systems to give effect to the laws and policies that council already supports. The renter's office was the only entity I've ever encountered that was positioned to do that work. Please reinstate it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so I'm going to circle back to speaker number one.

Speaker number one is not on the line. Is speaker number three, Richard Burns?

Speaker number three is not on the line. How about speaker number four, Angela Liu?

Speaker number four is not on the line. Okay, thank you. So that's the end of our speakers list. Thanks everyone for speaking to the committee. So, you know, before going to discussion, I'm just looking at time, 9.41. So need a motion to extend.

Motion?

Okay, so otherwise we're going to stop at 10 p.m.

Okay, it's the last motion.

Okay, so, all right.

Committee members, is there any discussion?

Councillor Maloney?

Thank you, yeah. Very much appreciate Councillor Fry moving this motion. I love how comprehensive it is in setting out the possible benefits that can be gained by a renter office. As our first speaker pointed out, this is a recommendation to staff to do a body of work that's not very onerous. And... doesn't have to be done quickly, can be reported back to a new council. I think that the issues concerning renters that have come up, what we hear from the public shows that we really do need to do more to look after tenants and make sure that we've got good coordination across the city so that renters' interests... are properly represented and renters are properly looked after because that is a very important thing that we can do to prevent more people from tipping into homelessness. There is one particular group that I think this would benefit very much and that is seniors. I am the council liaison for the Older Persons and Elders Advisory Committee and... Housing affordability, tenant protections and homelessness is top of mind for that committee. They regularly communicate that that is a problem that we do need to address. So I think as a responsible council, we owe it to our constituents to recognise the challenge faced by our senior, increasing population of seniors. and take action to protect them. I know that one thing that the Chinatown City of Vancouver office almost exclusively does is provide Chinese language advice and support to Chinese seniors that are facing homelessness. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. I know that spending a lot of time in the West End, that there are a lot of seniors precariously housed on fixed incomes with... market housing getting more expensive. Luckily, it's softened a bit lately, but it's still impossible for people that have been living in a particular apartment for a long time and do have a very affordable rental rate if they are evicted.

And even as we heard, the threat of eviction can be enough to... scare people off if they don't have the information and support that they need. So, again, thank you, Councillor Fry, for moving this excellent motion. I really hope that it gets unanimous support by Council. Thanks. Councillor Fry. Yeah, thanks, Chair, and thank you for those words, Councillor Maloney. I also hope that this gets unanimous support. I think it is salient that the market has changed significantly since we first introduced a renter's office and it was eliminated. You know, we see kind of a race to the bottom when it comes to housing targets and gradually, of course, the elimination of elements of inclusionary zoning and developer cost levies and ACC, what was formerly known as CACs, and how we are dedicating funds to... to affordable housing and to uh below market rental housing um these are have real world impacts on on the residents of our city um and and we know like i i don't know maybe it's just me and i'm the hard luck guy but i get so many calls and and you know it's unfortunate that we see so much so many bad actors that are abusing uh tenants in our city right now um on just an individual landlord level. And there's tools that we can implement. You know, I did bring forward, and it was unanimously approved, new tools to address mold and air quality in apartments. And I brought that forward because it's a real impressing problem. We have negligent landlords that are risking human health. And we have the tools through the standards of maintenance bylaw. And this is something that a renter's office could have been more effective in stick handling and pushing forward so that we're not relying on me trying to come up with you know a counselor amendment and trying to you know come up with a member motion to address some very real problems that we know are actively and indeed tenants reach out to me repeatedly on this kind of matter increasingly we see issues with short-term rentals And again, this is something that a renter's office could successfully address. And I want to just highlight that, you know, the original renter's office, and I know that this council is very fiscally responsible and concerned with a zero means zero budget and repeating a zero means zero budget. And the idea that this renter's office, and indeed it's articulated in this report, is funded through the empty homes tax. So it's at no cost to the city of Vancouver. This is... I don't want to say free money, but this is an opportunity to not burden taxpayers, but rather use the existing tool we have that is dedicated towards this very kind of implementation so we can take the empty homes tax, we can take that speculation tax and invest it into protecting the interests of folks who are

making up the majority of the population in the city of Vancouver. I think it's money well spent, and I think it actually will improve the outcomes and insulate this council from a lot of the pressures that we're inheriting from new provincial legislation that is eliminating things like inclusionary zoning, that is putting more pressure on the delivery of affordable rental housing that meets the needs of median income earners in the city of Vancouver. I think this is fiscally responsible, it's prudent, and more importantly, it really addresses the primary needs of folks in the city of Vancouver. So I do hope to see unanimous support from this council. Thank you. Hey, Councillor Orr.

Councillor Orr? Yeah. Sorry, yeah. One second.

Sorry, just having technical difficulties here.

Yeah, I'll definitely be voting in favor of this motion. I don't think this office should have ever been cut in the first place. It's one of those things, it's like the opposite of if you build it, they will come. In terms of, you know, if you don't build it, they won't come. And if you shut it down and they didn't know it ever existed, then they definitely are not going to come. The renter's office was eliminated in January 2023 against staff-owned recommendations to keep it. But what has happened since? Renters are worse off, rents have climbed significantly, and affordability has deteriorated, even as vacancy improved. When you cut the one office coordinating support for most of your residents and their situation gets worse, this council needs to take responsibility for that decision and reverse it. And like we're seeing, you know, a huge amount of new projects going forward with the Broadway plan, and this was cut sort of a lot before a lot of those... were approved. Renters make up more than 55% of households in the city, the majority of Vancouver, and they navigate a fragmented system, but they often are bounced between the city, the province, non-profits, with no single door to walk through. And what I appreciate about this motion is that it's not symbolic. It creates a single point, a single door of contact for rent eviction and dem eviction complaints, formal coordination with TRAC, the Residential Tenancy Branch, and the Vancouver Tenants Union. and a mandate to track displacement and illegal conversions across departments that right now don't talk to each other.

And we heard that from Matthew Somerville, or sorry, Matthew Thiessen from Somerville. as well as there's uh you know there's there's walls being put up and we need doors uh not walls uh renters in smaller buildings and strata titled off uh units often fall outside our existing tenant relocation and protection policy entirely um you know we're we're seeing that we saw that with uh a couple projects and we're seeing that with some in the docket as well as counselor fry mentioned I think this office is how we close that gap. The reproposed office also allows for multilingual outreach, support reaching seniors, newcomers, students, and marginalized renters who are the least likely to know their rights and the most likely to be exploited.

Tying funding to the empty homes tax is fitting. It's a tax designed to address housing pressure, funding an office designed to protect the people bearing the brunt of it. So this is an easy yes for me.

And that's all my comments. Thanks.

All right. Thanks. Councillor Bligh? Thanks very much, Chair. Yeah, I... I appreciate this conversation. I appreciate Councillor Fry bringing this forward. I also reviewed the minutes from the renters advisory committee that was available to us leading up to this meeting and read their comments as well in support. This has been a conversation that we've talked about for some time, and I have had mixed feelings about it in the past due to the functionality. But I think that conditions have changed now, primarily around a more robust and somewhat complicated TRPP associated with the Broadway plan. And I've even heard from developers, actually, looking to have the city set up a better system to help with making sure that those services can be, or that the navigation of the TRPP can not necessarily be off the side of someone's desk in our planning department, but that there can be a really clear conduit of communication, solving problems, navigating reoccurring issues, and making sure that there's just really cohesive communication. So Notwithstanding, over 70% of net new residents in Vancouver are renters and over 50% are renters. There's obviously a necessity and that number is growing. Two thirds of the units in the Broadway plan are rental market and below market.

And so while that may have changed with some of the various amendments in the last few years, at the end of the day, it's an enormous amount of change that we know is happening in a very small area of our city and we need to make sure that we've got all of our bases covered. But with that, I actually have a moment to move because I do think it's important that we get report backs. And I hope that this is considered very helpful. While it's a pretty comprehensive motion, it actually is not included that I could see and that is just making sure that we're able to just track the success essentially of this office and um and uh its ability to achieve the goals that it's setting out to achieve so i wonder chair if you could move us to an amendment queue okay yeah so can you add yourself there counselor black oh sure

Okay, I'll advance you.

Okay, great. Thank you. So, yeah, I'm happy to hear just if this feels like something that Councillor Fry had considered and maybe chose not to or making sure I'm not sort of bringing something forward that doesn't fit. But I suspect just an annual update would be quite helpful, particularly to share the successes and making sure that we are – we are really achieving what we set out to achieve really with the motion. So, yeah, happy to table that and hope that that's considered a friendly amendment as we've had a few of those tonight. Okay, we need a seconder for this amendment.

Okay, seconded by Councillor Maloney on the amendment. Okay, Councillor Frye.

Oh, okay, we need a seconder. Sorry, I didn't hear that. Seconded by Councillor Kirby. Again, we need to vote on calling the question. Councillor, please go to the voting panel. We are voting on calling the questions. Point of information here. Sorry, what's happening? Yeah, actually, there's no audio coming through the feed, so it's not possible for those not in chamber to hear. What just happened there? I've moved an amendment. Yeah, so I'll let everyone know. So, Councillor Dominardo has called the question, and it's been seconded by Councillor Kerbion. Is that calling the question on the amendment? On the amendment. Oh, okay. Yeah, we are now going to vote on calling the questions. Okay. Councillor, please register your vote on the voting panel.

Is that debatable? No, the question has been called. We just need to vote. We're voting on calling the question? Yes, we're voting on calling the question. Okay, I was hoping that we would get some discussion. I'm going to vote in opposition. Yeah, okay, but the voting panel is not working, Clark. Yeah, it's not working for me either. No, it's not. Seems like there's maybe some technical issues. It's showing up on my screen. It's not showing on our screen.

I'm able to vote on the crest on. I'm not. I'm not sure about the others.

No, it's not working for me either. I'm showing everyone other than Councillor Bligh having voted.

I can just take a vote assist in opposition, please. Okay.

I'll take a vote assist in favor. Councillor Domenato, did you vote?

No, no, no, we are voting for the, calling the question.

Okay.

Say, my mic's, or my, my, my timer's running, by the way. Oh. So, I guess calling the question failed with Councillor Bligh, Councillor Fry, Councillor Ward, Councillor Maloney. Okay. So we're back to the amendment, Chair? Back to the amendment, but now it's Councillor Fry's speaking time. Yeah. Thank you. Could you maybe reset my clock, though, because it seemed to be running. But in any event, I wasn't speaking. yet, but I am happy to support this as I do appreciate it as a friendly amendment. I have submitted an amendment to the amendment, actually, because this idea of a... Chair, just a point of procedure. I just want to let you know that it's 10 o'clock and the meeting has probably... I have exactly 10 o'clock and 15 seconds. Oh, so do I. Oh, yeah, it's 10 o'clock. The meeting is now recessed to which day?

Post adjourned. Unfinished business, which council meeting? That's tomorrow, right? July 28th. Next council meeting. Okay. I see. Okay. Yeah. So the meeting has ended and we move everything to unfinished business to the next council meeting, which is July 28th.

Hold on that queue then.

Isn't the next council meeting tomorrow? My clock will be really long. No, it's the next council meeting, which is July 28th.

Okay.