Residents at Hiawatha mobile home park in Kelowna are concerned about finding affordable housing after receiving an eviction notice in late February.
Development company Westcorp bought the 18-acre park in 2007 with a plan to build a large, multi-phase housing estate. While residents knew the eviction was coming, many of them are struggling to find affordable new housing. On February 28th they will be asked to leave Hiawatha.
“We just received our notice in the mail and it’s our four month notice, but on October 6th they gave us a notice that it would be ‘a few more months’ before we actually received our four month notice and still got you it was given to us in 20 days, “says resident Robert Nicolson, who has lived in Hiawatha for almost 10 years.
“I have a broken back and it’s really hard for me to do anything in the cold. So moving is going to be very, very difficult. I obviously can’t afford to hire movers because I’m disabled.”
Nicolson says he started looking for a new affordable rental property with his son, a task he describes as “impossible”.
“I would like to see them (Westcorp) postpone the evictions until at least spring, early summer, so we have a better opportunity to look for locations.”
Resident Nicole Major, who has lived in Hiawatha for nine years, says she will be homeless in four months.
“Westcorp management has always treated me with respect and very well, I might add, so I have no conflict there,” she said. “What I don’t understand is why Westcorp is ready to kick us all out in winter. February is still winter.”
Major said BC Housing applications take a long time to process despite the information Westcorp is providing to help residents relocate.
“If Westcorp were a decent company, as they have in the past, they would make sure we were properly relocated. If not, it is a blemish on their reputation,” she says, adding that it disabled many, weak people there. Income families and single people who will not find new housing by February.
“I’ll be homeless in four months, in winter and like so many others. I can’t make this point any clearer … please feel our hearts. It’s terrible.”
Another resident, Victoria Fox, has lived in the park with her son for three years. She says she is unemployed due to COVID-19 and has nowhere to find anything that fits her budget.
“I can’t find accommodation, I’ve applied to all of the low-income apartments. I’m not currently working due to COVID so this is the worst time for them to evict people, especially when we don’t have a chance.” go, “she says.
Fox and Major recently filed a dispute with the BC Tenancy Board to extend eviction notices through spring and petitioned residents.
Westcorp’s vice president of operations, Gail Temple, stated in an email to Castanet that “all of our current tenants were notified of upcoming development intentions at the time we entered into monthly leases with us. With the anticipated development request.” In order to get to the advice soon, we sent a letter a few weeks ago to inform our tenants that their four-month notice period according to provincial rules is coming soon. “
“We know that people need time before March 1st to find alternative forms of housing, so we have prepared an information pack for residents with contact information for all affordable housing agencies and affordable housing projects in the city.”
Temple says while the remaining units in Hiawatha have offered affordable housing for many years, they are all fifty or more years old.
“With these end-of-life mobile homes, we’re excited to replace them with much-needed family rental products,” she said.
