Burnaby co-op residents fear displacement amid looming property sale
CBC
For nine years, retiree Duncan Beaton has gotten to know his neighbours in the Cardston Court towers in Burnaby.
From gardening to maintenance, everyone chips in within the tight-knit community, known as the 115 Place Housing Co-operative. The 244 residents pay below market rents; many of them are seniors on fixed incomes.
"We're a little village within a big city, and the people just thrive on it," said Beaton. "It's a great place."
But a looming sale of the property has residents fearful that they could soon be paying a lot more to live there.
The property has been leased to the co-op since the 1980s, but the lease agreement expires on Oct. 31.
The landowner has listed the site on the private market. The Co-operative Housing Federation of B.C. say it expects private landlords would likely convert the site into market rentals, meaning prices would nearly double for some residents.
"What that means is that hundreds of low-income senior households will be threatened with the loss of their housing security, and potentially homeless, in one of the most expensive housing markets in Canada," said CHF B.C. CEO Thom Armstrong.