Tenant wants justice for being evicted during COVID-19 but says hearing delays are wearing her thin
CBC
Windsor resident Brenda Lelievre recalls the early months of the pandemic as when she was made homeless.
On July 11 2020, Lelievre said she arrived home and found that her basement room was locked without warning. She said her landlords illegally evicted her, because there was a ban on evictions due to the pandemic.
"I suffer from it to this day," she said of the experience.
"I had to go live off a couch for a few weeks, before I could find accommodations."
That eviction case has now been sitting before Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) for months.
Lelievre told CBC News that she feels like her eviction case is getting "lost in the shuffle" as the LTB juggles a backlog of cases.
Across the province, some landlords and tenants have been vocal about the impact that Landlord and Tenant board hearing delays have been having on their livelihood and living situations. Lelievre is advocating for a more efficient process.
Lelievre first filed a case against her landlords in October 2020, but said when it came time for the hearing, her former landlords didn't have a translator and she felt like she didn't fill out the application properly, so she closed the case.
Since re-filing in June 2021, she said it's been adjourned two times — once because her former landlords again didn't have a translator and the second time the LTB mediator was running late so Lelievre's paralegal had it adjourned.
Now she's left waiting for a new date.
"I cried. I called my friend and said, 'this is how it played out today, back to the waiting game.' There's not much you can do, it's being adjourned and they don't give you a specific date, you just wait for the email," Lelievre said.
"I can't let it go, I lost too much."
Stephen Heimann is the paralegal for Lelievre's former landlords. He told CBC News in an email that based on when he was retained, he's only aware of the latest adjournment of the case.
WATCH: Lelievre talks about what the process has been like
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WARNING: This story contains disturbing details about gruesome deaths and sexual abuse.