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SSC councillors blaming ‘massive’ Surrey rent increases on 12.5% property tax hike

‘Growing crisis’ raises ‘serious concerns’ about affordability, stability of rental housing in Surrey, Elford and Nagra say
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THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The Safe Surrey Coalition is blaming “massive” Surrey rent increases on the 12.5 per cent property tax hike as landlords pass their expenses down onto their tenants.

A press release issued by SSC councillors Mandeep Nagra and Doug Elford on Monday notes this “growing crisis” raises “serious concerns about the affordability and stability of rental housing in the city.”

The councillors argue that increased costs for landlords, on account of the “substantial” property tax increase for 2023, is putting “immense pressure” on landlords resulting in many vulnerable tenants “facing the risk of eviction due to unaffordable rent increases.

A statement attributed to Nagra reads it’s “deeply troubling.”

“Surrey has been known for its affordability, but the recent property tax increase has disrupted the delicate balance between landlords and tenants. We must find a solution that protects our tenants and preserves the integrity of our rental housing market,” Nagra insists.

Elford calls on Mayor Brenda Locke to reconsider the 12.5-per-cent tax increase and to take immediate steps to mitigate its impact on renters.

“We have been presented with an opportunity to utilize the $89 million from the province, along with additional funds of approximately $30 million per year, to reduce the property tax increase to single digits,” a statement attributed to Elford reads.

READ ALSO: Surrey council approves budget with 12.5% property tax hike

READ ALSO: Average rent in Canada up 10.7% since last year: report

“This would provide much-needed relief to tenants and help prevent unnecessary evictions.”

But Locke dismissed the SSC commentary as “absolutely outrageous.”

“It was their council, it was the previous council, that set us up to have a $116-million over-budget this year,” Lock told the Now-Leader on Monday, referring to the previous SSC majority on council.

“They also did a number of projects that the city must pay for, they set us up in this position and I can tell you, in 2018 when we came in, we had an external debt to Surrey of $150 million.”

When former mayor Doug McCallum left office, she said, “they left us with $358 million in external debt.”

“We’re in this position truly because of the Safe Surrey Coalition’s majority on council previously. They’re the ones that saw the largest rental increases this city has ever seen.”

Rents in Surrey, Locke said, saw the largest increase in the last four years, under McCallum’s watch, “than they’d ever seen.”

“They should look in their own mirror,” she said of Elford and Nagra. “It was in their term that the rents went up. We have done everything to be as supportive of rental markets and affordable housing as we can. We are working regularly with the province on projects that we can move forward. We are absolutely dedicated to how we get to more modest rental rates and increased rental housing.”

Surrey First Coun. Linda Annis issued a related press release on Tuesday, saying Surrey’s seniors – particularly those on fixed incomes – deserve “protection and respect” and renters at Winsome Place Apartments in Newton who were told to accept a 40-per-cent rent increase “or face the possibility of their apartments being sold, deserve some help from city hall.”

“That increase is 20 times the two per cent allowable increase, but the threat is legal right now,” reads a statement attributed to Annis.

“It’s a loophole that should be changed. How many people, particularly the many vulnerable seniors living in this particular building, can afford a whopping 40 per cent increase in rent? It’s unconscionable and I’m glad our city staff are looking at providing council with some options to correct situations like this. For instance, in 2018 New Westminster created rental-only zones that provide secure rentals over the long term and stability for both renters and landlords.”

A representative of Winsome Place Apartments declined to comment Tuesday or direct the Now-Leader to someone who might.

“I’m just a caretaker, I’ve got nothing to say,” he said.

Locke said the SSC, Annis and others serving on the Metro Vancouver Board are presiding over what will be the largest Metro Vancouver tax hikes “ever.”

“And those are on the way. I mean, they’re frightening to me. I had asked before, please, get Metro Vancouver’s spending in line. But nobody, not councillor Annis, not councillor Elford or councillor Nagra or any of them on the Safe Surrey Coalition ever stuck up their hand and said we’ve got to mind our spending at Metro Vancouver and I can tell you Metro Vancouver is a runaway train when it comes to spending.

“We’ll be looking at increases this year, it’s either 11 or 12 per cent on the Metro line, and those are not going to be much different moving forward next year either,” Locke said. “On top of what we’re doing, we’re going to see significant Metro Vancouver tax implications.”

Meantime, she reiterated, “the part that is absolutely outrageous to me is that they (the SSC) would dare to say that this budget has anything to do with this council. This is a budget that was imposed on us because of a $116 million over-budget that previous council made and because of their untethered borrowing to the municipal finance authority.”

“We have to pay those debts,” Locke said. “We have no choice.”

Coun. Gordon Hepner, of Surrey Connect, noted that the city has no control over the Residential Tenancy Act.

“That piece of legislation allows the actual landlord a very small increase with I think two months’ notice each year if they chose to implement that,” Hepner said. “So it is literally only rentals that would be up for rent prior, and having no tenanting there, prior to that increase. So it’s politicking, right, that’s all it is.”

Residential properties are entirely governed by the Act, he added.

“You can make a complaint right to the tenancy board and they will look at each individual case so it should have zero impact on the landlords’ right to increase the rent arbitrarily by such a huge amount without having to go through the protocols of the provincial act.”

Annis in her press release also called for the City of Surrey to develop incentives for developers to “dramatically increase” the number of rentals here especially considering Surrey’s population is growing by more than 1,000 people each month.

“Surrey does well when it comes to developing market housing for families, but when it comes to rental or accessible housing we are far below the national average, and we can do better,” she stated.

Annis said anyone with elderly parents living in rentals understands the stress a 40 per cent increase would cause seniors.

“Surrey’s seniors deserve better, and I think city hall can help find a solution, while getting more housing built faster,” Annis’s statement reads.

“Just because something is legal doesn’t always make it right, and this instance proves the point. These so-called ‘voluntary’ increases aren’t really voluntary if they’re attached to a threat that you’re going to be homeless because your apartment is going to be sold out from under you. I don’t think that’s how we should be doing business in our city.”

Linda de Gonzalez, a retired accounting clerk, has lived at Winsome Place Apartments for 21 years and is 70 years old.

There are 72 tenants, she said, and she is among 30 of them to receive a letter in late April indicating they need to agree to a significant rent increase or their unit could be sold, on account of rising operation costs.

The deadline for an answer was Wednesday (May 10). She added there were no individual names on the correspondence.

“It’s property management this and Winsome Place management that. There’s no actual name.”

She said nine or 10 seniors are among those tenants affected and all are on CPP and OAS. None can afford such a rent increase.

“Everyone else is about the same. We’re all economizing as best we can and none of us can afford $450 a month. We just wouldn’t be able to eat,” de Gonzalez said. “Like literally, we wouldn’t be able to afford groceries after we pay for hydro and phone, and you know, just the normal survival bill. We just don’t have enough left to eat.”

Her income is $2,100 a month and she pays $1,014 per month in rent. That, she said, is to go up to $1,450 effective June 1, for a minimum of 12 months and then can be increased as allowed by the RTA or as mutually agreed upon.

She said she could access donated food from a local Sikh Gurdwara or the food bank, but, de Gonzalez says, “I think it’s awfully nasty to have the Sikh temple or the food bank subsidize profits for a landlord. It’s just not fair, it’s not right.”

The mayor, de Gonzalez said, is “very upset. She has asked her staff to look into any ways that they can help us out. I spoke to councillor Annis this morning and she’s also very sympathetic and very empathetic.”

The situation is “urgent” for seniors because for them, she said, wait lists for housing are “like miles long, they’re years long.”

Asked Tuesday what will she do, de Gonzalez replied “I’ve no freaking clue.”

She said she won’t agree to the landlord’s terms.

“I can’t. Unless he guarantees that he won’t sell the suite, and even then I can’t afford it, how am I going to eat?”



tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com

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About the Author: Tom Zytaruk

I write unvarnished opinion columns and unbiased news reports for the Surrey Now-Leader.
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