The BC Greens say they will protect renters by restoring vacancy control and amending the Residential Tenancy Act to end blanket no-pet clauses in rental contracts.
The Story
The BC Greens announced that it will protect renters by implementing vacancy control and ending pet bans, as part of its provincial election platform.
In a policy brief, the BC Green Party said “good rental homes” are key to addressing the housing crisis, with more people priced out of ever owning a home. Emily Lowan, the leader of the BC Greens, said in a release that she is “one of the 33 per cent of British Columbians who are renters” and described the difficulty of finding affordable housing.
The Greens said vacancy control would tie rent increases to a unit rather than to a tenant. Under current rules in B.C., landlords and property managers can increase rent for existing tenants once per year, but after a tenant leaves they can raise rent as much as they want, typically to market rates.
The BC Greens said the Residential Tenancy Branch would continue to determine annual rent increases, and that vacancy control would reduce the incentive for landlords to evict tenants without fault. The party said vacancy control was previously introduced in 1973 under then–BC NDP Premier Dave Barrett and was later removed by the following conservative government.
The Greens also said they would amend the Residential Tenancy Act to end blanket no-pet clauses in rental contracts, rather than leaving landlords to impose blanket restrictions. The party said about one quarter of cats and dogs surrendered to the BC SPCA are there due to limited pet-friendly housing.
In addition, the BC Greens said they would restart the Community Housing Fund and Indigenous Housing Fund, with a plan to build and protect 26,000 housing units each year. The party also committed to protect 2,000 “deeply affordable rental homes” each year.
The provincial election is on Oct. 24.
← More stories