City of Vancouver appeals court ruling quashing vacancy control bylaws

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The City of Vancouver is appealing a court decision that quashed city bylaws that were passed with the aim of limiting rent increases between single-occupancy housing tenancies, and preventing more people from ending up homeless.

“It’s definitely worth the fight,” Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said Thursday. “I can’t imagine losing 3,000, 3,500 low-income units in the city.”

On Aug. 3, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Karen Douglas found that the city under its Vancouver Charter didn’t have the power to impose rent controls on privately owned, single room accommodations.

“Only one reasonable interpretation is possible here and the city relied on an unreasonable interpretation of its own power to regulate business in relation to rent control,” said the judge.

The judge declared the bylaws invalid and ordered them quashed. The city was also ordered to destroy any information and documents it had collected pursuant to the bylaws.

The city passed the bylaws after a report found that the single-room accommodations play an important role in the city’s low-income housing stock and act as the housing of last resort before homelessness for many marginalized residents.

The report prepared by city staff found that provincial income assistance hadn’t kept pace over time with rent increases, putting a higher burden on low-income renters, and vacancy control would limit the allowable rent increases between vacancies.

But several property owners filed a court petition to challenge the bylaws and argued the bylaws were unreasonable because they failed to consider the limitations of the Vancouver Charter. Rent controls were seen to be the jurisdiction of the provincial government.

One of the petitioners, only identified as 073 Ltd., owns and manages a single-room building in Gastown that contains 60 “micro-suites” with small, high-end, self-contained living spaces and rents generally from $800 to $1,200 a month.

Tenants in those units were typically students, young professionals and workers temporarily based in the downtown.

Stewart said that during his whole term in office, especially with COVID-19, many more people have been forced onto the streets, and the city is losing its lowest rent housing.

He said that some companies are buying-up single-room-occupancy hotels and, once a tenant leaves and the room becomes vacant, they’re increasing the rent, putting many people at risk of losing their housing.

On the issue of whether the city or the province has the jurisdiction to impose rent controls, Stewart said it was a “grey area” to him.

“I think this is worth appealing. One court may say one thing but on a more detailed look by a more senior court, you might get a different ruling.”

He added: I”m not a lawyer so our legal team will make the appropriate arguments, but my gut tells me this is within our jurisdiction and I think it’s worth a second look by the courts.”

Stewart said the city will also seek a stay-of-proceedings of the court’s requirement to destroy data collected from property owners.

He said that given the amount of legal paperwork that needs to be filed, he doubts whether the B.C. Court of Appeal will hear the matter before the municipal elections in October.

kfraser@postmedia.com