“I could cry.”
That’s what Rachel Degraw tweeted out recently to describe her experience looking for a new rental home in Burnaby.
Degraw was featured in the NOW recently about the search for a rental house to fit three young children, two parents, and two animals.
“We just did 1st in-person viewing as we need a family rental in #Burnaby. I could cry. For $3,100 monthly, there was nasty carpeting, dead bugs everywhere...’property manager’ was in slippers and pjs. This is insane.”
Since our story first appeared, I’ve received a bunch of comments saying that Degraw should just move to a cheaper community.
That’s a pretty privileged comment. First, that means uprooting her kids from their school. Second, it just means adding extra commuting costs to their family.
Also, where exactly in Metro Vancouver actually much cheaper.
“To find a family home in Burnaby that is suitable and look where they will accept you, is almost impossible, especially if you don't want to be paying upwards of $4,000 and above,” said Degraw. “We want a home where we don't always have to uproot children and move them from schools and preschools and friends and community centre activity and to practice and all that great stuff they love,” Degraw told the NOW.
According to the Rentals.ca and Bullpen Research & Consulting latest National Rent Report, Burnaby finished seventh on the list for average monthly rent in January for a one-bedroom home at $1,847 and sixth for average monthly rent for a two-bedroom at $2,377. Year over year, average monthly rent in January for a one-bedroom in Burnaby was up 7.4 per cent and up 7.8 per cent for a two-bedroom.
Degraw isn’t alone. A D. Adamson contacted me about a fruitless search for a good rental that wasn’t filthy.
“We have kids and pets and were living in an excellent rental situation ever since our children were born,” Adamson wrote. “But now the landlord has sold the house and the new owners plan on moving in and so we have to leave. The list of options are not good. We want to stay close to the school our children attend but there aren’t many place available and the prices are really high for the ones that are being rented out. It’s amazing how much more expensive the market is than when we first moved in.
“People keep telling us to just move to another city, but that’s easy for them to say. It’s not a good idea to turn the lives of your children upside down. They have friends and strong connections that they have made. We don’t want to mess with that. I feel upset at the thought of destroying everything we’ve built. It’s looking more and more like we’re going to have to compromise by renting only one half of a house and stacking our kids up in rooms. Right now they each have their own room. This isn’t an ideal situation, but it’s better than severing all of the relationships we’ve made in our neighbourhood.”
Housing affordability will be a major election issue in October. All candidates better have some serious ideas about how to fix things.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
