Fredericton rooming-house tenants served eviction letters

The owner of a rooming house in downtown Fredericton served eviction notices on the long weekend, leaving 20 to 30 people scrambling to find new homes in a city where apartments are scarce.

"Effective November 1st, the rooming house located on 72 Regent Street will be closed for extensive structural, plumbing, electrical and mechanical renovations to the extent that vacant possession of the building is necessary," said a notice to a tenant of the building. 

Some of the tenants have lived in the building for more than 20 years.

Jason Arbeau said he received the notice to vacate on July 31.

"It was just totally out of the blue," Arbeau said. "I knew that there was stuff that needed to be done in the building, but I didn't realize that it was to the point that it was going to evict like 30-plus rooms of people."

Arbeau said he was given until November to move out, but some of his neighbours were only given a month.

"I've lived in this building for, like, 24 years, and just to be served an eviction notice without warning, it's just kind of a shock," Arbeau said.

Arbeau said that many people who live in the building are on fixed incomes, and he worries that finding affordable housing will be difficult.

"Everybody's kind of in the same boat that I'm in there," Arbeau said. "They're not sure which way they're going, where they're going to end up. Or I know some will probably end up back in the shelter sooner than later."

Steven Thompson, who took ownership of the building in 1987, said that since he has owned it the building has not received any serious structural work and it is long overdue.

Thompson said that once the renovations have been completed, the building will be converted to apartments, though the commercial spaces on the lower level will remain intact.

The average rent in the building is about $325, but a one-bedroom apartment in the city would start at more than double that. 

"To find an apartment in that range is near impossible," Arbeau said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the panic.

"A lot of people have friends that live outside of our Atlantic bubble and, well, that just seems to be a lot of work to leave the province to go anywhere," Arbeau said. "People are still panicky about the whole COVID thing, and they're skeptical about who's going to rent what. It's just become a big snafu I guess."

Fredericton Coun. Kate Rogers said the loss of the rooming house is "clearly a disappointment."

"That's a significant loss particularly because of the location. It's good for people to be close to services," said Rogers, who is the chair of Fredericton's affordable housing committee.

Rogers said Fredericton has a low vacancy rate, which is particularly difficult for people on fixed incomes.

"When your vacancy rate is low, it means that really everyone's disadvantaged and your vulnerable are typically most disadvantaged," Rogers said.

Rogers said rooming houses are a non-conforming use in Fredericton, and the city is looking to develop a framework that would monitor single-room occupancies and create zoning related to them.

"One of the key recommendations at the moment from the affordable housing committee is to explore the creation of a zoning bylaw for SROs or single-room occupancies," Rogers said.

"Developing that kind of framework will be advantageous in many, many ways. But I think that what we're certainly seeing is there is a need for that type of housing. The role that the city can play is to create a regulatory framework for it."

"We need to be developing a unique type of housing stock to satisfy the needs of people," Rogers said.