This Labrador City man says he was served a no-fault eviction. Advocates say N.L. needs to end that

A Newfoundland and Labrador housing advocate says the no-fault eviction of a Labrador City senior is the latest sign that the province needs to remove the practice.

Gerard Murphy has lived in his apartment in Labrador City for the last seven years, but was told by his landlord that he needed to leave the building by May 1. Without many options, he began protesting his eviction outside the building.

"The landlord says he has no reason to give me. He has other plans for the building," a blindsided Murphy told CBC News on Tuesday.

CBC News has has learned at least three other tenants in his building were also given eviction notices.

"I'm born and raised here. There's no way somebody is putting me on the street. I've stayed. I'm in for the long haul, whatever comes of it comes of it. But I ain't going nowhere until this is straightened out. It's all about the money," Murphy said.

CBC News contacted Murphy's landlord director, Ruben Amiama, who declined an interview request, but provided an emailed statement.

"Lawful termination of a lease agreement according to [the] N.L. Tenancy Act is not an eviction. If a tenant wants to dispute or make any claim regarding the landlord-tenant relationship, there is a place to do so," Amiama wrote.

Jordan Brown, the NDP MHA for Labrador West, said he's heard many stories like Murphy's.

"The large apartment complexes in this town … they're no-fault evicting locals. And then you see the apartments being re-rented to fly-in, fly-out contractors," Brown said.

"It seems that the more we make vocal, the more and more we'll see government take a blind eye to these no-fault evictions."

Not an uncommon issue

Sherwin Flight, a housing advocate in St. John's, says what Murphy is going through isn't uncommon.

Every province in Canada has some form of no-fault eviction — when a tenant is asked to leave their unit without violating their lease.

But, Flight said Newfoundland and Labrador is the last province in Canada to keep no-fault evictions in its legislation.

He says the province needs to remove no-fault evictions and any rules currently in place to support tenants are only as good as their enforcement.

"For at least 34 years now, we've had a section in our Residential Tenancies Act that would allow the government to issue fines to people that break the law. They have never done so," he said.

"It still hasn't started yet, and there's still no date, but I think that lack of enforcement … makes people more likely to break the law because they know nothing is going to happen."

Housing advocates in Labrador West say there is almost zero available affordable housing units in the region. 

Flight says that's problematic.

Speaking with CBC News on Thursday afternoon, Labrador City Mayor Belinda Adams said the town has been working to attain more units and got an unofficial commitment from the province on Thursday.

"Today, unofficially, the ministers had said that we're going to do the 40 units here. So we are cautiously optimistic," Adams said.

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