COPE's Policy

‘Demovictions’ happen when landlords decide to demolish a rental building and the tenants have to move out. Usually, landlords want to demolish an existing rental building because they want to build another higher density building with more units in it.  

COPE will push to ensure that all demovicted tenants, including tenants in non-profit and co-op housing, are offered an appropriately sized unit in the new building at their old rent. 

COPE will also work for top up funding (or ‘bridge funding’) so demovicted tenants can afford rents in an interim apartment while waiting for the new building to get built.

Why it’s important

The outgoing City Council has supported the idea of ‘right of return’ for tenants who are demovicted, so that they can return to the same unit. A version of this was included in the Broadway Plan, where the tenants can come back to the new building with rent at a 20% discount to CMHC city-wide average rents.

But where will tenants go in the meantime? They will on average face rents that are 17% higher on the market. 

The City’s current Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy (TRPP) only provides compensation for demovicted tenants for several months of rent unless the tenant had lived there for over 20 years.

This policy pits some tenants against others, and incentivizes landlords and developers to put a price tag on getting rid of different tenants. Compensation for the vast majority of tenants would not last nearly long enough to help them until they return. This is one of the reasons Jean Swanson voted against the Broadway Plan.

Swanson has been fighting for demovicted tenants to have “top up funding” or “bridge funding” while they’re waiting to return to the replacement unit. That would mean that landlords and developers would have to calculate the true cost of displacing tenants into their plans.