Before she was evicted from the Kinsmen Country Village subsidized housing project where she lived for more than a decade, Shannon Shale said she made repeated complaints about poor maintenance.
There were broken windows, rotted wood, bugs, mildew and mould, Shale told the Langley Advance Times.
“Little beetles and larvae come up through cracks in the floor,” Shale said.
“The kitchen floor was rotted out. It bounced when you walked on it.”
Shale believes she was evicted as punishment for complaining.
Her version of events was rejected by Leslie Geddes, senior property manager at the Kinsmen Housing Society that operates the 26-year-old complex at 4748 222nd Street.
Geddes said she was unable to discuss the Shale eviction, but dismissed the mould and bug claims as exaggerated.
An inspection did find “a tiny bit of mould between two layers [of floor],” Geddes said.
“It was stripped with a mould- and mildew-resistant cleaner.”
Geddes said upgrades are being carried out on the wood frame townhouses, including a planned $3.3 mllion remediation of the building envelope, and suggested some of the problems were created by the tenant.
Geddes said Shale allowed the bathroom floor to get wet, spilling water from the tub and letting it pool.
“It’s a tenant lack of maintenance,” Geddes said.
“It’s not got anything to do with the landlord. It’s just not truthful.”
Geddes said the housing society spent a year and a half trying to resolve complaints made by Shale, with no success.
“It boils down to, this is a disgruntled tenant,” Geddes said.
As for the eviction, Geddes said she could not go into detail.
“I can’t talk on the eviction,” Geddes said, but added “it’s not got anything to do with mould, I can tell you that.”
Shale said she was “highly offended” by the suggestion she caused the mould and mildew.
“They told me that [it was because] I over-watered my plants,” Shale said.
Shale said she was accused of damaging her suite because she rolled up carpet and kitchen flooring to get at the mould and mildew after waiting several months for repairs to be carried out.
Now living with relatives in 100 Mile House, Shale said she is considering legal action against the Kinsmen.
Since the eviction was issued against Shale, two other tenants of the complex have told the Langley Advance Times that they have also had maintenance issues.
Amanda Walker said it took years to fix a hole in her garage door that was big enough to allow thieves access.
“My railing on my stairs has been off since 2013 and still hasn’t been put back on,” Walker said.
“I actually fell down the stairs because of it.”
Walker said she has lived there more than 10 years, and during that time, the complex has “gone drastically downhill.”
“It used to be so nice here,” Walker said.
“It’s kind of sad, actually.”
Tenant Isobel Hebbard said when she first moved in to the complex five years ago, it was properly maintained, but it has been allowed to deteriorate.
Hebbard said she has also experienced mould and mildew problems.
“You could see mould creeping up around [my] bath surround,” Hebbard said.
After a leaky pipe was fixed, the resulting hole in the ceiling took about six months to repair, Hebbard said.
Hebbard said she has heard other residents complain about poor maintenance, but they keep quiet for fear of being evicted.
“Most of them are single moms,” Hebbard said.
“With the housing shortage [of affordable rentals] they’ve got no place to go.”
Reached for comment, Geddes said the delay in fixing the hole in the ceiling was because it had to dry out.
“We can’t go in and fix drywall when it’s soaking wet,” Geddes said.
As for the garage door, Geddes said, because the hole didn’t directly affect the comfort of the resident, it was given a lower priority.
Geddes said the housing complex has a finite amount of money for repairs and maintenance, and this year the money was quickly exhausted because of problems with two suites.
“Six months [into our current fiscal year] and we’re already over budget,” Geddes said.
She added that after Shale was evicted, her suite was inspected and “no mould” was found.
If tenants report an issue, it will get looked into, Geddes said, but they should recognize they are living in an older structure and age-related problems are to be expected.
“Things get old,” Geddes said.
Maintenance problems in older, subsidized housing is not unusual, according to Elizabeth Zbitnoff, a low-income housing rights activist from Delta.
It amounts to “purposeful neglect” in a bid to save money, Zbitnoff said.
Some older low-income housing projects are refusing to spend money on maintenance in a bid to cut costs, pushing tenants out and even leaving suites unoccupied rather than repair them, Zbitnoff said.
She said the provincial government, which subsidizes rents through BC Housing, has turned a “blind eye” to the problem, refusing to intervene even though regulations supposedly require regular onsite reviews that include walkthroughs to make sure sites are being maintained.
“This inaction [has] continued to escalate our housing and homeless crisis,” Zbitnoff said.
Residents of such projects have a choice of accepting “unsafe and unhealthy homes [or being] forced out of their communities” Zbitnoff said.
In response to a Langley Advance Times request for comment, BC Housing issued a statement that said the “Kinsmen Country Village affordable rental townhouse complex has been operational since 1992 and has a good record of providing regular and timely maintenance, and addressing issues as they come up.”
There has been one “recent” complaint of mould present in a unit that was investigated by the society, which concluded that the mold occurred due to improper cleaning of the unit by the occupants, the statement said.
It went on to say that the society “provided education to the renter about how to prevent mold from occurring, which seems to have alleviated the issue.”
Kinsmen Country Village, it said, was an “older building and is in need of upgrades.”
BC Housing said it was working on a renovation plan for the complex.
“Further details will be released once the plan is agreed upon and approved.”
It noted the provinc ial government was investing $1.1 billion over 10 years to upgrade and improve 50,000 units of social housing in B.C. communities that has “significantly increased BC Housing’s ability to make necessary repairs to existing social housing units and will help to improve the condition of Kinsmen Country Village.”
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Email: dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com
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