The Overhead: Evictions

Evictions can completely upend your life. At best, you have to begin the search for a new home in an increasingly expensive and competitive housing market. At worst, you can't find an affordable replacement. It's a scary situation, even in the best circumstances. In this episode, we get into why evictions happen, how frequently, tenant rights, and "bad faith" evictions. First, we speak to Adam Mongrain, director of housing policy with the Quebec advocacy group Vivre en Ville about an online rental registry, which would provide renters and governments about changes in rental prices, and prevent unfair price hikes. Next, Julie Mah is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, who has done a lot of work on gentrification and urban displacement, and tells us about how that can cause evictions. Finally, Alexandra Flynn, associate professor at the University of British Columbia's Allard School of Law talks about the high eviction rate in B.C. municipalities, changes to the provinces "Residential Tenancy Act," the housing as a human right, including for those living in encampments. Why do evictions happen, and what can we do to prevent them? We get into it.