B.C. single mother faces eviction after landlord refuses money from nonprofit subsidy

Playing with her young son in her lawyer’s office, Kate Power’s got a story to tell about making it in Vancouver as a single mom.

“I was looking for something that was going to be affordable — a very small space,” she said.

Pregnant with her son in the summer of 2021, Power landed an apartment in a downtown Vancouver building and planned to make a go of it, when an unexpected financial problem left her unable to make rent.

She scrambled and she managed to cover the shortfall with help from some nonprofits.

“I was granted a subsidy towards our situation, which is essentially money that comes from these amazing donors, which goes directly to the landlord,” Powers told Global News.

The single mother said she received a subsidy to pay the rent from the YWCA.

What happened next shocked her and upended her life.

She said the landlord refused to accept the assistance money she’d lined up, which put her in arrears and in a position where she could be evicted, just days before she gave birth.

“She flat out, initially refused, ‘I will not be accepting these payments’,” Powers said.

Lawyer Ashley Syer said landlords in B.C. can’t create a situation where a tenant ends up in arrears because they won’t accept money.

She managed to stave off Power’s eviction by taking the case to the BC Supreme Court. The hearing is set for June.

“I haven’t seen this before,” Syer said. “The BC Human Rights Code prohibits landlords from discriminating based on a lawful source of income.”

Court documents identify the landlord as Susan Wong of Bonnihon Enterprises.

Global News reached out to the office for comment.

As for Power, she said she’s a reluctant litigant but one that scrambled to try to make good on her end of the deal during a tough time in her life.

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