pet-friendly housing in vancouver
Written in 2015 by Sarah:
We here at CoalitionSkin [ “The Pxssy Shop” / “The Pussy Shop”, love dogs and all animals and appreciate being around them. Unfortunately, there’s no denying that the Province of BC’s housing/rental-market seem to have a different stand point.
According to the SPCA website, 1,500 dogs and cats are turned in every year across the province of BC by people who can’t find pet-friendly housing. It’s a major problem for renters with pets. “We have an incredible absence of pet-friendly rental housing in this city. Only about a quarter of the rental properties in Vancouver are pet-friendly,” said Geoff Urton of the BC SPCA. But when you take a look on Craigslist, the numbers seem to be even lower. According to www.vanmag.com in their article titled, “No Pet City”, They did a quick city-by-city Craigslist comparison that was shocking. Among a sample of roughly 600 rental units per city (taken November 20, 2015), the percentage of landlords who had checked both the “cats ok” and “dogs ok” boxes was far lower in Vancouver. While just 5.6 percent of landlords ticked both boxes here, 20.7 percent was in Calgary, and 15.4 percent in Montreal.
If landlords keep saying no to animals, what can we do? The best bet is probably to take a look at what Ontario did. Long ago the province changed its Landlord and Tenant Act to make actual change to pet bans. Legally, there are now only three pet-related reasons a landlord can say no to in Ontario. One is if the landlord or another tenant’s peace and quiet is “substantially interfered” with, the second is if someone has a severe allergic reaction to the animal in question, and the third reason is if the animal is dangerous. Almost 80% of BC residents favour legislation that allows pet guardians the right to keep companion animals, according to a 2008 poll (McIntyre & Mustel). More than half of the population have pets, and thats a large number that has to compete for the 5% of craigslist ads that say “yes to pets”.
So what can we do until the province does what Ontario did to better pet housing? You can grab a tool kit the SPCA made off their website. These packages make it easier to communicate, both helping renter’s to demonstrate themselves as good guardians and also making it easy for strata councils and property owners to effectively manage their buildings and suites. The SPCA has created three tool kits to help! One for renters, one for property owners and managers, and one for strata councils. Another thing you can do is simply convince your landlord to say yes to your pet, offer to introduce them! A small start can go a long way!
More than half of the population has pets, and need homes. Pets provide endless amounts of positivity and companionship for individuals. Discriminating against pets ultimately weakens the connection between humans and animals. Humans spent hundreds of years domesticating, we kind of owe it to them to take care of them when you think about it!
Sarah
CoalitionSkin #thepxssyshop, Vancouver BC, @coalitionskin