B.C.’s Bill 11 improves housing safety, but raises risks for tenants |
British Columbia is no stranger to housing policy controversy.
In 2024, the provincial government amended its residential tenancy regulations to better define supportive housing as non-profit permanent housing paired with support for people who have experienced homelessness or are at risk of homelessness to live independently. Those changes also gave operators new tools, including the ability to manage guests and conduct wellness checks.
The changes were well intentioned, but the process drew criticism from advocacy organizations which felt that tenant rights were eroded by the changes.
Two years later, the province has returned with Bill 11, which includes more expansive proposed amendments to the province’s Residential Tenancy Act. The bill, which is in first reading, amends the act to even more explicitly define supportive housing and the rules governing it.
This time, the government did consult widely. But having listened more carefully, did it hear the right things? More importantly, did it respond with the right policies?
The answer is no. The bill contains provisions that could significantly hurt many vulnerable people. The province should go back to the drawing board on its most punitive provisions and build in proportionality tools that tenants, providers and adjudicators need to navigate these issues with fairness and humanity.
What Bill 11 proposes
Bill 11 introduces several significant changes.
It creates new grounds for supportive housing operators to end a tenancy if a tenant or anyone they permit on the property is found in possession of a weapon or if a weapon is observed in plain view during a “lawful entry,” such as a person responding to a maintenance request.
It also expands the grounds for eviction due to misconduct. Previously, evictions on these grounds were limited to conduct affecting the landlord and other tenants. Bill 11 extends protections to any “authorized person” on the premises – a broad category that includes contractors, health-care workers, guests and others.
As well, Bill 11 grants supportive housing operators the ability to temporarily restrict tenant access to part or all of a property in critical situations and enables them to apply for a temporary order to limit tenant access to other parts of the building, without requiring that the tenant be notified of the application. This is consistent with emergency orders elsewhere that give landlords tools to quickly respond to urgent situations.
The bill also attempts to clarify where and how the act applies to supportive housing by distinguishing it from transitional housing, which is exempt from the Residential Tenancy Act and which has a defined end date (i.e., is........