Tenants of three low-rise Gorge Road East apartment buildings set to be redeveloped are appealing to the province to help preserve them as affordable rentals.
Two years ago, Victoria city council approved the first steps of a plan that would see the nearly identical 1970-era apartments at 129, 131, and 135 Gorge Rd. East — collectively known as the Gordreau apartments — replaced with four new residential buildings.
Belmont Properties, the company behind the project, which would replace 141 homes with 310 new units, has not indicated when work on the development would begin.
It’s supposed to be the second phase of a project that would bring nearly 500 residential homes into a quiet spur road off Gorge Road East.
The first phase would see a 174-unit apartment complex replace a 59-unit building at 133 Gorge Rd. East. The proposal does not have an active building permit listed on the city’s development tracker.
Shannon Butt said she received a notice last month warning her that her days of living in a two-bedroom unit in a four-storey apartment building overlooking the Gorge Waterway were now limited.
The letter posted on her door about two weeks before Christmas was from Intracorp, a Vancouver-based developer. It said she could be displaced as early as 2027.
More details about tenant relocation policies and compensation would come in the spring, the letter said.
Butt has been searching for affordable rentals ever since. “I’m almost thinking maybe Langford at this point, because there is nowhere near in Victoria that has a fair rate. All these buildings that they’ve put up — none of them are affordable,” said Butt, who has lived in her two-bedroom apartment for 19 years and pays $1,200 a month in rent.
Not content to sit and wait, Butt — along with 80 others facing the same fate — have banded together to form a tenant association called the Gordreau Tenant Group.
After months of door-knocking, kitchen coffee meetings, video calls and a gathering in a nearby hotel conference room, the group feels sufficiently organized to call for the province to step in.
They’re envisioning a co-op housing model to preserve their homes from demolition.
Butt said many of her neighbours cannot afford market rents.
“A lot of these folks are elderly, single parents, and have fixed incomes,” said Butt.
The average asking price for a two-bedroom unit in Victoria is now $1,993, according to a fall 2024 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation rental market report.
Butt said those prices are not something that many of the renters living in the Gordreau buildings can afford, even if unitswere offered at 20 per cent below market rate.
New tenants in her apartment building are paying $2,400 a month for two-bedroom units and those tenants have to sign a waiver saying that they are aware that the apartment is going to be demolished soon, she said.
“They’re still moving [in], knowing they’re going to have to move in two years because they’re that desperate for housing,” she said.
Jonathan Henriksen, 68, who has lived at 129 Gorge Rd. E. for 23 years, said rent accounts for more than half of his fixed income now that he’s retired from a career in interior design.
“There’s a few of us like myself, we’re here to the bitter end,” he said. “We don’t have much of a choice. We live from one installment that lands in our bank account to the other, every month.”
He’s thought about living on a boat, something he’s done before and isn’t looking forward to. “I’ve had four heart attacks. Do you really think I should be on a boat?”
In a statement to the Times Colonist, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said more than 13,000 homes operating on non-profit and co-op models are being created or are already operating through B.C.’s community housing fund since 2017, and more than 1,500 homes have been purchased and saved through the Rental Protection Fund.
The fund was established in 2023 with a $500-million contribution from the province to purchase existing rentals to save them from development.
While there are signs rents are starting to drop, Kahlon acknowledged more needs to be done. “[We will] continue to explore ways to protect renters and support landlords, so people can stay in the community they call home.”
Rental Protection Fund CEO Katie Maslechko said the three Gordreau apartments are currently not being considered for purchase, noting the fund has strict rules on what buildings can be bought and handed off to non-profit or co-op housing operators.
Belmont Properties has not indicated that it’s looking to sell the properties, either on the open market or to a non-profit operator through the Rental Protection Fund, she said.
“There’s lots of landlords out there looking to do that and the community housing sector makes a great buyer in many a situation, but yes — the landlord does need to certainly be aware and on board with the plan and with an intent to sell the property for us to consider it,” she said.
Maslechko said there are “countless” renters across the province in situations similar to those living in the Gordreau apartments.
Harland Bird, a founding member of the Victoria Tenants Union, a renter advocacy group that helped organize the Gordreau tenants, said there are companies making “a pile of money by tearing down existing affordable homes” and building new ones.
“Families are being evicted in a housing crisis in the name of addressing the housing crisis, which doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Belmont and Intracorp did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
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