As of June 1 at 1 p.m., Bonnie Shotropa has nowhere to go.
The 67-year-old is getting evicted from the Madeira Park apartment that has been her home for more than a decade and although she’s been looking for more than a year, she can’t find somewhere to live.
“I talk to everybody. When I hitchhike, I ask people if they have any basement suite or if they know anybody who’s got something,” says Shotropa. “They're very nice people but nobody's got anything.”
As Shotropa has an income of $1,800 a month, most of the rentals available on the Coast are beyond her budget. For her current home, Shotropa pays $710 plus utilities.
She doesn’t mind paying a few hundred dollars more in rent but she doesn’t have the capacity to meet the quickly escalating prices for a one-bedroom dwelling on the Coast. The average monthly shelter cost for renters was $1,374 in 2021 – a number that’s only risen since then.
Add to that, she was diagnosed with stage three liver cancer in October.
'Everybody has done everything they can'
Shotropa has a fierce defender in Ken Carson, who worked with the Resource Centre as a legal advocate until recently. He’s been on the case for just over a year.
Shotropa was first issued an eviction notice in March 2022. The ageing waterfront apartment building had just been sold and Shotropa was issued a two-month notice to be out by June 1, 2022, so that a family member could move in, according to Carson. There were legal wranglings as Carson and Shotropa fought the eviction – in the midst of that in Shotropa received her cancer diagnosis – but in January, an arbitrator gave Shotropa until June 1, 2023 to find somewhere to live.
Her whole church, the people at the grocery store and the other little shops are keeping an eye out, says Shotropa. Carson, the Resource Centre and Vancouver Coastal Health social workers have been exhausting their connections and knowledge looking for a place for Shotropa but the waitlists for subsidized housing are enormous, says Carson. “There aren't a lot of places to find that are in Shotropa's particular ability to pay.
“Everybody has done everything they can and Bonnie's case is well known among the people who are trying to find her a place to live. There is not a place for her to live.”
Shotropa doesn’t drive – she hitchhikes everywhere (though Carson helps out, making the drive sometimes to bring her to appointments).
A situation too frequent
Cases like Shotropa’s are all too familiar to Carson. “If you have money in this town, you can afford to rent. But if you don't have money, then you're hooped. And so people who have gotten older, and they're on fixed incomes and all of a sudden find themselves evicted. It's a terrifying, frightening thing. But it's really terrifying and frightening if you also happen to have cancer, and you've got health problems.
“I've seen this over and over again.”
Shotropa’s circumstance, though, is “one of the more horrible examples of what's going on in this community,” says Carson.
Faith
A wide bright smile illuminates Shotropa’s face one moment and tears hover the next as she talks about her faith in God. “I have a positive spirit and I trust that everything will go good,” she says. “I believe in God, and I put my faith in him. And I've got people actually praying for me that don't pray.”
Carson raises his hand.
“I just give Him the power. And that's all I can do,” says Shotropa. “I can't do anything more myself. I'm broken inside my body, inside my head, outside physically.”
'Not just a statistical thing'
Even as we talk about how dire her situation is, Shotropa asks that this story is not all about her – noting that there are others who are facing similar states.
Carson pushes back. “This is a human thing. It's not just a statistical thing or a political argument about affordable housing. It’s a personal thing,” Carson vents, looking out at the water and then turning to Shotropa. “You're not wealthy. You're not well known, but you deserve to have a little dignity, to have a decent place to live. And if you’re sick, have people take care of you.
“You deserve that. That's a minimum.”
Looking out at islands dotting Malasipina Strait, and across to Texada Island, the view is stunning, but Shotropa says she doesn’t mind leaving – ”God knows my needs.”
She just needs somewhere to go.
How to help
People with housing leads can contact Shotropa at 604-399-4597. She is also looking for some volunteers to help her move as she’s weak from treatment and doesn’t have a vehicle.
