Renters of Vancouver: “I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The co-op rallied”

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      “Renters of Vancouver” takes an intimate look at how the city's millennials are dealing with the housing crisis.

      “About 10 years ago, my husband and I were renting. It was a tiny apartment, and we had to climb two flights of stairs to get there. Then we got pregnant. We only had one bedroom, so we knew that it was time to move.

      I did a lot of research. I looked into over 100 places, and went to see more than 50. Honestly, I was just so shocked to see all these crappy, unfinished basements where someone clearly just decided to throw in a suite. I couldn’t bear the thought of paying that amount of money for such a low quality of living space. So we ended up spending more than we wanted each month to get a nice apartment in a not-so-nice neighbourhood—just something that we could basically afford, knowing that my maternity leave was coming up and it would strip us down to one income.

      That was fine for about a year. And then our landlord told us he was going to renovate, and that we had to leave. The baby was six months old at the time. Still in the front of my mind was the difficulty I had gone through to find that place, so I was really worried. I thought, 'That’s it. No more.'

      I filled out about 30 co-op applications. I said, 'This is what we need.' We had to look after the baby, and neither of us had any family in town. We knew we needed some community around us—someone we could borrow a cup of sugar from. It was on our application that we were about to become homeless, and that bumped us up the list of candidates for an interview. And I guess they must have liked us, because they let us move in.

      I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in January, and the co-op rallied. They had spreadsheets of who was bringing me food, and who was picking my kids up from school. It was really amazing. I was overwhelmed. If we hadn’t been living here, it would have been a lot harder. My husband did manage to take a leave, but it didn’t start until after my treatment had begun. My neighbours were here for me.

      Overall, I’m really happy we moved here. It can be tough if you’re not feeling super enthusiastic to be friendly with the people around you all the time, and I put up a good front. Sometimes I just don’t answer the door! But generally I’m happy to see the other members of the co-op, and they seem to be happy about seeing me too, so that’s nice. The only real bad part is never feeling like you are on your own, or have your own space.

      Our three-bedroom is $1,006 a month. It’s not a big place, and I’m often knocking into walls or having to move out of the way to close doors, but I can live with it. If I want to stay in this city, this is the only way I can do it.

      I dream of a time when I can own a house. It will probably be in the middle of nowhere, because that’s all I can afford. But I’ll do whatever I want there. We’ll have all our own space. And there’ll be no one around to bother.

      I’m hoping it will happen for my family one day.”

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