Login / RegisterFormer Vancouver city councillor Ellen Woodsworth still waiting on word of eviction
She talked about her housing problem before and during last fall’s municipal-election campaign in Vancouver.
She lost that election, and now, in the new year, former councillor Ellen Woodsworth has yet to find some certainty about her and her partner’s situation.
For more than 30 years, they have rented a place in a six-unit row house on the east side of the city. The property has been sold.
“I’m still in the same situation of not knowing if we’re going to be evicted,” Woodsworth told the Straight in a phone interview.
Before Christmas, Woodsworth said, she met the new owner and provided 12 postdated cheques for the year’s rent. She also asked what is being planned for the property. The owner, she said, hasn’t made any plans yet.
“Everybody is quite apprehensive,” said Woodsworth, an advocate for affordable housing and diverse neighbourhoods. “People are nervous. We’re all nervous because we still don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know what their plans are and what these are going to mean for us. We’re just waiting to hear.”
The property was built in 1890, according to the former councillor. “It’s gone through a lot of changes, and there’s a lot of work that has to be done on it,” Woodsworth said. “But right now it houses a lot of people.”
