Kelowna tenants forming a union to protect renters’ rights

Tenants’ unions exist in major cities all across the country, and a group of renters in Kelowna have decided it’s time to have one as well.

The Kelowna Tenants Union is still in its infancy, but organizers have ambitions to make the city a better place for those who rent their homes. The goal is to organize for rent control, better living conditions and pool resources to help every tenant in Kelowna defend their rights.

“We’re kind of still in our doing the groundwork phase,” one of the union’s founders said.

iNFOnews.ca agreed to let the union’s spokesperson remain anonymous as they’re concerned about negative landlord reaction and future landlord bias against them.

“There is a big power imbalance,” they said. “We just want to make sure that we’re keeping folks in the union safe for now. I can’t foresee what’s going to happen in the future, even though tenant organizing is legal.”

Trevor McAleese is a candidate for Kelowna city council and he met with the Kelowna Tenants Union at one of their events recently. He’s a renter himself and said a tenants’ union could be a big help.

“It’s important that people who are renting, for one thing, understand what their rights are as tenants, but also have a body to turn to for resources and support,” McAleese said. “This would be more or less filling a gap that definitely exists.”

A tenant union, sometimes called a collective or an association, isn’t like a labour union. There are no collective bargaining rights for tenants in B.C.

Some things that tenant unions do is help people understand their rights, lobby for policy changes and help people navigate disputes through the Residential Tenancy Branch.

The Kelowna Tenants Union is trying to get people’s input to find out what would be most helpful for renters, as well as working to attract more members.

“What’s really important and something that’s really unique about tenant organizing is that it’s quite different in every city,” they said. “Trying to better understand what it is that folks, tenants, renters in this city specifically need.’”

The union is getting input from other organizations around the country like the Vancouver Tenants Union and The Montreal Autonomous Tenants’ Union.

“We were really inspired to get something similar going here,” they said. “We essentially saw a gap in Kelowna… it’s really awesome to look at them and see their successes. We can’t replicate, and that’s not the point of these conversations, it’s more so to learn what we can and then apply here within our context.”

Renters who want to join, or find out more, can go to a union event. Details are posted on the group’s social media. There isn’t a formal fee structure, it’s pay-what-you-can, but they said any money contributed to the union would go a long way.

“We’re not going to ask questions, pay what you can,” they said.

“If for whatever reason somebody can’t contribute financially we’re not going to exclude folks, but it’s really important to have that sense of accountability for becoming a member.”

Rent strikes make for viral headlines, but the Kelowna Tenants Union doesn’t see withholding rent as something that would work well here.

“A lot of tenant unions in larger cities organize in specific apartment buildings… so rent strikes are something that works really well in that situation,” they said. “In Kelowna, there’s unfortunately a lot of mixed apartment buildings where there’s a higher percentage of folks that actually own.”

The union organizer said one of the first issues it could help people deal with is the recent return of short-term rentals in the city.

“The interests of tourism are highly prioritized. Airbnb is like a massive parasitic kind of entity in this city,” they said. “There’s real consequences and it’s putting people into really tricky situations.”

The union said Kelowna could prioritize investment and tourism over homes for renters.

“The city is run by landlords. It is a city of developers. It is a city of the ruling elite class,” they said.

“Tenants over tourism. And I think that summarizes a lot of what we’re trying to advocate for.”

There are resources for renters to turn to right now.

B.C. has a Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre for renters who need some free legal or referral services and the CMHA’s Central Okanagan Rent Bank is a resource for people who need a bit of short-term help making their rent.