NEWS

NEWS Breen ends hunger strike, citing a cognitive decline

by Charlie Smith

ANanaimo environmental activist has resumed eating after going on a monthlong hunger strike. Howard Breen, 68, was briefly hospitalized less than two days after he stopped consuming any fluids at noon on Earth Day (April 22).

Breen and Vancouver resident Brent Eichler had each pledged not to eat until Forests Minister Katrine Conroy agreed to a public meeting to discuss old-growth logging. Conroy phoned each of them on Earth Day but refused to agree to their demand.

Eichler halted his hunger strike in late April after 33 days. Breen began eating on May 1 after suffering cognitive decline and losing almost 40 pounds.

“I really packed it on before,” Breen told the Straight on April 22. “I’m nowhere near as thin as [Eichler] is.”

A third activist, Nanaimo resident Vic Brice, is continuing his hunger strike. These actions are part of a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience by Save Old Growth to try to force an end to oldgrowth logging in B.C. g

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May 5-12 / 2022

19 COVER

Director Alex Pritz’s first feature doc, The Territory, has been attracting a lot of attention since its Sundance premiere. By Martin Dunphy Cover photo by Gabriel Uchida

4 HOUSING

Renter Amanda Schell and her family have been evicted or priced out of several homes on B.C.’s South Coast during the past several years. By Carlito Pablo

12 ARTS

Ziyian Kwan prefers to think of herself as a conjurer rather than a choreographer, and her latest piece of magic is called Rebel Grace. By Charlie Smith

e Start Here 13 ARTS 9 BOOKS 22 CLASSIFIED ADS 17 COMEDY 7 COMMENTARY 10 FOOD 6 HEALTH 8 LIQUOR 21 MUSIC 2 NEWS 5 REAL ESTATE 21 SAVAGE LOVE 16 VISUAL ARTS

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 56 | Number 2829

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Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.

1 2 3 4 5

Price cut for mansion built by liquor baron and restored by Beijing developer.

Canucks forward Brock Boeser tears up when asked about dad’s health.

Regulator imposes $6,000 fine on realtor for misleading advertisement.

40 things for people to do in Vancouver this week, May 2 to 6.

Police reveal no names in connection with homicide near Olympic Village.

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EDITOR Charlie Smith

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HOUSING How renter family suffered in real estate’s heyday

by Carlito Pablo

Unless Amanda Schell and her family nd a new place soon, they will be homeless on June 1.

“It’s de nitely a huge problem,” Schell told the Straight in a phone interview. eir landlord has sold his principal residence in Burnaby and will be moving into the cottage that they are temporarily renting in Halfmoon Bay, a community on the Sunshine Coast. e family knew it was not a long-term rental, but they had to take it.

“We got evicted from our last place, where we had been living for six years in Sechelt,” Schell said.

In 2021, their former landlord started making moves to kick them out to do renovations and sell the property. is was the same year that the real-estate market in Greater Vancouver recorded its highest level: 43,999 sales. e 2021 market surpassed by four percent the previous all-time sales record of 42,326 made in 2015.

It was that same year, 2015, when Schell and her family lost a previous rental home in Squamish.

For Schell, their experience proves that a hot housing market doesn’t li everyone. While home owners bene t in terms of increased wealth, renters get le behind.

“It feels like renters are being penalized,” Schell said.

Schell and her family had been renting the house in Squamish for 11 years at $900 per month. One day, a real-estate agent from Whistler came around and posted notes in the neighbourhood, stating that all houses there would be bought for about $650,000 each. is was not long a er a nurse and colleague of Schell with Vancouver Coastal Health sold her house below the asking price of $350,000.

Schell noted that prices and rent have been on rise in Squamish since the 2010 Winter Olympics. e hot housing market of 2015 made the situation even worse. “People started getting displaced,” she said. e landlord had a business partner from Surrey who wanted to tear down the Squamish rental property in order to build two new houses on the site.

Schell’s husband, John, who joined the call, said that their Squamish landlord was a good person, even o ering to help them get a discount at another place.

“ ere was a couple from Surrey that bought a duplex and they wanted $2,800 [a month], and he said that he could get us in there for $2,200 because we’re good tenants and he wanted to help us out,” John recalled.

However, the place was “all beat up” and not suitable for the couple and their two children. Priced out of Squamish, Schell and her family le in 2015.

In December of that year, the benchmark price of a single-family home in Squamish was $638,100. e price represented an increase of 37.6 percent over 2010, which was the year of the Winter Olympics.

As of March 2022, the price of a typical detached house in Squamish has increased by more than 2.5 times compared to December 2015. It’s now $1,609,500.

When Schell and her family moved to the Sunshine Coast in late 2015, the benchmark price of a single-family home there stood at $392,200 that December. About seven years later, the typical price of a detached property there has increased by more than 2.5 times, with the benchmark price of a single-family home reaching $995,600 as of March 2022. e pressure of looking for a new place has put an added strain on Schell and her family. e addictions and mental health worker is currently on medical leave from VCH and the Canadian Mental Health Association.

She was diagnosed with two types of cancer in 2021. She hopes to get back to work a er her cancer treatment.

“There seems to be a lot of things going on: people buying a house and then wanting to sell it in a couple of years’ time for a huge profit because the market is going up, and so the new buyers buy and their mortgage is higher and so the renters are paying more,” Schell said about what she has observed in the real estate market.

She noted that since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, many people started moving away from big cities to outlying areas, where homes are relatively cheaper.

“ ere has been a migration to more a ordable places such as the coast and… [Vancouver] Island, causing house values to jump in these communities, and people are selling,” she said.

When Schell spoke to the Straight on April 29, her family was scheduled to view a rental home the following Saturday.

Schell sent a note April 30 about what happened.

“ e house would have been perfect for us and I thought the viewing went well,” Schell wrote.

“Unfortunately, I just heard from them and they have decided to rent to a young couple with a baby.” g

Tenant Amanda Schell, who’s currently on medical leave from Vancouver Coastal Health, is a living example that a hot housing market along B.C.’s South Coast doesn’t lift everyone up.

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