Chelsey Mutter
Residents of the North Okanagan have recently made headlines for their inability to find affordable, pet friendly apartments — from a senior forced to give up their pet, to sisters on the verge of homelessness trying to find a home with their cats.
Romany Runnalls, a mortgage broker and volunteer president of the Okanagan Humane Society, said the lack of pet-friendly housing in the Okanagan is not a new problem.
“We've been seeing it since basically the mortgage rules changed in 2018,” Runnalls said.
“We already had a housing shortage in Okanagan Valley, but that became a housing crisis literally overnight when all of the rentals were basically absorbed…within four to six months after those mortgage rules changed and forced first time buyers to the sidelines.”
In 2018, mortgage rules changed, requiring applicants to pass stress tests — meaning they had to qualify at higher rates to show they could afford higher payments if mortgage rates increased down the line.
The Bank of Canada says the move “improved credit quality across the entire mortgage portfolio,” but had broader impacts which led to lower mortgage credit and house price growth.
Renters have nowhere to go
Runnalls said the change had rippling impacts through the Okanagan.
“Since then, we started to see it over and over again — people phoning saying, ‘Hey, we can't find a pet-friendly rental. We can't find even a place for us to live, much less for our pets to come with us. Can you help us?'” Runnalls said.
“It became very desperate. People thought they could show up at a shelter and surrender their animals only to find that they couldn't do that either. So then the situation became even more dire, and we saw animals just being abandoned and left behind.”
The situation has continued for the last eight years, which is putting a stress on shelters. OHS helped more than 4,000 animals last year.
As a charity, the OHS is unable to lobby the provincial government for change, but Runnalls said the society would like to see pets included as family members under the BC Residential Tenancy Act.
The BC SPCA has advocated to remove pet-restrictive language from the Tenancy Act. It said the BC NDP committed to end bias against pet owners in purpose-built rental buildings.
The Ministry of Housing told Castanet it's not considering recognizing pets as family members under the Tenancy Act.
Hopeful change is coming
Runnalls said the situation has improved slightly as developers have started to build pet-friendly properties through the Okanagan.
She recognizes not all these suites are affordable, but says they can still help. More inventory in the rental market means people can move into those suites, which opens up the more affordable pet-friendly options.
To her, the more rentals and landlords willing to open their doors for animals, the better.
Runnalls said pet owners can take steps to ensure they find housing for them and their pets. She encourages people to look for rentals well before a move and save up for pet deposits.
People running into difficulty can reach out to family to help, rehoming sites, and/or the Okanagan Humane Society.
Pet owners in rentals should also be responsible for their animals in those spaces.
“Be considerate of the fact that you are being granted this ability to have your animal at a property. And please do take care of the property well, on behalf of yourself and the property owner,” Runnalls said.
“It is a privilege, and we really need to take care of those suites and let our landlords know that we're going to be responsible with those animals so that they are open to this.”
