In the last 24 hours, more than a dozen news outlets have run stories about Iris Canada’s fight to stay in an apartment she’s lived in since the 1940s. Owens, the landlord, bought the 1,200-square-foot unit on Page Street with his wife and brother in 2002.
In 2005, they gave Canada a “life estate interest,” allowing her to rent the unit for the rest of her life as long as she continued to live there by herself and kept the place in good condition. Canada agreed to pay $250,000 in installments of $700 per month.
In December 2014, Owens and his co-owners filed a complaint in the Superior Court of San Francisco County alleging that Canada had been living in Oakland for two and a half years, was behind in her payments and had “allowed the property to fall into disrepair.” They asked the court to evict Canada and order her to pay the $171,600 balance, as well as damages.
Housing costs have skyrocketed in San Francisco, and as its neighborhoods gentrify, tenant-landlord battles have become increasingly common and contentious.
As head of the Burlington department that oversees the city’s housing policy, Owens is in an uncomfortable situation. San Francisco residents have emailed stories about his case to the entire Burlington City Council, as well as news outlets. And Bay Area activists are rallying on Canada’s side.
“I think this is a fight that [Owens] shouldn’t have picked as someone who is responsible for a department that is meant to take care of the most vulnerable in our community,” Progressive Burlington City Councilor Max Tracy told Seven Days. “I don’t think it was good judgment to pick a fight with a 99-year-old woman who wants to stay in this apartment.”
Owens offers a far more complex version of the events leading up to the eviction proceeding. He said his family considered Canada to be a close friend, and he visited the apartment in June 2014 out of concern because she had stopped answering phone calls. Inside, he observed rodents, feces, a fridge with no food, a moldy bathtub, and a calendar marking the month as June 2012.
After a court hearing Tuesday during which Canada was granted a one-week reprieve from being evicted, the elderly woman invited reporters into her apartment. They wrote that it appeared to be in good condition. Owens said there was a “bunch of activity” at the apartment during the last few months, suggesting that people had recently cleaned it up.
Owens said he had made “dozens of attempts” over months to reach out to Canada, who he claims was living with a niece in Oakland, before hiring a lawyer. And his lawyer also made repeated attempts to negotiate with Canada’s attorneys before filing in court. Canada’s current lawyer, Michael Spalding, did not return a call for comment.
According to Owens, he has taken out a second mortgage on his Hanover, N.H., house to cover legal fees of roughly $100,000. Eventually, he and his wife plan to retire to the Page Street apartment.
Correction, April 13, 2016, 9:20 p.m.: Canada’s surname was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.
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However Owens spins this he comes out the stinker. Cut your losses, do the right thing, and don’t cry about the legal fees you incurred through your attempts to evict an elder. Being concerned about someone’s welfare does not equal kicking them out of their long-time home.
This is the same Peter Owens who is violating Burlington law because, as a department chair, he is required to live in Burlington but instead lives in Hanover, New Hampshire. This is a guy making critical decisions about Burlington’s neighborhoods and development and he has zero skin in the game. Does not have to live with the real-world outcomes of his decisions that impact real citizens living here. When you combine this violation of Burlington law with the eviction story above, makes one really start to wonder. . . Maybe it is time for Burlington City Council to put some teeth in the residency requirement and terminate these individuals if they do not comply within the next year (and, no, getting a PO Box & crashing on a buddy’s futon one night a week does not equal compliance with the law).
http://sevendaysvt-test.newspackstaging.com/vermont/burling…
We will be seeing more and more of this situation, people are living a lot longer and even if they did the right thing saved their money and paid their taxes for years they will eventually run out of money. This will be a problem ,folks who only contributed to society never took a dime at ripe old age of 85 to 110 will not be able to cover their costs.
downhillracer has made a very good point. Owens doesn’t have to live with his decisions or ideas..He has also stated that he’s leaving the area to retire in the apt he is trying to kick that woman out of. This is how he treats a friend- think about how he’d treat the folks of Burlington. (“He said his family considered Canada to be a close friend”)
Pick on someone your own age, bully🤔
if he she did the things he says she did then she broke the contract there fore he has the right to evict her.
As someone who has an elderly mother and mother-in-law in my life, I know that there is a chance that Canada’s judgement has become impaired. Maybe I’m wrong, but my 99 year old mother in law often thinks she’s back on the farm, some 60 years ago, and my 83 year old mother sometimes forgets decisions she made last month, say nothing about 15 years ago. No real judgement can be made until we know more details, but I hope that Canada has trustworthy family and friends to help guide her through this tough time. Being 99 doesn’t make her right or wrong. It just makes her 99.
PETER OWENS JUST FIKED A WRT TO TAKE THE PROPERTY BACK SHE WAS NEVER IN THE REARS NOR HAD SHE MOVED.
OWENS WAS TRYING TO CIRCUMVENT THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO CONDO CONVERSION LAWS.
Peter Owens, has been very disingenuous in all of his commentsis simply trying to circumvent the city of San Francisco condo conversion process and in doing so he’s trying to evict 100 year old he recently sent her to the hospital by ambulance with a written notice to evict within 48 hours