Two B.C. charities are urging Premier David Eby to keep a campaign promise: banning no-pet clauses in rentals.
First United and the BC SPCA say pet bans are pushing vulnerable people into homelessness and have forced over 12,000 animals into SPCA care since 2014.
Kaila Wolf, Senior Director of Media and Internal Communication with the BC SPCA, says the agency has created a pet housing toolkit to help educate building managers on how to develop pet policies and support residents with pets.
“And that can help a lot with enforcing some of those best practices and the animal welfare concerns that may be on the minds of building managers,” said Wolf.
During the 2024 election campaign, the BC NDP committed to ban no-pet clauses in rental buildings.
“We’re calling on the Ministry of Housing and the NDP government to uphold the promise that they had made,” she said.
“To step in and take action to create more accessible, pet-friendly housing.”
A recent survey shows that 60 per cent of British Columbians want the provincial government to take action on pet-friendly housing.
Wolf says the benefits of taking action would be obvious.
“It can alleviate stress management concerns,” Wolf said.
“It’s so impactful on mental health and creating that social support that so many of our vulnerable communities are needing.”
Amanda Burrows, executive director of First United, says there are already provisions in place to protect landlords from being on the hook for damage caused by pets.
“In our research, looking at case law from the Residential Tenancy Branch, that’s the RTB, our data revealed that [among] 83 per cent of landlords that claimed pet damage, the pet deposits actually pay for that,” Burrows explained.
“So within the Residential Tenancy Act, it already has provisions of our damage deposits, our pet deposits, that actually would cover any damage due to pets.”
—With files from John Ackermann and Amy Beeman