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FRIDAY

Does your home
have bad feng shui?

Home & Garden: 16

August 24, 1990

84 pages 25¢

North Shore landlords
Shut out single parents

NEWS photo Neil Lucente

CODY PAGEANT, 7, hangs out on the giant anchor at Cates Park in the
District of North Vancouver.

INSIDE
PAUL ST. PIERRE: 9

NEWS phote Cindy Goodman

LYNNE SIRD and her son Jesse were turned down by several
North Vancouver apartment buil.ling landlords and managers who
claimed their buildings were aduit only.

Discrimination law kicks in Sept. 1

A NEW provincial law, slated to come into effect in
September and aimed at protecting renters with children
from discrimination by !Sandlords, comes too late for a

North Vancouver renter.

Lynne Bird, a single mom, said
she was turned down by a ‘‘good
dozen”’ landlords when she looked
for a suitable apartment to rent
earlier this month because she has
a child.

Amendments to the Residential
Tenancy Act provide recourse to
the B.C. Council of Human
Rights for renters with children
who feel they are being
discriminated against in their
search for rental accomodations.

But the law introduced by the
Ministry of Labour and Consumer
Affairs does not come into effect
until Sept. 1, said ministry
spokesman Christine Rushforth.

When Bird, 32, and her one-
year-old son Jesse approached the
managers of apartment buildings
in both upper and central Lons-
dale and Lynn Valley, she said
they told her they did not rent to
people with kids and would con-
tinue the policy regardless of the

By Elizabeth Coliings
News Reporter

Mrs. H. Harmata, one of the
managers approached by Bird,
told the News she is aware of the
new law but would ‘‘definitely
not’’ rent to families even after
Sept. |.

“*T don’t think so because we’ve
got firemen, police officers and
about 15 seniors and I’ve got a lot
of nurses that sleep in the day,"’
she said.

Harmata said The Lincoln at
225 East 13th St. is inappropriate
for children because the building
— a wood frame and stucco con-
struction — is not soundproof and
kids would disturb other tenants.

She added that she has had bad
experiences with previous renters
with children.

‘Where are the children going
to play with the traffic all over?

LANDLORD DISCRIMINATION: SEE NEWS VIEWPOINT, PAGE 6

new legislation.

“(fd walk up and they'd take
one look at Jesse and say, ‘No
children,’’’ Bird said. ‘‘All of the
managers said that they're aware
of the new law and they said they
weren't going (o rent to people
with children anyway.”’

Bird eventually found a place
that does accept. children but
describes it as an overpriced,
one-bedroom apartment in a cun-
down building.

Meanwhile at feast one North
Vancouver landlord is willing to
take her chances with the law,

I’m not going to have a heart at-
tack worrying over other people’s
children,”’ she said.

Another manager who turned
down Bird said the building
owner, Botteselle International,
had set a policy of not renting one
bedroom apartments to families
with children,

Anne Edwards said that since:
she had become the building
manager of Le Chateau in Lynn
Valley two months ago, she has
followed that policy and would

See ‘Family’ Page &

AUTOMOTIVES: 24