Kingston, Ont., woman struggling to find home weeks ahead of sale-based eviction – Kingston | Globalnews.ca

A Kingston, Ont., woman and her family are facing an uncertain future, with their landlord selling their current home, rental prices at an all-time high, and housing availability at an all-time low.

“I don’t want to have to leave Kingston because I can’t find a place to live,” says Shanna Brathwaite, who is looking for a new home.

Brathwaite is a lifelong Kingston resident, and she says time is running out for her to find a new home for herself, her husband, two young children and their dog.

Her family has lived in her Sydenham Road home for three years, and in May of last year, her landlord told her that they were selling the house.

After reaching a cash-for-key agreement with the landlord, she has until Sept. 30th to find a new place to live.

Despite applying to over 500 rentals, she hasn’t been able to find somewhere new to call home.

“I work full-time, I can afford the rent — I’m on a program to help me with the rent,” says Brathwaite.

“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to get a place.”

She says she was in a shelter before this with her oldest child, and that she was able to secure her home through Home Base Housing, which pays for half of her rent.

Now, she says, between the lack of available housing and skyrocketing rent prices, she’s at a loss.

Brathwaite says that if they can’t find a place to live by the end of this month, her family will have to move into a hotel.

“I don’t want them to know that this is a really hard time for us,” she says.

“I don’t want my babies to have to go and live in a hotel.”

Various housing proposals like at the Davis Tannery lands, the capitol condo project on Queen Street, and two other highrise buildings on lower Queen Street have faced lengthy delays due to environmental and heritage concerns from local advocacy groups — among other reasons.

Tim Park, the director of Planning Services for the City of Kingston, says that there are a multitude of factors that contribute to Kignston’s low vacancy rate.

Factors such as the long, and sometimes arduous, planning application process, public pushback and the rising cost of building materials are all hurdles to increasing the housing stock and getting shovels in the ground.

“It’s not an unusual story, unfortunately,” says Park.

“So, we are continuing, trying to approve and bring forward projects that meet the intent of the official plan.”

For now, Brathwaite says she will keep looking, in hopes of finding somewhere for her and her family to call home.