Women face harsh consequences from housing insecurity and the threat of ‘demoviction’

In the Metrotown area of Burnaby, over 600 households have already been displaced by ‘demovictions’, that is, evictions occurring before a rental property is demolished to make way for new development. The crisis is likely to deepen if a proposed plan to rezone the area is approved by Burnaby City Council in November. It is clear that demovictions will cause particular devastation in the lives of people in poverty – people who are already living on the brink of homelessness, who live in older units more prime for demolition, and who will find it nearly impossible to find new housing that they can afford. And a huge number of these people are women.