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This is the third article in V.I.A’s series looking at how people in the Lower Mainland are dealing with high housing costs.
When V.I.A. first spoke with Jocelyn she was living with her fiancee in a 500 square-foot carriage house in Surrey with their five-month-old baby and their dog.
"We've been trying for a year but really aggressively for six months to find a place and just having no success at all," she says.
She used to own a house with a former boyfriend. "We got engaged. We thought we were in love but I had a miscarriage and he didn't handle it well."
Jocelyn says her ex-boyfriend abused alcohol and "it was too much. There were times where I had to call the ambulance because I didn't know if he had swallowed pills. If he was going to attack me. I had to leave. I called my friends and my parents one day, packed my crap and I left."
She took her dog with her fearing what would happen if she left the pet with her ex and because "I adopted her. She's my responsibility." Jocelyn moved in with her parents and found the ad for the carriage house, which originally did not allow pets.
The landlord "gave her a chance" and when the tenants living in the house didn't pay their rent, trashed the place and left it was Jocelyn that helped the landlord clean up the unit. When new tenants moved in one of them had a dog "because my landlord's like, 'maybe I'll give her a chance too.'"
Her new boyfriend, who is now her fiancee, moved in with her and they moved 60 per cent of their belongings into Jocelyn's grandparent's basement for storage to make space for the new baby.
The space is too small for her growing family but finding an affordable pet-friendly rental has been an ongoing struggle. "If there is a pet-friendly place the competition is very intense. There will be anywhere from 20 to 40 applicants on that one place even if it's nothing special and a total hole in the wall."
One of her friends and her financee are in a similar situation. "They're living in a trailer on a farm with two giant dogs and she's pregnant."
Jocelyn has a "glowing reference letter," has reached out to housing groups on Facebook and posted a wanted ad telling her story with a picture of her family attached without any luck. Strangers have offered to take her dog in but Jocelyn says she would never think of getting rid of her "furbaby."
"My daughter is also in love with my dog. My daughter's starting to laugh and she doesn't laugh at anything except for the dog. The dog and her are like best friends and they are super connected. I want them to grow up together," she says.
Her fiancee's mother is retiring to help take care of their daughter once Jocelyn returns to work from maternity leave and a dog walker was hired to help out the busy new mom.
Jocelyn's dedication and effort to find a new space did finally pay off. Recently, Jocelyn told V.I.A that her family found a pet-friendly place to rent. "It's been a tough road for us but I know many people face the same struggle."
She hopes that more landlords will keep an open mind in considering if they should rent to people with pets.
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