A Statistics Canada survey suggests one in 100 Canadians has been evicted in the past 12 months and just over half of the evictions — 51 per cent — are commenced by landlords.
“Specifically, among the top reasons for eviction were the landlord wanting the unit for their own use (30 per cent), the landlord wishing to sell the property (17 per cent), and evicting tenants to perform major repairs or renovations (four per cent),” the April 12 report states, adding “caution” in interpreting the data is warranted due to a relatively small sample size, which is not stated.
Other reasons for evictions include difficulties paying rent (18 per cent), conflict with landlord (13 per cent) and “other” (19 per cent). The “other” category is not broken down but could including overcrowding (too many people were living in the unit), damage to rental unit, illegal activity, conflict with a neighbour and conversion of the rental property.
Of all Canadian renters who took the Canadian Social Survey last year, three per cent reported an eviction.
Among evictees there is greater proclivity to report poor mental health (46 per cent), compared with one in five members of the total population (20 per cent). An accepted measure of well-being, according to the report, is to have trust in others, but evictees report being less trustworthy than the rest of the population.
“When asked whether most people can be trusted, nearly seven in 10 evictees (69 per cent) reported having low trust in others, while 56 per cent of the total population indicated low trust in others, though this difference did not meet the threshold for statistical significance,” the report states.
And, evictees are younger Canadians: 59 per cent were between the ages of 25 and 44, with over one-third (34 per cent) being between the ages of 25 and 34.
