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However, McNeil, who was the senior investigator in an evaluation of that program, said it had nothing to do with evictions involving drug users, but instead involved expanding the distribution of the overdose reversing drug naloxone in SROs.

“One of our principle findings was that there needs to be policy interventions to address people’s risk of eviction,” he said, adding researchers documented drug users in that study, recently published in the Journal of Health, being evicted because of their involvement in the program.

Vancouver’s bylaws define so-called single-room-occupancy units as hotels or rooming houses with less than about 320 square feet that typically include shared bathrooms and come without full kitchens.

The units are considered necessary affordable housing for people who would otherwise be on the street, but deplorable conditions in some hotels make them unlivable.

The study says noise complaints and breaches of building policies were among the most commonly cited reasons for eviction; but enforcement was prejudicial against drug users, and building policies, such as those involving curfews, were not typical in other types of rental housing.

DJ Larkin, an experienced housing rights lawyer who was an adviser on the study, said landlords have all the power so the law must be changed to provide some rights to people who face prejudice simply because they are poor and use drugs.

“The power imbalance is one of the fundamental reasons why provincial reform is necessary, and I also think it’s an answer to people who say ‘Why should landlords have to have someone who they don’t like as a tenant?’ None of that is relevant to whether or not there should be adequate protections in place to protect the rule of law and protect fairness,” she said.

Jean Swanson, a Vancouver councillor and former longtime anti-poverty and tenants’ activist in the Downtown Eastside, said most people living in the neighbourhood don’t know their tenancy rights.

Some supportive housing run by non-profit organizations is excluded from the Residential Tenancy Act, she said, calling that a “travesty.”

Swanson said she is considering bringing in a motion that would give full tenancy rights to all tenants.

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