Entering Ed Campbell's small apartment in Ottawa's Fisher Park neighbourhood, the signs of an impending move are all around.

An old brown leather suitcase sits packed with clothes and shoes, and plastic bags full of belongings are piled in the bedroom. Campbell, 68, is getting ready to move to Prescott, Ont., but it wasn't his choice.

The rooming house on Hamilton Avenue N. where Campbell has lived for the last decade is set for demolition, to be replaced with new housing. All eight tenants must be out by March 31, and most are discovering they simply can't afford Ottawa rents anymore.

Campbell has been paying $650 a month for his one-bedroom place, but after a long search, couldn't find anything comparable in Ottawa.

"It's very expensive — ridiculously crazy the prices they're asking here," he said. "By the time you pay rent you have no money for food or nothing else.… You're broke on payday."

Living on fixed incomes

Campbell considers himself lucky to have found anything at all. Some of the other tenants, many of them on fixed incomes, haven't been so fortunate.

Kevin Sylvester, 45, lives on disability payments, receiving $450 toward rent. He needs it all to afford the small bachelor apartment in the basement, where he shares a bathroom and kitchen.

It's going to put a lot of us into situations that we don't want to be in. - Kevin Sylvester, tenant

"We've ... all looked and realized that we're not going to be able to get rent anywhere near as cheap as what we're paying ... so it's going to put a lot of us in situations that we don't want to be in — we're maybe on the street, or who knows?"

Sylvester said he's been on the affordable housing wait-list for four years.

"I could pay a little bit more, but then that takes away from my food money to live off of for the month," he said

More than just a place to live

Sylvester said the rooming house's tenants have formed a community, one that he's sad to be leaving. He shares the basement with his uncle, and has become close friends with some of the other men.

He's afraid he won't find that again once they all move out.

Ed Campbell has lived in this Hamilton Avenue N. rooming house for 10 years. (Matthew Kupfer/CBC )

"Before I moved here I rented two rooms from people, and both of them [were] OK, but you're invading someone else's space, even if you're paying rent and everything else, you're still invading their space," he said.

Sylvester's uncle, John Wiggins, will miss that sense of community, too. He's lived at the rooming house for 14 years, and is now desperately searching for a new place he can afford.

"I got to keep looking. That's all I can do until March 31," he said. "I hate to leave this place, but I have no choice."

Housing emergency

Wiggins said he's watched the same thing happen to other rooming houses in the neighbourhood.

"I love the neighborhood. The neighborhood has nothing to do with it. It's what's happening in the neighborhood."

Ed Campbell, Kevin Sylvester and John Wiggins have all been forced to find new lodging in Ottawa's competitive housing market now that their home on Hamilton Avenue is set to be demolished. 0:44

Their city councillor, Jeff Leiper, brought up the men's case during Wednesday's debate on whether to declare a housing emergency in Ottawa. Council eventually agreed to the declaration.

The men who are about to be evicted applaud the city for recognizing the dire situation, but said they need more than words.

"Try and put some help toward more lower-income housing," Sylvester suggested.