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“I’m hoping to get it to cooler heads to negotiate a settlement outside the courts. Not only is the rent issue my concern, but the living conditions as well as the accessible housing issue are also at stake.”

Williamson, a father of three, said he was “pretty high functioning” until around 2010 when one day he got up, went to the washroom and suddenly fell to the floor. He was in bed for a month and went to the hospital, and eventually it was determined he had broken several vertebrae in his back.

He lives at the townhouse with one of his sons, who has serious mental health issues.

Joshua Prowse, a lawyer with the society, a non-profit legal office that provides services to low- and moderate-income people, said he believes that Williamson has somehow fallen through the cracks in the system.

“We don’t want to be very litigious with this. We’re very hopeful that somebody will take another look at this and we can all come to some compromise. Nobody wants somebody in Guy’s position to be put out of their home.”

No response has been filed to the petition, which contains allegations that have not been tested in court.

“We can’t comment on the particulars due to confidentiality, other than to indicate the tenant is appealing an order that has been granted by the Residential Tenancy Branch which we believe is well supported,” Don Bradley of Metro Vancouver said in an e-mail. “As the matter is in litigation, we’re not able to comment further.”

kfraser@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/keithrfraser

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