'Quite alarming': U.S. student says Vancouver housing unit subdivided with cardboard wall

Five thousand kilometers. That’s how long the road trip from Raleigh, North Carolina was to Vancouver for the Karoly family. It was a trip they were thrilled to do, following their son’s acceptance at Vancouver Film School.

“Let’s pack up the car and go,” Cyndi Karoly said. “Have a little adventure driving across the country.”

Cyndi’s 23-year-old son Roman was initially set to attend VFS in the fall for game design, but received a call that he’d been accepted for the August session.

Roman was told in order to secure his spot, he had to find a place to live immediately. He said he went online and came across units on a site called Harrington Housing, a co-living provider geared toward students and young professionals.

“When I looked online, this place had verified check marks,” he said.

UNCLEAN UNIT

The family booked the room, paid the security deposit and first month’s rent and set up a time to view it in person. They were also sent photos and videos of the unit.

When they showed up to see the space, the family said it was not what they were promised.

Upon arriving they said no building manager was available to walk them through it. Instead, a woman who claimed to have lived in the building for three weeks toured them through her unit – not the unit they had rented.

Eventually, they were given keys to unit 607 which they said did not match the initial photos and videos they had viewed.

On Harrington Housing’s website, it states, “all pictures shown are for illustration purposes only. The actual room may vary slightly due to the layout. An in-person or virtual tour is recommended.”

Cyndi said, the first thing they noticed when they walked into where Roman would be living for the next year, was the smell.

“We went back to his room, his designated room and it was like, ‘How are we going to get the smell out of this room?’” she said.

Roman said the unit was unsanitary, and provided CTV News with photos depicting stains in the kitchen and bathroom.

“On top of being unsanitary, it didn't feel safe,” he said.

‘LIGHT UP LIKE A HAYSTACK’

The two-bedroom suite had been subdivided into four bedrooms and the door to Roman’s room didn’t have a lock, according to the Karolys.

“If I had a daughter, I would have been extremely uncomfortable leaving her alone in a room like that where she couldn't lock the door,” she said.

CTV News requested an interview with Harrington Housing and was told we would receive a response.

On top of the odour and lack of privacy, the Karolys said the most concerning detail in the room was a cardboard wall taped together next to the stove, to create a make-shift room.

“I just had this thought in my mind: One grease-fire and this place is going to light up like a haystack,” Roman said.

Cyndi said she questioned whether this met the city’s building and fire codes.

CITY’S RESPONSE

According to the City of Vancouver’s chief building official, it does not.

Saul Schwebs said the addition of the make-shift wall adjacent to the stove in the unit was concerning.

“That’s quite alarming,” he said. “There are minimum requirements from combustive materials adjacent to stovetops in the Vancouver building bylaw, and that does not meet that.”

The unit is located at Ocean Park Place in the West End and is run by Canadian Apartment Properties REIT. Schwebs said subdividing units requires a building permit, and added that as far as he knew, CAPREIT did not apply for one.

“It could be allowable in these buildings, but it really does have to be completed under permits.”

Schwebs said the city has created a case file and inspectors will be following up to assess whether the unit is in compliance.

“I’m not surprised that this happened given the pressures people are under,” he said, but added, “It has to be safe housing, and this isn’t.”

‘APPLICABLE SAFETY STANDARDS’

CAPREIT did not respond to a request for an interview. Instead, in a statement to CTV News, CAPREIT said, “all units in the Ocean Park Place community adhere to applicable safety standards, including those established by the National Building Code of Canada and the BC Fire Code (2018).”

It added, “in Vancouver’s competitive real estate market, where affordability is a significant concern, CAPREIT is proud to collaborate with housing providers to offer housing options for students and young professionals, including through room-mating arrangements.”

The Karolys aren’t the first ones to question these types of units.

Earlier this month, CTV News reported on a CAPREIT-run building in New Westminster where some tenants said the landlord was trying to convert one-bedroom units into multiple rooms. CAPREIT stated there were currently no partitioned units at 435 Ash St. and that all units must comply with all safety standards.

Roman stayed at the Ocean Park unit for less than a week, eventually finding a new building to move into. The Karolys said Harrington Housing has told them they are responsible for finding a new tenant to replace Roman, and that they need to pay numerous fees for terminating the rental early.

“We had to make these decisions quickly and we really didn’t have the time we would have otherwise taken to scrutinize everything,” Cyndi said.