Landlord evicting military family shifts blame

[tabernac]

First off if said Cpl is coming back from a tour in AFG, he should be coming back with a fair chunk of change in pocket correct? Why not take that money and use it for a down-payment on a home. Doesn't have to be the Taj-ma hall or anything, but 2+ bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, basement can't be all that bad.

As someone who live in Edmonton, and recently had to help look for an inexpensive property, I can honestly say that you are way out of your lane (on civvie homes that is, I wouldn't know about the PMQs). A 2 bedroom condo goes for around 250k. And that's a deal, and the condo is probably in real bad shape. Want a (rundown) house? Add 75-100k. Living in Edmonton is insanely expensive, hence the people living around Edmonton in tents.

Just want to help...

 

[a_majoor]

While living in Edmonton is very expensive, don't Regular Force personnel have PDA (Post Differential Allowance) to help out? The article wasn't clear if the returning soldier is Reg or Reserve, but if he is a Reg, then "reasonable" housing shouldn't be beyond his means.

BTW, I'm with most of you here: get rid of the pets if you are in these circumstances.

 

[MJP]

While living in Edmonton is very expensive, don't Regular Force personnel have PDA (Post Differential Allowance) to help out? The article wasn't clear if the returning soldier is Reg or Reserve, but if he is a Reg, then "reasonable" housing shouldn't be beyond his means.

BTW, I'm with most of you here: get rid of the pets if you are in these circumstances.

Nope no PLD or Living allowance in Edmonton. 

 

[tabernac]

Why is there no living allowance in Edmonton?

 

[BC Old Guy]

Why is there no living allowance in Edmonton?

PLD allowance is calculated over a three year average, which means that it is not very up-to-date for locations that see very quick rises in cost of living. One part of the calculation is how expensive the location is compared to the CF average.  The other parts of the calculation are complicated, and relate to the Consumer Price Index for the country and for the specific location.  Housing, either owned or rented, is only one part of the calculation.

Since Edmonton's housing prices have started to go up mainly in the last 3 years, it is likely that the new costs have not been included in the calculation.

I have heard from people I consider reliable that the calculation is being redone, but it may take some time before we see the results, since it has to be sold to the Treasury Board, who don't always see things the same way we do.

 

[gaspasser]

Landlord evicting military family shifts blame
By GLENN KAUTH, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA
From the Edmonton Sun
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2007/06/03/4230394-sun.html
     


A landlord who is evicting a local soldier and his family says it's the military's job to make sure its troops can find affordable housing, not his.

"That is the Canadian government not taking care of their dirty dishwashing," said Alain Phaneuf, owner of the two-bedroom home Cpl. Jeremy Augustine and his family must vacate by the end of August.

Earlier this month, his wife, Joan Couling, told Sun Media she and Augustine may have to head east if they can't find a reasonable place to live. Since then, she's been looking for housing, but the cheapest place she found wouldn't take the family's two pugs.

"I feel sorry for her and all that. But everyone is out for themselves, not to protect the world," said Phaneuf.

Couling, 30, was able to get a one-month extension on the eviction after she challenged a letter from Phaneuf saying he was selling their house in the city's northwest. She argued he couldn't make them leave since he hadn't sold the house yet.

 

Instead, Phaneuf is having his father move in at the end of August so they can renovate the home in preparation for a sale. Meanwhile, Augustine will return from duty in Afghanistan later this summer to find himself looking for a new place to live.

Couling's struggles come as local soldiers find it increasingly hard to get housing in Edmonton. Strathcona Legion president Ted Gazley, a former soldier who lived in military housing in the 1960s, says it's time for the government to come forward with assistance for local soldiers.

"We need our government to step in there and help them out," he said.

The couple are not being evicted because they cannot pay the rent, they are being evicted because the landlord wants to sell the property.  Where did the big jump in logic come from the the soldier cannot afford accommodation? I've never lived in Edmonton but I've heard that housing is at a premium and costly.  But we are paid well and should be able to afford something out west??!! I agree that with himself coming home for overseas, he'll have a wallet full of money to afford a downpayment on something affordable.  The whole media thing is a moot point and they're {the media} just out to make the military look bad.
My 0.02

 

[Blackadder1916]

An excerpt from a column in today's Edmonton Sun .
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2007/06/06/4238150-sun.html

Just how bad is this rental housing crisis? Real bad.
How bad is this "affordable housing" crisis? Even worse.
Going into 2006, says city housing director Jay Freeman, Edmonton had about 11,000 housing "units" that were, one way or another, subsidized or considered affordable housing.
Of course they were 100% occupied by eligible low-income folks.
The number of new affordable housing units built in 2006? About 200, says Freeman.
Meanwhile, the number of rental units has dropped due to condo conversion. The rents of those left have sky-rocketed.
The total rental vacancy right now is about 0.5%, says Freeman.
The vacancy rate 10 years ago was 10.9%.
The number of people in dire need of rental assistance? Nobody knows for sure. But it's staggering.
If 30% or more of a family's gross income is going to accommodation, theoretically that family needs help.
As far back as 2001, over 38,000 Edmonton families qualified.
Imagine that figure today.
BIG, BIG BUCKS
The amount of cash being thrown at the housing challenge is $45 million per year for the next three years.
That's Edmonton's share of the provincial promise in the 2007 budget for affordable housing.
Building subsidized housing is real expensive, at least $150,000 per unit.
Non-profit housing groups are very good at "leveraging" that government money for housing.
Even if they can double the provincial cash, that's somewhere between 300 to 600 units a year.
And it'll take at least 18 months before those units can be built and occupied.

Affordable housing is a big issue in Alberta (not just Edmonton) right now.  Our economy is booming and with that success comes problems, one of them is housing.  It is interesting that when the brigade moved to Edmonton, a comment I heard often was that soldiers would be able to afford "more house" or at least be able to buy a house since Edmonton was so much cheaper than Calgary (and Calgary back then was still cheaper than most of the comparable markets in Canada) .  I believe I also heard something similiar in at least one briefing about the benefits of moving the brigade. 

As for the media looking to smear the military;  probably not.  This seems to me to be a housing story, very common these days locally (in Alberta).  My take is it is more likely that the soldier's wife contacted the reporter hoping that by presenting her problem in the press someone (another landlord, military authorities) would offer her a solution.  Happens often (and regularly) out here with others (not military), but the military is riding a crest of popularity these days, so yes, a reporter took advantage of a situation to get another piece printed with his byline.

 

[the 48th regulator]

Very good on ya!  M Feetham.

Have you ever been to Edmonton?  The number of PMQs are rather limited.  It was an Air Base and then the Liberals moved in a Bde (4,000 or so soldiers).  No new PMQs have been built.  In fact, many old ones have been sold off. 

So you figure a Cpl, who has been paying his paycheque on rent, can suddenly scrap up enough for a mortgage on a 500K home and still provide the necessities for his family?

:  Right!

Uh George,

Let me see;

According to  DPPD.  at DND's site, a basic corporal 5A makes $4069.00, which I assume is before taxes, he would be making over $48,000 a year. 

Not bad as that is more than I make in my current civvy job;

Now let's move along to MLS and see what the average home goes for.

Homes around Edmonton area ranging between 100-200k

Quite an extensive list.

Now let us look at the Bank I used, which is available across Canada;

Scotiabank  Here are some of the latest rates

Zero down, I did it, and I live in Toronto, make less than what the husband makes, even if he were at the bottom of his rank, and am able to carry a mortgage that is affordable. 

It's tough, but I do it, as I am sure many others who are in the military.

Maybe these people should stop expecting to be spoon fed, and stop abusing the media for their own personal gain.

dileas

tess

 

[Teflon]

Now let's move along to MLS and see what the average home goes for.

Homes around Edmonton area ranging between 100-200k

Quite an extensive list.

Just a point, none of those houses listed are in or relatively close to Edmonton - Wainwright is about 2hrs away (quite the long comute every morning and late afternoon - it's not even in local phone coverage. Neither is Barhead, Napa, Elk Point or any of the other small towns listed on that page.

I'm pretty sure you would be hard pressed to find a house or even a condo for 100K to 200K in Edmonton

 

[Journeyman]

Let me see...

Income, market, interest rates.... hang on, you didn't factor in......


....the PUGS!

Another logic-based argument down the tubes  

 

[Blackadder1916]

Tess, I tried your link to the MLS search and the first property on the list is in Wainwright.  That's not a commute, that's a road move.

These may be more realistic.  Edmonton and surrounding counties.  Criteria used 100k - 200k, 2 or more BR.
Edmonton
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyResults.aspx?Mode=0&Page=1&vs=1&rlt=&cp=&pt=0&mp=100000-200000-0&mrt=-1-0-0&Beds=2-0&Baths=0-0&f=&ft=all&o=A&of=1&ps=10&ptgid=1&aid=6265&MapURL=%3fAreaID%3d8688

21 - Leduc County, 29 - Sturgeon County - St. Albert, 30 - Parkland County / Spruce Grove / Stony Plain
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyResults.aspx?Mode=0&Page=1&vs=1&rlt=&cp=&pt=0&mp=100000-200000-0&mrt=-1-0-0&Beds=2-0&Baths=0-0&f=&ft=all&o=A&of=1&ps=10&ptgid=1&aid=6284%2c6292%2c6294&MapURL=%3fAreaID%3d8688

 

[the 48th regulator]

Right on,

Thanks guys, being from Toronto, it is hard to imagine life outside of the city.

As for finding something for that amount, I think Blacky helped to prove my point.

dileas

tess

 

[formerarmybrat23]

that MLS search is pretty disappointing. 100000-200,000 for what? a trailer park home, or a "condo conversion" (i.e nasty old apartments they got tired of renting) no thanks. I think her and those dogs would be better back east. Get a nice house lakeside with lots of acreage for that.  Its nuts out there!

 

[camochick]

I will have to agree with formerarmybrat23 on this, those properties are lame and not worth what they want for them. It's not as easy as it looks to buy a house out here. Even if you fine something affordable you have to be able to put an offer on it right away, and that offer has to be over the asking price, or you won't get the house. I had friends trying to buy houses in the 600k-800k range and it took them a good two or three months to "win" a house because 25-30 over the asking price wasn't getting them a house. My husband and i pay more than a mortgage to live in our condo type apartment, because we cannot afford to buy something that isn't a piece of crap.

That being said, this woman is just a whiner who should do what the rest of us do and pick up a paper, or an apartment guide and start doing some foot work to find a place.

 

[the 48th regulator]

that MLS search is pretty disappointing. 100000-200,000 for what? a trailer park home, or a "condo conversion" (i.e nasty old apartments they got tired of renting) no thanks. I think her and those dogs would be better back east. Get a nice house lakeside with lots of acreage for that.  Its nuts out there!

yeh,


Now that would sound dandy, if her husband were able to make a transfer.....call me cynical, but the house hunting might be alot easier.

dileas

tess

 

[Spring_bok]

Everything is linked to market value.  I have yet to hear someone complain about all the money they made selling their 3 bedroom  bungalow in Edmonton for over 300,000 dollars.  We can't post everyone to Gagetown just because house prices are lower.  Even if we did the demand would increase and this would drive the price up. 

 

[mover1]

just another example of the "y" generation as in "why me"

 

[formerarmybrat23]

my dad is in gagetown. he bought a house there last year. As it seems everyone is. Everything within 20mins drive from the base has gone up quite a bit. good luck too all home buyers, I think I'll hold out until the baby boomers have all retired and are trying to sell their homes that should clear up the market everywhere.

 

[armyvern]

my dad is in gagetown. he bought a house there last year. As it seems everyone is. Everything within 20mins drive from the base has gone up quite a bit. good luck too all home buyers, I think I'll hold out until the baby boomers have all retired and are trying to sell their homes that should clear up the market everywhere.

Sure it's gone up quite a bit...

I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that there are a crapload of troops coming home from operations over the next couple months with 6 months tax-free income...and all their overseas operational allowances burning holes in their pockets.

Exactly as is the case for the young lady with the two pugs in Edmonton whose husband is returning from tour shortly. No offense, but they can afford accomodations...and I don't feel the least b it of sympathy for her or her plight. Not a single ounce.

Now some poor Private who's just getting posted out there with a wife and 3 kids, and no 6 month tax free income or allowances from coming off a tour...that's a whole 'nother situation entirely. This lady though is, quite simply, full of El Toro Poo Poo.

 

[Greymatters]

Im glad several people pointed out the limited hosuing issue.  Even if you have the money, its hard to find a place to live if the limited market is driving piles of garbage up in price.

One question that hasnt been asked is: did the Corporal leave his family enough money to live on?  Even though a Corporal gets paid a good salary it doesnt do the family any good if the soldier keeps most of it with him overseas. 

(And dont tell me this doesnt happen.  I saw numerous examples of it over a 20 year period...)