‘We just want to stay in our home’: Facing eviction, residents of Simcoe trailer park fear ending up homeless
Story by The Canadian Press •
Darrell Goodlet has known homelessness.
He dreads knowing it again.
In theory, the Simcoe resident should not have to worry about being back on the street. He owns his own house — a roughly 700-square-foot trailer inside a trailer park he has called home for the past decade.
He had gotten back on his feet after living on the streets, and jumped at the chance to buy what he and his late wife thought would be their forever home.
“I want to die here,” Goodlet said.
But Goodlet and the park’s other residents rent the land on which their trailers sit — and their landlord wants them gone.
The property on Queensway West — a busy commercial thoroughfare — is municipally zoned “service commercial,” with the trailer park allowed to continue as a legal nonconforming use.
According to the eviction notice originally issued in 2019, the park was bought “as an investment property for future commercial development,” and the landlord — Simcoe businessperson Robert Kowtaluk — now “wishes to convert the use of the lands to commercial.”
The notice said the land “will be kept for commercial development, developed by the landlord, or sold for ‘service commercial purposes.’”
The first eviction notice listed the wrong address for the property, prompting a year’s reprieve for the residents, because by law the minimum notice for trailer owners in this situation is one year.
The trailer park has many long-term tenants, most of whom are seniors on fixed income. Ten of the 11 trailers on the property are still occupied, including one whose occupant grew up in the park.
Larry Roswell said he has spent $35,000 upgrading his trailer over the decade he has lived at the park.
“There’s a housing crisis, and he’s kicking people out,” Roswell said of Kowtaluk’s move to evict him and his neighbours.
Goodlet said he cannot afford to move his trailer, which due to its age and condition would likely “rip apart” if lifted off its foundations.
“And where are you going to move them to? There isn’t anywhere,” said fellow resident Debra Coulter, noting the lack of trailer parks in Ontario that allow year-round residency.
Eviction order appealed
The residents’ lawyers appealed the eviction order to the provincial Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).
At a hearing last year, Kowtaluk told the LTB he wants to clear the property — which he purchased in 2015 — and lease the land to his daughter’s equipment business adjoining the park for use as a showcase for heavy machinery.
The board sided with the landlord as long as he gave the residents the proper notice and paid them the compensation they are each owed under the Residential Tenancies Act, which is $3,000 or one year’s rent, whichever is less.
“That doesn’t even cover first and last (month’s rent), if you’re going to get a place,” said Kristy Hutchinson, whose trailer has been at the park since the late 1960s and is currently “not movable.”
There is a 10-year wait for affordable housing in Simcoe, and market rent for apartments far exceeds the roughly $350 the trailer park residents pay per month to rent their patch of land.
“I wouldn’t even care if the rent got doubled,” Hutchinson said.
Kowtaluk’s lawyer, Matthew Harmes of Simcoe firm Cobb and Jones, said the LTB made the right call.
“Our client’s position is that the interests of all parties were properly represented before the Landlord and Tenant Board at both the initial application and the subsequent request for review filed by the tenants,” Harmes said in an emailed statement to The Spectator.
“The tenants were capably represented by skilled counsel throughout the process and the tenants were afforded their opportunity to be heard in full. It is our position that the decisions of the Board, having been presented with all material evidence and law, were appropriate and correct.”
‘Nightmare’ scenario
In an interview with The Spectator, Joel Yinger from the Community Legal Clinic Brant Haldimand Norfolk called the prospect of eviction a “nightmare” scenario for his clients.
“They’re a pretty close-knit community and they’re facing not just eviction, but the loss of the homes that they own,” Yinger said.
“This has been looming over them since 2019.”
Timothy Boomer left his trailer uninhabited when he moved into a subsidized apartment in downtown Simcoe in April. He ended up at the trailer park 11 years ago as a last resort after a decade of misery that saw a physical disability end his career as a financial planner.
“I lost my house, my career, everything,” said Boomer, who called the eviction notice “a slap in the face.”
He has listed his trailer for sale, having made it clear that any buyer would have to arrange to move it.
“We’ve had the rug pulled out from underneath us,” he said. “All the money I had in the world went into that (trailer).”
The latest LTB ruling gave the tenants until Sept. 30 to move their trailers, and themselves, off the property. But their lawyers filed an appeal to Divisional Court, which will stay the eviction pending a new hearing.
“Our client intends on contesting the appeals vigorously and is confident that the decisions will be upheld,” Harmes said.
In the meantime, park residents like Coulter continue to live in suspense.
“I bought this place thinking this was going to be my forever home,” said Coulter, who has watched her neighbours move out and not be replaced.
She checks real estate listings “every day,” but there are no apartments within her price range.
“Everybody’s at the end of their rope,” Coulter said. “We just want to stay in our home.”
J.P. Antonacci, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator
Story by The Canadian Press •
Darrell Goodlet has known homelessness.
He dreads knowing it again.
In theory, the Simcoe resident should not have to worry about being back on the street. He owns his own house — a roughly 700-square-foot trailer inside a trailer park he has called home for the past decade.
He had gotten back on his feet after living on the streets, and jumped at the chance to buy what he and his late wife thought would be their forever home.
“I want to die here,” Goodlet said.
But Goodlet and the park’s other residents rent the land on which their trailers sit — and their landlord wants them gone.
The property on Queensway West — a busy commercial thoroughfare — is municipally zoned “service commercial,” with the trailer park allowed to continue as a legal nonconforming use.
According to the eviction notice originally issued in 2019, the park was bought “as an investment property for future commercial development,” and the landlord — Simcoe businessperson Robert Kowtaluk — now “wishes to convert the use of the lands to commercial.”
The notice said the land “will be kept for commercial development, developed by the landlord, or sold for ‘service commercial purposes.’”
The first eviction notice listed the wrong address for the property, prompting a year’s reprieve for the residents, because by law the minimum notice for trailer owners in this situation is one year.
The trailer park has many long-term tenants, most of whom are seniors on fixed income. Ten of the 11 trailers on the property are still occupied, including one whose occupant grew up in the park.
Larry Roswell said he has spent $35,000 upgrading his trailer over the decade he has lived at the park.
“There’s a housing crisis, and he’s kicking people out,” Roswell said of Kowtaluk’s move to evict him and his neighbours.
Goodlet said he cannot afford to move his trailer, which due to its age and condition would likely “rip apart” if lifted off its foundations.
“And where are you going to move them to? There isn’t anywhere,” said fellow resident Debra Coulter, noting the lack of trailer parks in Ontario that allow year-round residency.
Eviction order appealed
The residents’ lawyers appealed the eviction order to the provincial Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB).
At a hearing last year, Kowtaluk told the LTB he wants to clear the property — which he purchased in 2015 — and lease the land to his daughter’s equipment business adjoining the park for use as a showcase for heavy machinery.
The board sided with the landlord as long as he gave the residents the proper notice and paid them the compensation they are each owed under the Residential Tenancies Act, which is $3,000 or one year’s rent, whichever is less.
“That doesn’t even cover first and last (month’s rent), if you’re going to get a place,” said Kristy Hutchinson, whose trailer has been at the park since the late 1960s and is currently “not movable.”
There is a 10-year wait for affordable housing in Simcoe, and market rent for apartments far exceeds the roughly $350 the trailer park residents pay per month to rent their patch of land.
“I wouldn’t even care if the rent got doubled,” Hutchinson said.
Kowtaluk’s lawyer, Matthew Harmes of Simcoe firm Cobb and Jones, said the LTB made the right call.
“Our client’s position is that the interests of all parties were properly represented before the Landlord and Tenant Board at both the initial application and the subsequent request for review filed by the tenants,” Harmes said in an emailed statement to The Spectator.
“The tenants were capably represented by skilled counsel throughout the process and the tenants were afforded their opportunity to be heard in full. It is our position that the decisions of the Board, having been presented with all material evidence and law, were appropriate and correct.”
‘Nightmare’ scenario
In an interview with The Spectator, Joel Yinger from the Community Legal Clinic Brant Haldimand Norfolk called the prospect of eviction a “nightmare” scenario for his clients.
“They’re a pretty close-knit community and they’re facing not just eviction, but the loss of the homes that they own,” Yinger said.
“This has been looming over them since 2019.”
Timothy Boomer left his trailer uninhabited when he moved into a subsidized apartment in downtown Simcoe in April. He ended up at the trailer park 11 years ago as a last resort after a decade of misery that saw a physical disability end his career as a financial planner.
“I lost my house, my career, everything,” said Boomer, who called the eviction notice “a slap in the face.”
He has listed his trailer for sale, having made it clear that any buyer would have to arrange to move it.
“We’ve had the rug pulled out from underneath us,” he said. “All the money I had in the world went into that (trailer).”
The latest LTB ruling gave the tenants until Sept. 30 to move their trailers, and themselves, off the property. But their lawyers filed an appeal to Divisional Court, which will stay the eviction pending a new hearing.
“Our client intends on contesting the appeals vigorously and is confident that the decisions will be upheld,” Harmes said.
In the meantime, park residents like Coulter continue to live in suspense.
“I bought this place thinking this was going to be my forever home,” said Coulter, who has watched her neighbours move out and not be replaced.
She checks real estate listings “every day,” but there are no apartments within her price range.
“Everybody’s at the end of their rope,” Coulter said. “We just want to stay in our home.”
J.P. Antonacci, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator
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