Robin Lessard is terminally ill and may have only a few months left to live, but rather than being able to focus on her end-of-life plans, the Vernon mother is stuck worrying that her two kids won't have a place to live when she's gone.
Lessard lives in a low-income apartment building at 4504 15th Ave. She currently pays $1,005 per month for the three-bedroom unit, well below local listings for three-bedrooms, which are more in the range of $3,000 per month.
In early May, Lessard was issued an eviction notice and told she and her kids have until Sept. 30 to find a new home.
She says Andrew Rebeyka of Birchwood Peak Properties purchased their apartment building a few months ago and claims a 'renoviction' is in the works, with roughly 60 Vernon residents living in three apartment buildings in town given notices from Birchwood to vacate by the end of September due to renovations being done.
"I don't even make $3,000 a month, how am I supposed to pay $3,000 a month rent," said Lessard, a single parent, about the prospect of finding a new place to live "in the middle of a housing crisis."
Lessard questions why the eviction notices were issued, saying whatever renovations are planned should have been done unit by unit or building by building.
"To kick us all out at one time, that's just insane."
Lessard was given a year to live at the end of August 2023 after being diagnosed with stage three heart failure and other health complications, and she fears time is running out to secure her family's future.
"My main concern is I need to know that my kids are going to be OK. How can I pass peacefully when I feel like my kids are going to end up on the streets?"
Lessard and the other residents were offered $8,000 to leave their units, according to documents obtained by The Morning Star, and part of the agreement was to keep the settlement confidential.
"It's like a hush-hush thing," she said.
Lessard said she and others who didn't sign the agreement are banding together to fight the renoviction.
"There's about 13 of us so far that have filed with the renter's board," Lessard said.
Corrina Bowers, 21, is Lessard's eldest daughter. The college student has had to face the fact that she's going to lose her mom, and is preparing to take over legal guardianship of her younger sister.
She fears there is a good possibility she and her sister will be homeless after their mom passes.
"The stress that all of this has caused is extreme," Bowers said. "I feel like I am losing everything I have ever known all at one time. Instead of making memories with my mom and my younger sister, I now have to stress about where we are going to go."
Lessard and Bowers say they've done their research on Rebeyka and have found he has done this before. A Global article published in April says residents of 30 units at an apartment building owned by Rebeyka near Victoria have also been ordered to move out by the end of September so the owner can do renovations. That building was sold last year to another of Rebeyka's companies, Sturdee Investments.
Rebeyka did not respond to a request for comment by the time of this story's publication.
