Just a few years ago, it was just $797 to rent a two-bedroom unit at Sue Rehberg’s apartment building on Portage Avenue.
But after a 113 per cent monthly rent increase, Rehberg and many other residents feel they have been forced out, leaving a once close-knit community broken.
“That building is basically vacant right now,” Rehberg told CityNews.
The building at 2345 Portage Avenue was taken over by new owners in 2024, and it’s now managed and leased by Alliance Asset Management.
“It’s been two years of total chaos, of stress,” said Rehberg, who moved there in 2023. “And my heart just breaks for these older people that have been there since the ‘70s. And now on fixed incomes, what are they supposed to do.”
Sue Rehberg’s rent skyrocketed from $797 to $1,699, forcing her to leave her apartment on Portage Avenue. (Koby Mitchell, CityNews)
In June 2024, Rehberg says tenants received a monthly increase of $450. After residents fought it for two years, she claims the increase was eventually reduced by $41 this past June. That brought Rehberg’s rent to $1,206.
But the dust had hardly settled when management increased the rent by another $493 effective Oct. 1, Rehberg says, bringing her total monthly rent to $1,699. She moved out last month.
In a statement to CityNews, Alliance Asset Management says it spent $6.1 million renovating the 60-year-old building between December 2024 and May 2026 after a structural engineering firm found issues with the structure and the building’s main systems.
Some of those problems, according to Alliance Asset Management, were “severe corrosion” in the steel columns holding up the building; unreliable steel cables reinforcing the north parking deck; a foundation wall that had pushed in by six inches; and balcony concrete coming loose.
“We did the work, and we kept people in their homes while we did it,” the statement reads.
Sue Rehberg says 2345 Portage is “basically vacant right now” after a series of rent increases. (Koby Mitchell)
The property management company says rents at 2345 Portage were able to stay low for the longest time “because so little has been put into it.”
“When an owner keeps up with the work, rents stay closer to market, since the cost of major repairs can be recovered through the above-guideline process,” it says. “2345 Portage went decades without that kind of investment, so the rents before these increases were lower than they would have been in a building that had been looked after, and that lower number is the starting point people are now measuring from.
“We know a rent increase of this size is hard on the people who live here, and we want to be upfront about why it happened.”
According to Rehberg, though, the renovations were unnecessary, and she says many tenants would come home to unfinished renovations. She claims residents were compensated with a $100 gift card for food.
“It got to a point where I hated going home,” she said. “Because people knew me, and you walked into that building and it was just tension, and anger and frustration.”
Rehberg, who works as a paralegal, has a real estate lawyer as a colleague; he’s been advocating for Rehberg and is calling on more action from the Residential Tenancies Branch (RTB).
“There needs to be some proactive measures taken in terms of what really is a necessary renovation,” Christopher Kozier said. “What is cosmetic? What’s discretionary? Can there be a role for people who live there to play in the decision-making process?”
Real estate lawyer Christopher Kozier is calling on more action from the Residential Tenancies Branch. (Koby Mitchell, CityNews)
Alliance Asset Management says all the repairs were itemized and filed, with invoices, with the RTB. It says the Branch went through every invoice and “spread each cost over the expected life of the work, up to eight years for structural repairs.”
A spokesperson for Minister of Public Service Delivery Mintu Sandhu, in a statement to CityNews, said in part: “We have been told by the RTB that they have been working with her (Rehberg) to make sure she knows her rights, and I am told they will be reaching out to her again. We also are making plans to have someone from the provincial government to reach out to her.”
Rehberg says this is another case of tenants getting the short end of the stick.
“All these landlords can do whatever the hell they wanna do, and us tenants have to incur all the charges,” she said. “How does that even work? How is that possible? And when is it going to stop?”
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