Disabled Halifax renter fears losing home to bus lane project

A Halifax tenant is worried that the city’s plan to expand bus lanes will cost her the building she has called home for 26 years.

Kristine Benjamin said she panicked after discovering the province and the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) had purchased her neighbour’s home and planned to demolish it soon for a new bus lane on Robie Street. She said she’s afraid it might be a few short months before the governments similarly take ownership of her building, displacing her and her cat, Ollie.

“I don’t know where I’m going to go. I’m currently receiving disability. I have an illness, and my current income is less than what they’re asking for apartments nowadays,” she said.

A few years ago, she saw an online notice from the municipality explaining the plan to expand Robie Street as part of the municipality’s $189 million Rapid Transit Strategy. The city is spending $86 million on transit priority lanes and intersection improvements. The Robie Street/Young Street bus lane expansion project is happening in two phases.

Phase one, completed in 2020, was to add bus lanes to Robie Street between Quinpool Road and Young Street. Phase two is “in progress” and includes adding priority bus lanes on the west side of Robie Street between North Street and Cunard Street. However, to do that, the city must purchase the properties along that stretch of street where Benjamin and several others rent apartments.

By law, a landlord must notify the tenant in Nova Scotia that their lease is ending if they sell a residential property. Benjamin said she has yet to hear anything.

In renoviction cases, the Nova Scotia Residential Tenancies Act states the landlord must give the tenant at least three months notice and compensate tenants for up to three months of rent. However, it also says that if the landlord owns several properties, they can offer the tenant a similar unit for a similar price, and if the tenant agrees to those terms, the landlord forgoes the compensation of up to three months of rent.

Benjamin remains confused about what is happening to her and worries the governments may force her to move and that she will be left homeless.

“From my perspective, I don’t have a landlord anymore, it’s going to be the city — that’s who’s forcing me to move,” she said. “So, they should be on the hook for finding me and others here — of course, it’s not just me — affordable housing.”

Laura Wright, a senior representative from HRM’s public affairs office, said the city and the province have bought the neighbouring property beside Benjamin’s apartment building and intends to acquire a portion of the land on which Benjamin’s building sits. 

The city also said the municipality doesn’t involve itself with issues concerning tenants when it acquires properties.

“The municipality works directly with landowners on land acquisitions,” Wright said. “Compensation, if any, would fall between the landlord and tenant, so we cannot speak to this.” 

Nowhere to go

Benjamin has lived in her one-bedroom apartment near North Street for 26 years. She recalled celebrating birthdays in her kitchen and having three cats live with her, plus several foster cats.

She currently pays $779 per month for her one-bedroom apartment and said the money she receives from the province for her disability barely covers her current rent. The average monthly price for a one-bedroom apartment in Halifax in 2024 was $1,464, according to a recent report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Benjamin said she can’t afford to move anywhere in Halifax and worries about her cat, Ollie, who she rescued ten years ago.

“That’s where I start to cry because I don’t know what I’m going to do with him. People don’t want a semi-feral cat,” she said. “I don’t like to think about it. I can’t. I have to find a new place for both of us to live.”

Benjamin’s landlord did not respond to The Signal’s request for an interview.