The BC SPCA and First United Church have launched a campaign urging Premier David Eby to fulfill his promise of ending blanket pet bans in rental units across the province.
Coinciding with National Pet Day on April 11th, this endeavour calls on the Province to recognize the significant impacts of the current lack of pet-friendly rentals in BC.
According to recent estimates, approximately 85% of rentals in Victoria do not allow pets.
Rentals that do allow pets are often newer units, which are often more expensive and have smaller square footage.
Furthermore, in BC, landlords can charge up to half a month’s rent as a pet deposit, causing a financial burden for those who have to move with their pet.
For these reasons and more, the First United Church says they have seen that the current status quo of blanket pet bans definitely contributes to displacement and homelessness throughout BC.
The organization added that these bans have a particularly negative impact on vulnerable groups such as women escaping violence, 2SLGBTQAI+ people, seniors and other marginalized groups.
According to the BC SPCA people moving and not being able to find pet-friendly places is one of the primary reasons for surrender requests of healthy animals.
Despite these animals having loving families that desperately want to care for them, they are often given up simply due to lack of housing options for pets.
Since 2014, the BC SPCA says that over 12,400 pets have come into their care because of housing reasons alone.
During the 2024 provincial election campaign, one of Premier Eby and the BC NDP’s promises was to “end bias against pet owners in purpose-built rental housing.”
Since then, no change in legislation has been made to help pet owners have equitable access to housing.
First United and the BC SPCA have been in talks with the Ministry of Housing about the issue and have even submitted recommendations to amend the Residential Tenancy Act to prohibit pet restrictions in rental buildings with five or more units.
These amendment suggestions were submitted to the Province first in September 2025 and again in March 2026.
In addition to lobbying for change, the BC SPCA has also been trying to create new resources for landlords and tenants to create healthy communication around pet matters, such as their Pet-friendly Housing Toolkit.
“People should not have to choose between surrendering their pet and having a home,” said Sarah Marsden, director of systems change and legal for First United Church.
“The BC SPCA’s new Pet-friendly Housing Toolkit provides an invaluable resource to address the most common challenges that housing providers face in offering pet-friendly housing, including pet agreements and pet care resources for tenants.”
Both the BC SPCA and First United are urging pet owners to contact their MLA to push for the government to follow through on their promise to create more pet-friendly housing across the province.
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