Roland Kym

VANCOUVER—Tenants who were promised affordable housing as part of the Vancouver Olympics legacy are calling on the city to “do the right thing” and take responsibility for a series of unexpected utility bills.

About 20 tenants say they’ve been saddled with additional costs they were never told about when signing resident agreements, and the bills can amount to as much as 10 per cent of their monthly income.

The bills cover the costs of hot and cold water and the heating it provides through an energy company called Enerpro, and the bills must be paid in addition to regular BC Hydro bills.

Former forestry engineer Ritta Mikkonen has been unable to work since a car accident seven years ago and neither can her husband Connor, a former RCMP officer, who suffered blood clots in his legs. When she got the call that they would get a one-bedroom at $400 per month, they had been homeless for 14 months.

“I was so overwhelmed I started crying,” Ritta Mikkonen said. “I felt like we won the lottery.”

Residents were so shocked when they received their first bills last spring — the Mikkonens were charged $148 for two months, although some bills came in at $50 — they complained to the city.

Payments were suspended until about January 2012, but the group now fears the time when the bills come back online, when they may face eviction if they can’t make the payments.

The property managers have told residents if they don't pay up, they may face eviction, said lawyer Scott Bernstein, with Pivot Legal Society.

“We say that’s incorrect and that’s wrong and that’s unfair and we would like the city to take responsibility for this and deal with those bills accordingly,” said Bernstein, who is assisting the group by collecting affidavits in order to generate a legal opinion on their rights.

The City of Vancouver pledged to create hundreds of units of social housing after athletes vacated the Olympic Village following the 2010 Games, but that number was slashed to a fraction when the city needed to recoup costs.