Power to be cut at Vernon trailer park as essential repairs go unfixed

Published 4:30 pm Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Michella Hallas isn’t sure where to go from here.

The Vernon mother lives in the Crown Villa manufactured home park on Okanagan Avenue. She’s been a tenant there for 25 years. It was a stable and affordable path to home ownership until about five years ago, when the park’s state of disrepair began to surface.

In 2021, Technical Safety BC (TSBC) inspected the park’s electrical infrastructure and found that it was non-compliant. Since then, the owner of the park has refused to make necessary repairs, saying she doesn’t have the money to do so, according to a penalty decision from the Compliance Enforcement Unit of the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB).

The RTB says the 11 units in the park are all non-compliant with housing, health and safety standards and need emergency repairs.

Carolyn Goldstone, the park’s owner, now faces administrative penalties of $5,000 for each unit, totalling $55,000 due by March 10.

Hallas said she received a notice from TSBC in December saying the electrical system is unsafe, and power will be shut off on April 10.

This puts Hallas and her family in a tough spot. She and her partner have two kids — a teenager and a two-year-old — as well as pets. They own their manufactured home, which was built in the 1970s when the park was developed and can’t be moved.

If the emergency repairs aren’t made, Hallas fears they could have to abandon their home and try to find an affordable place to rent elsewhere — a tall task given current rent prices for a family of four with pets.

Some of the residents are planning to run generators in their homes once the power is shut off and “hope for the best,” but Hallas said that’s not a tenable solution for her family.

According to the RTB documents, pad rent at the Crown Villa park is in the range of $260 to $295, and Goldstone hasn’t increased the rent in the 37 years since she took ownership of the park.

“Which is poor management on her part,” said Hallas, adding that while enjoying very low rent has been nice, it would be better not to be forced from their home and potentially lose its value.

The RTB agrees.

Goldstone “appears to have failed to consider that being a landlord carries requirements at law to ensure the safety of her tenants or in this case occupants, at the rental property,” its decision reads. “Her decision not to increase rent for 37 years … in no way absolves her of the requirements for landlords.”

Goldstone, according to the decision, does not contest any of the TSBC’s assessments of the electrical system’s disrepair. Her position is that she simply can’t afford to complete the repairs and therefore, the government should step in and provide the funds, “because she is providing affordable housing and that the tenants do not want to increase their rent.”

As Hallas stated, an increase in rent would have been more welcome.

“I wish she had raised it all these years, because now we’re stuck in this situation.”

Hallas said she took Goldstone to RTB arbitration and Goldstone was told to fix her unit by April 10, but she added “they can’t enforce that.”

The RTB said raising rents incrementally would have provided Goldstone with the means to ensure that the property could be maintained “in a reasonable state of repair, and certainly in compliance with the health and safety requirements by law.”

The RTB noted that there is no evidence that Goldstone ever considered seeking financing on the property to complete the repairs. There is also no evidence that she is currently carrying a mortgage.

“I find that the Respondent has not made any attempt to ensure that she is financially able to maintain the rental property … other than seek government funding. I find that the position of the respondent is completely without merit and is untenable,” RTB director Scott McGregor said in his decision.

He called her continuous failure to maintain the park “deliberate.”

“I find that the actions of the respondent have deliberately placed her tenants at significant risk of harm and possibly death in the event of a fire or electrocution under the guise that she is providing affordable housing.”

Beyond financial and logistical contraints, Hallas said her home is her home. She has memories in this place, and she wants to continue making them there as her two-year-old grows.

“I got married here. My husband got sick and passed away here. My kids have all grown up and gone to school in this neighbourhood,” she said. “It’s very sad to think that we might be losing it.”

This isn’t the first time repair issues have cropped up at Crown Villa.

A similar situation occurred there in April 2022, when raw sewage was flowing through the park and Goldstone said she couldn’t afford to replace the septic system.

Goldstone declined to speak to The Morning Star at this time, but said she would provide an interivew at a later date.