Peter Owens is director of Burlington’s Community and Economic Development Office. Courtesy photo
In San Francisco, it seems that a 99-year-old woman will get to live out her life in her longtime apartment after a judge granted a tentative stay on eviction proceedings. But here in the East, the Burlington official who co-owns the apartment says he is out $137,000 in legal fees, is soon to be out of a job, and continues to be on the receiving end of a media firestorm.
Peter Owens, director of Burlington’s Community and Economic Development Office, had planned to step down June 30, he told Mayor Miro Weinberger in a letter. He’s now decided to leave early next month after coming under intense scrutiny for trying to evict Iris Canada, who has lived for more than six decades in the San Francisco apartment Owens has owned since 2002.
But Owens and other owners of the property say they never wanted to evict Canada, a longtime friend. They wanted her signature.
Canada lives in the apartment under an agreement called a life estate. It allows her to stay there for $700 a month for the rest of her life, as long as she is actually living there.
Owens, Canada and everyone else who owns or lives in the building — 14 people in total — collectively make decisions about what happens to the building under a San Francisco ordinance. So when a change in the law in 2014 allowed the building to be separated into individually owned condos — opening up potentially lucrative options — everyone was ready to sign the papers, say Owens and others.
Except Canada was nowhere to be found.
Owens maintains that having Canada’s signature wouldn’t have affected her claim to the apartment.
“This was a signature that Ms. Canada would’ve gladly given,” Owens wrote in a statement to VTDigger and other media outlets at the conclusion of court proceedings in San Francisco. “A signature that would’ve helped her neighbors who cared for her for many years; a signature that would’ve had no impact on her ability to live out her life in her long-time home.”
Her grand-niece Iris Merriouns, who neighbors believed was taking care of Canada, ignored months of attempts by Owens to contact Canada to have her sign the condo conversion documents, according to correspondence Owens provided.
Eventually, Owens said, he received an ultimatum from the other residents of 670 Page St. in San Francisco: Revoke the life estate, or get the signature.
In an Oct. 1, 2014, email that Owens also provided to VTDigger, a representative of the other owners wrote that they had been patient. “However, there are limits, and this matter must be resolved now,” the email said. “If the documents are not signed and returned by October 15th, we will compel you, (under the co-ownership agreement) to initiate revocation of the life estate as is your obligation.”
Merriouns paints a different picture. “My aunt has been harassed for the last couple years,” she said in an interview, referring to Owens’ attempts to contact her and her great-aunt.
Others in the building said that as far back as 2012 they started noticing medication piling up on Canada’s doorstep, rats in their apartments, and fire alarms blaring from the unit for weeks on end. Seeing no sign of the elderly tenant, they began to worry and ask questions, they said.
But Merriouns said her aunt has always lived in the apartment that Owens, his wife and his brother own. Canada was recovering from a stroke for a period of time and needed to be out of the apartment for a while, she said.
“My great-aunt has not been living with me. She resides at 670 Page St.,” Merriouns said.
“People can’t arbitrarily decide where she lives. Slavery is over, and people can’t interpret or just decide to their own advantage.”
“This is borderline elder abuse,” she said.
A cross-country backlash
Last week, activists gathered to support Canada outside the San Francisco Superior Court where the eviction case worked its way through the legal system. The activists have contacted all the city councilors in Burlington to express their contempt for the department head, and the Vermont Workers’ Center sent out a news release condemning Owens an hour after Mayor Weinberger announced Owens’ resignation.
More than a dozen media outlets from across the country have picked up the story.
High schoolers in San Francisco have been sending Owens emails as part of an anti-bullying assignment, asking him not to evict Canada.
“I’m sending this email because today I saw an article about the eviction of Iris Canada. I think it is difficult for an old woman 99 years old to find another place to live,” one email to Owens from a 10th-grader reads.
Owens regrets the reaction. “I’m humiliated. My career is a wreck,” Owens said. “It’s like being persecuted.”
Neighbors speak out
The San Francisco Chronicle visited Canada’s apartment for an April 13 story. There was a working television, pictures on the walls, used furniture — but Canada’s neighbors and Owens characterized that as a charade orchestrated by Merriouns for the media and the courts.
“(Merriouns) is trying to paint a picture of Peter trying to kick her out,” said Geoff Pierce, 40, who said he has lived next door to Canada since 2008. Pierce said he has seen a lot of activity in recent weeks, including a cable installation.
“This has always been about the safety of the building, because there is an empty apartment, and the safety of Iris Canada,” he said.
“We tried so many times to explain to (Merriouns) what this was about,” Pierce added. “It didn’t affect her life estate and we just need her signature, and she’s basically brought it to this point two years later dragging her aunt around to the courthouse.”
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