Dear valued investors,

As we find ourselves mid-way through September, we are pleased to report that Avenue Living is stronger than it has ever been, and we remain in command and in control of our business. The COVID-19 environment proves interesting. We’ve managed to adapt to the changing marketplace, changing credit environment, and changing customer service demands.

We also continue to focus on operations, which is a distinct part of our Avenue Living competitive advantage.

While we need to be very careful about formally asking current residents on their method of payment, we have had many discussions with them and our conversations around ability to pay have not led to any alarm. We continue to encourage our residents to talk with us if they have any concerns about making rent payments and will offer them the option to move to a weekly payment option if needed. To date, we haven’t had a high uptake of this offer.

The Canadian government has made it very clear that they are willing to do what it takes to ensure that everyone who is unable to work as a result of COVID-19 will be taken care of. This is evidenced in the new EI program which, with a new lower insurable hours requirement and insurable hours credit, enables all Canadians to access a minimum of $400/week (only a small decrease from the $500/week on CERB). While this is not finalized, it is sounding like this will be available for 26 weeks.

From a peak of around 8 million individuals, the number of people left on CERB is down to 4.5 million, according to the new finance minister Chrystia Freeland. An estimated 3 million will enter the EI system and another 2 million are expected to use the recovery benefits.

Avenue Living continues to be the preferred choice for high quality affordable rental options. At a minimum of $400/week on this new program, Avenue Living remains very attainable; with our average monthly rents near $1,000 and on average two paying residents per apartment, we are still within the 30% of income on household spending guidelines in place from CMHC.

Overall, we are excited for what the balance of the year will bring for us, and we anticipate seeing continued financial and operational performance.

Reminder: September deadline for Core Trust orders is September 22.

We look forward to setting our next call for October to review our Q3 results. Our September call update audio file can be found in the link below.