In 2019, Roy Clark and another person shared the $695 a month for an apartment at 58 Main Ave. The rent hadn’t increased for a decade.

But in June of 2019, AMK Barrett Investments Inc. bought the building. Not long after that, Roy Clark and the person he was sharing an apartment with got a letter from a related company, BlackBay Real Estate Group, indicating their lease was expiring soon.

It invited them to stay in the building. “There will however be a rental increase due to the major ongoing renovations and improvements to the building and apartment units,” said the letter.

If they wanted to stay, the new rent was going up to $1,350.

Then in May 2020, BlackBay sent them another letter. This time the rent for the apartment was going up to $1,600.

This will align ourselves with market rental rates in the area and is necessary to remain both competitive and sustainable as real estate operators,” said the letter.

If they didn’t want to stay in the apartment at the new rent, they had to leave by Oct. 1, the same day Roy Clark committed suicide. The other person in the apartment found somewhere else to live, but Roy Clark couldn’t find another home, said his nephew. “He died there,” said Shaun Clark.