VANCOUVER -- Taxpayers shouldn't be responsible for keeping privately owned single-room occupancy hotels in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside safely sanitized during the COVID-19 crisis, according to one city councillor.
Melissa De Genova is presenting a motion at council Tuesday arguing that private SROs should be required to maintain proper cleaning – a measure intended to prevent vulnerable residents from catching the virus – without the city's help.
She noted that as a result of the devastating economic impact of the pandemic, the city projected a budget shortfall of at least $61 million earlier this month.
"Taxpayers can't afford to pay their own bills right now, never less the cleaning bills for privately owned SRO buildings," De Genova said on Twitter.
The city contracted cleaning services to sanitize rooms and common areas in SRO buildings as part of its plan for aiding residents of the Downtown Eastside during the crisis.
BC Housing, which takes federal and provincial funding, agreed to pay for the first two weeks of cleaning.
The intention was to protect the people who live in SROs and are "at high risk for infection from COVID-19, and statistically face the most devastating medical complication from the coronavirus, including death," according to De Genova's motion.
But the councillor said there's no guarantee BC Housing will continue to fund the cleaning, and the city, which is not legally allowed to run a deficit, can't afford to foot the bill on its own.
Her motion calls for updating the Single Room Accommodation By-law to make maintaining cleanliness the responsibility of SRO building owners. There is no specific cleaning requirement under the existing bylaw, according to the councillor.
In an attempt to stay afloat, the city has already laid off one in five workers, Mayor Kennedy Stewart revealed this month. He said without emergency funding from the federal and provincial governments, Vancouver could have to impose steep property tax hikes to survive the pandemic.
