Residents at one of the most rundown single-room occupancy hotels in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside fear they are facing homelessness after the property was deemed uninhabitable.
City staff posted an order to vacate at the Balmoral Hotel Friday morning, one day after desperate tenants gathered outside Mayor Gregor Robertson's office demanding the government step in and make urgently needed repairs at the building.
The residents' daily lives have been plagued with problems ranging from rats to mould to squatters, and a recently completed review of the building's structural integrity determined it is at risk of localized collapse. A release from the city warned remaining at the Hastings Street property would pose an "imminent danger."
The approximately 150 people who had been paying $450 and up to live in the Balmoral have been given 10 days to vacate, leaving some worried they will soon be living on the streets.
"It means I'm going to be homeless," said Edward Millard, who has been at the SRO for eight years. "I'm terminally ill with cancer, too."
City staff, police and firefighters attended the building as the notices were posted, as did workers from BC Housing, who assured residents they would be getting shelter options.
Vancouver promised municipal supports will be available immediately, including outreach staff who will help move residents' belongings to alternative housing. The city said outreach staff will be meeting with tenants face-to-face to understand their needs and find the right place for them to evacuate to and to move into permanently.
But Jean Swanson of the Carnegie Community Action Project said she's skeptical there will be room elsewhere for Balmoral tenants, considering how full the city’s shelters are.
"The city has 950 shelter spaces for 2,100 homeless people now, before the Balmoral gets emptied out," Swanson said. "This is a case where homelessness is going to go up by 150 practically overnight because there's virtually no place for these people to go."
Many of the residents have disabilities or other health problems, and advocates describe them as among the most vulnerable people in the Downtown Eastside.
Swanson said there’s a dire need for the provincial government to build more housing in the neighbourhood, but that the city is largely to blame for the Balmoral tenants' situation for letting conditions at the property deteriorate for years.
"I blame them a lot," she said. "The bylaw says they can go in and do the work and bill the owner. They haven't done that and they should have done that."
The building is owned by the Sahota family, who are well-known in Metro Vancouver for past issues at some of their rental buildings. The roof collapsed at one property in East Vancouver, The Pandora, in 2007, and the building was condemned for unaddressed problems eight years later.
Given the years of neglect the Balmoral has already faced, residents fear the building will simply be torn down and replaced with housing that caters to higher income renters, though deputy city manager Paul Mochrie insisted Vancouver is doing everything it can to pressure the Sahotas to complete repairs that will eventually allow people to move back.
"It's the city's intent to see this building restored to a condition that is appropriate for occupancy. This is very important housing stock for low-income residents in our city and we want to see it maintained as that," Mochrie told reporters at a news conference Friday morning.
Vancouver is also now prepared to complete repairs and charge the family if necessary, Mochrie said. Some have called for the city to take full ownership of the building, but Mochrie said that decision, and all the “risks and obligations that come with it,” would ultimately have to be decided by council.
He denied the city has ignored problems at the rundown SRO, and pointed to escalating enforcement orders against the Sahotas that started last year and identified a total of 183 deficiencies at the building from November to May. Dozens of those have gone to prosecution, but 150 remain unaddressed.
"This has been a significant focus of enforcement effort for years and years. I think we've reached a point here that's obviously extreme, but there's been an extensive amount of action on this building and with these owners for a long period of time," Mochrie said.
It's unclear how much it would cost to make the Balmoral livable, but Mochrie estimated it would take several million dollars. An engineering report delivered to the city in May cautioned the overall structure could be compromised by water damage and rot.
A letter handed out to residents names Pal Sahota as the Balmoral’s landlord. He has not responded to requests for comment from CTV News.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Nafeesa Karim
