'These buildings aren't fit for people': Advocate sounds alarm on Vancouver SRO challenges
The devastating fire at Gastown’s Winters Hotel has brought more attention to the issues plaguing Vancouver's single-room occupancy residences.
Stephanie Smith, an SRO advocate and city council candidate, said the tragedy --in which two people were killed – laid bare the conditions in which some of the city's most vulnerable residents are living.
“It's been very, very hard for everyone to sort of process and deal with what happened at the Winters.I think what this highlights is that these buildings aren't fit for people,” Smith said.
There are hundreds of SROs in the neighbourhood, and maintaining them can be difficult.
“We make sure that things are being maintained and in appropriate condition. What we're finding often in the SROs is that they're not really being maintained in top form and often in unsafe conditions – and that's where we really need to enforce more,” explained Coun. Pete Fry.
“It's a bit of a challenge though because we don't want to jeopardize that stock. So, for our staff, it's a bit of a balance.”
It isn’t just city staff struggling to find that balance.
Smith said many tenants do not feel like they can safely voice their concerns.
“It's very challenging for the tenants to try to assert their rights because they are marginalized. They don't have any place else to go, you know, and if they are evicted from their buildings they will end up in the street,” Smith said.
Fry said the city recognizes the current SRO options are not ideal and the municipality is working with the province on solutions.
“How can we house people in a dignified way that will stabilize them as well? A lot of stuff we're working with the province on is complex care, different kinds of approaches to housing different populations,” Fry said.
Smith agrees there need to be more options.
“It's very important for us to start building adequate, safe, dignified housing (where) people have their own bath and a place to cook -- and we don't have to worry about the building burning to the ground when someone lights a candle in their room,” Smith said.
For others, watching the heritage building burn stoked fears about how easily something similar might happen to others in the historic neighbourhood.
“I seen that building burned down just, you know, shivers down my spine,” Eddie Emerman, building manager of the nearby Blarney Stone, told Vancouver city council at a special meeting earlier this week.
He revealed the apartment units in the upper levels of the building do not have any sprinklers because the building is deemed a non-conforming building and renovations must be done first.
“Sprinklers save lives – period. Having sprinklers in the building with the current existing non-conforming building structures is better than the status quo, which we will keep rather than spending millions of dollars trying to bring the building up to the modern ‘code’ in order to have sprinklers approved. We simply cannot afford to do so,” Emerman said.
The Winters Hotel did have working sprinklers, but they were turned off because there had been another fire there just three days before.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'They needed people inside Air Canada:' Police announce arrests in Pearson gold heist
Police say one former and one current employee of Air Canada are among the nine suspects that are facing charges in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year.
Why drivers in Eastern Canada could see big gas price spikes, and other Canadians won't
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
Customers disappointed after email listing $60K Tim Hortons prize sent in error
Several Tim Horton’s customers are feeling great disappointment after being told by the company that an email stating they won a boat worth nearly $60,000 was sent in error.
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter banned from NBA
Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter has been handed a lifetime ban from The National Basketball Association (NBA) following an investigation which found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors, the league says.
House admonishes ArriveCan contractor in rare parliamentary show of power
MPs enacted an extraordinary, rarely used parliamentary power on Wednesday, summonsing an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons where he was admonished publicly and forced to provide answers to the questions MPs said he'd previously evaded.
Woman who pressured boyfriend to kill his ex in 2000s granted absences from prison
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into killing his teenage ex more than a decade ago will be allowed to leave prison for weeks at a time.
Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar, papers left 'at her feet'
Donald Trump's legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president's criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.
Attempt to have murder charge quashed against alleged serial killer dismissed by judge
A motion filed by the man accused of killing four Indigenous women in Winnipeg to have one of those murder charges quashed has been dismissed by the judge – weeks before the start of his trial.
Government proposes new policy for federally regulated employees to disconnect from work
In their 2024 budget, the federal government wants to amend the Canada Labour Code, so employers in federally regulated sectors will eliminate work-related communication with employees outside of scheduled hours. If implemented, this would affect roughly 500,000 employees across the country.