|
“Refuge” by John Lyseyko. Honourable mention,
2005 Downtown Eastside Photography Competition.
Pivot Legal Society lawyer
David Eby reports on Vancouver’s low-income Single
Room Occupancy (SRO) closures.
[From the Summer 2006
issue of The Pivot Post]
Many people have
been forced out of SROs recently closed or converted
in the Downtown Eastside – with almost 300 low-income
people losing their homes since June 2005.
Vancouver's downtown core
had already lost 514 low-income housing units between
June 2003 to June 2005. This number closely matched
the increase in homelessness over roughly the same period:
an increase of 663 people living on the streets and
in shelters in Vancouver.
Almost 300 rooms lost since
June 2005 came from SRO closures, including the Pender
Hotel (36) and the Burns Block (18). Included in this
total is the Marble Arch Hotel (148) which is converting
to student housing and the St. Helen's, on Granville
Street (93) which has upgraded to a more expensive rate.
|
Vancouver
City Council ("the City") has only three projects
underway to replace these lost SROs, and the total number
of rooms in these initiatives will, in the best-case
scenario, be only 172 by 2007. The Woodward's building
will add 125 low-income single spaces in 2009, 100 of
which are to be for those in deep core need.
As a result of this crisis,
Pivot Legal Society has dedicated significant resources
to ensuring that as many of the remaining SRO rooms
are saved as is possible.
Generally, SROs are sub-standard
housing but they are safer than the street for most
people. While Pivot continues to pressure our three
levels of government to build sufficient social housing,
we will also put pressure on them to preserve what few,
sub-standard housing options are left for the most vulnerable
members of our society and to ensure that the residents
of these buildings are treated with the respect they
deserve.
Business license
hearings decide residents' fate
In Vancouver, a business
license hearing is heard before three city councillors
who decide whether or not to issue a business license.
If no license is issued, the City will issue an order
to cease operations.
Continued...
| 1
|
2
| 3
| 4
| 5
| Next
|
