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The Lucky Lodge houses 63 people.
The Lucky Lodge hotel's
future became uncertain again when the hotel's new management
was locked out on May 29.
The lockout came only four
days after a new license was issued by a City of Vancouver
(the "City") business license panel, to a
new agency called the Downtown Eastside Abilities Link
Society (DEALS). The condition of granting the license
was that the original owners, who have transfered ownership
to their son earlier this year, not attend the property.
They have now broken these conditions.
The license panel, made up
of councillors Chow, Ladner and Lee, were convinced
by the submission presented by David Eby from Pivot
Legal Society, the tenants of the Lucky Lodge, and George
Metrakos, the executive director of DEALS. The City
issued a 2006 operating license to Metrakos, saving
the housing of 63 people who live in the 54 rooms of
the hotel, on May 25.
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"This
decision was a great victory for the tenants,"
says Eby, who represented the tenants of the building
at the license hearing. "There was nowhere else
for these people to live if the Lucky Lodge, substandard
as it is, was closed. By considering alternative proposals
and not acting to close the building immediately, the
City helped to keep the residents of this building off
of the streets. Unfortunately now, we're back where
we started."
The Lucky Lodge was referred
to a City business license panel months ago due to allegations
of welfare fraud and the purchase of stolen property
by the former managers coming out of a Vancouver police
undercover investigation called Project Haven. City
staff were recommending to the panel that the business
license not be granted.
Pivot represented tenants
at this hearing in an attempt to keep the Lucky Lodge
open, but also to ensure that if it was not kept open,
that the city would find the tenants alternative housing.
Pivot applied for standing for the tenants at the hearing,
and as a result of Pivot’s application, the panel
granted the tenants the opportunity to make submissions
at the hearing. The granting of leave to the tenants
to make submissions through Pivot marked the first time
a third party has ever been granted standing at a business
license hearing in Vancouver.
Continued...
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