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Pivot staff lawyer David Eby holding Cracks in the Foundation which was released in September. The report has influenced policy announcements from all levels of government.
[this article is from The Pivot Post, Spring 2007]
Even before the B.C. provincial government announced the investment of $80 million by purchasing Single Room Occupancy (SRO) residential hotels, Pivot’s housing campaign had celebrated some big wins in the first few months of 2007.
Most of Pivot’s recent work has been focused on keeping the residential hotels and rooming houses of the Downtown Eastside open and influencing progressive changes in policy and law at the neighbourhood, municipal, provincial and federal levels.
Keeping sub-standard residential hotels open is controversial, but essential: there is nowhere else that people can afford to live in Vancouver, on current welfare shelter allowances. Until replacement social housing is built, Vancouver must stabilize and improve the housing it has.
Neighbourhood achievements:
Small Claims Court
Pivot has attended several payment hearings in Small Claims Court to enforce judgments against the Burns Block landlord who evicted his tenants in March 2006 in order to sell in March 2007 his building for almost three times what he originally paid for it. Payments to those tenants are ongoing. The Pender Hotel lawsuit continues, with that group of clients moving close to a trial date in late 2007, almost two years since filing against the City and the operators of that building. |
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Organizing tenants
Pivot’s legal advocacy, combined with assistance from other community groups, has resulted in organizing tenants in three threatened buildings: the Asia Hotel, the Carl Rooms, and the Golden Crown.
Our aims in those buildings are to prevent illegal evictions by the landlords. To date, we have been successful in preventing evictions at all three buildings.
Piccadilly Hotel
Our work with other community groups in raising awareness about the closure of the 40-room Piccadilly Hotel resulted in an additional week’s respite from closure by the City of Vancouver, but unfortunately could not prevent the landlord from illegally changing the locks and preventing tenants from accessing their rooms to collect their belongings during that week.
Pivot is representing a tenant from that building in his action against the owners for the illegal eviction, and likely, the City for negligently enforcing their standards of maintenance. Our intern, Rob Quinn, worked on a draft policy for the Police Board to address the lack of protocol for municipal police officers facing “lock out” situations when police refused to charge the owner with mischief for preventing tenants from accessing their legally rented rooms.
Lucky Lodge
We continue to represent a resident at the Lucky Lodge, who has faced no fewer than four eviction notices since bravely testifying through affidavits against the owners of that building at a City of Vancouver Business License hearing. No person who stands up for better tenancy standards should face eviction in retaliation, and we will continue to support this individual against the owner’s most recent eviction attempts.
Municipal achievements:
SRA By-law
On the municipal front, our accomplishments included convincing Mayor Sam Sullivan and Councillor Peter Ladner who had both previously voted against the Single Room Accommodation By-law (that protects the residential hotels of the Downtown Eastside from conversion) to vote to strengthen that by-law.
City council voted unanimously to increase the fee for developers who wish to convert low-income housing to some other use from $5,000 to $15,000 per room.
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