RAGRY TS TTT aS TE

‘VANCOUVER =

Provincial gov't
under fire as Expo
evictions skyrocket

Continued from page 1
wanted action on two fronts: an end to the
evictions and cancellation of plans to place
a 5,000-stall parking lot next to a future
park on the area’s waterfront.

At the meeting, co-hosted by DERA and
the Create a Real Available Beach (CRAB)
committee, Pattison was pressed by the
crowd and fellow speakers Mayor Mike
Harcourt and DERA organizer Jim Green.
to join them on a mission to Victoria
demanding an eviction freeze and a ceiling
on rent hikes.

The expo chairman and B.C. business-
man hedged, telling the meeting, and repor-
ters afterwards, that he would head to
Victoria only after he had proof that the fair
was responsible for the evictions.

That drew boos from the audience, sev-
eral members of which lined up at the
speakers’ microphone to tell of their evic-
tions. Aniong them were John Stefaniczan
and May Heginbotham, elderly and handi-
capped residents of the Patricia Hotel, two

JOHN SHAYLER. ..DERA survey shows
potential evictions.

of the 60 residents forced out to make room
for Expo tourists.

Ray Neita, a member of the United
Fisherman and Allied Workers Union, told
Pattison: “I’ve lived in that hotel for 26
years, and that’s by no means the longest.
What are you going to do about it?”

For its part, city council, after months of
wrangling with right wing aldermen, passed
two motions dealing with evictions and rent
control in the Downtown Eatside. In a turn-
around from previous positions taken on
the question, some right wingers joined the
Committee of Progressive Electors alder-
men, the mayor and Ald. Bill Yee in adopt-
ing by an 8-3 vote a plan worked out by
senior city staff to stop the evictions.

Their motion, phrased as a proposed
amendment to the provincial Municipalities
Enabling and Validating Act, freezes evic-
tions on any residential premises in the
Downtown Eastside retroactively from Sept.

1, 1985 until Oct. 13 this year. It defines as a
tenant anyone who has resided in a rental
unit continuously for at least one year.

The council resolution freezes rent hikes
at five per cent during this period.

Council was unanimous in voting that a
delegation consisting of the mayor, DERA
and Pattison petition Victoria to enact legis-
lation protecting Downtown Eastside resi-
dents.

Hotel residents, although they pay
weekly or monthly rates equivalent in value
to low-income housing rents, are not pro-
tected by the Residential Tenancy Act. That
allowed the owners’ of the Patricia’ to’ evict
their residents’ on one week’s notice:‘*\'='\'~

That led to a demonstration of some 200
DERA members and supporters in front of
the hotel Feb. 27. A boycott of the Patricia
and other hotels is in effect.

DERA began checking hotels for renova-
tions and evictions in earnest some two
years ago, when it became apparent the
development of Expo and B.C. Place was
exerting pressure for redevelopment of the
Downtown Eastside. At that time the
organization was warning of imminent evic-
tions, and was calling on city council for
protective bylaws.

Residents of Vancouver's. Down-
town Eastside plant signs protesting
the planned installation of an Expo
parking lot at the site of the future
CRAB park Saturday.

The sign planting followed a street
rally in which Expo was hit for its
parking lot scheme which will direct
some 5,000 cars into the waterfront
area adjacent to the park and a
planned bird sancturary.

Ata rally co-hosted by the Down-
town Eastside Residents Associa-
tion and the Create a Real Available
Beach committee Feb. 25, Expo

Last month DERA updated its survey
and found some 30 hotels undergoing
extensive or partial renovations — a sure
sign landlords were upgrading their in many
cases substandard buildings for the Expo
trade, said DERA worker John Shayler.

“The Patricia case is a scenario we’ve
seen in other places, where they jack up the
rents past the $220 per month limit (based
on GAIN rates). Sometimes they tell people
to move to another floor, who then find
they’re out on the street,” said Shayler.

He noted the B.C. Hotels Association
had told council last year its member would
not be moving long-time tenants. But asso-
ciation members such as the Metropol and
Dominion are forcing tenants out, he noted.

Some 1,000 rooms are affected, accord-

Socreds: Expo mess their creation

Right from the time Expo 86 was
hatched, the Committee of Progressive
Electors’ four aldermen and the Downtown
Eastside Residents Association (DERA)
warned that the landlords in the downtown
eastside area (the owners of the low rental
rooming houses and so-called “hotels”’)
would take advantage of Expo to kick out
their tenants and renovate their premises for
the tourist trade. We said they would use the
opportunity to make a fast buck through
higher room rates.

The COPE aldermen and DERA pro-
posed that tenants be given some guaran-
tees by the provincial government that they
would not be evicted or faced with excessive
rent increaes.

The Socred government refused to do
anything. It was in the business of helping
the tourist industry to make profits, not to
protect tenants.

City council initiated some action on its
own to alleviate the dreadful housing condi-
tions facing the 7,500 downtown eastside
residents. It launched a low rental housing
program in the area with the aim of building
500 units a year for the three year period

1984-86. The city also put up $1 million in
land subsidies.

A total of 714 units were built and then
the program came to a halt. Ottawa refused
to put up any more money and turned over

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 5, 1986

responsibility for low rental housing to the
province.

Predictably, the Socred government
refused to do anything more. The 714 units
that were built were a help, but they didn’t
begin to solve the housing problem in the
downtown eastside area. :

Now, as we predicted, scores of tenants
are being evicted and hundreds more face
eviction or huge rent increases. (One hotel

raised its rents from $225 a month to
$1,620.) The total number could be as high
as 800.

These tenants are all in the low income
bracket, most of them on welfare. Some of
them have lived in this area for 20 years. If
and when evicted they simply have no place
to go.

The issue came up again in city council
on Feb. 25. On the motion of COPE alder-

man Libby Davies, council agreed to ask
the provincial government to pass enabling
legislation providing the following for the
period from September, 1985 to October,
1986:

@ Rent in the area should not be allowed
to exceed $200 a month for single occu-
pancy and $340 for double. (The reason
these figures were selected is because these
are the rates set by the provincial govern-
ment for shelter allowances for people on
welfare. ); ;

@ No evictions should be permitted dur-
ing this period.

It was also agreed that a delegation of the
mayor and Expo 86 chairman Jim Pattison
go to Victoria to present the case of the city
and of the tenants faced with eviction and
huge rent increases. ;

I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a
favorable response from this provincial
government. On all previous occasions on
similar issues it has proved heartless and
callous.

It doesn’t mind spending a billion dollars
on Expo and giving big business in the pro-
vince another $1 billion in tax cuts but it is
reluctant to spend a nickel for poor people.
The only time it listens is when it is con-
fronted by a huge public protest. Confron-
tation may well be the only way to go to
gain any redress in the case as well.

brass came under fire for refusing to
consider alternate sites. Mayor Mike
Harcourt also came under criticism
for his support for the lot.

“We feel they're just dumping @
their problems on us,’’ says Don Lar-
son, chair of the CRAB committee
which has fought for the park for the |
past three years.

Waterfront unions have also critic-
ized the move, noting it exposes |
tourists to the hazardous shipments —
that regularly traverse the federal
port area. a

ing to the DERA survey, said Shayler, #*
that’s only a sample of the hotels and roo
ing hosues.” :
Meanwhile, the eviction disease is sp
ing to the nearby West End.» :
David Lane, co-ordinator of the Ten
Rights Action Centre and splkesman for™)
B.C. Tenants Rights Coalition, filed 0"
plaints Monday with the Residet
Tenancy Branch on behalf of all tenanh. |
1531 Barclay. The owner has stated he © |
renovate the apartment building int0™ |
hotel. 7
The centre has a pledge from Hare |
that the city will:block such moves, n0”,> |
that the building is in'an area not zone "
hotels. But Lane said the case is only")
most visible sign of a trend TRAC has * 5 |
occuring in dribs and drabs throughow
neighborhood. ih
“We've had lots of individuals pho?
in. It’s hard to estimate the extent 0
crisis, but there’s definitely a crisis out
“Where ever zoning can prevent it,
be telling the city about such cases,”
Lane. p
‘TRAC worker Suzi Kilgour noted
day’s Sun was full of classifieds adve
Expo accommodations in the West ©
Ads proclaiming dwellings that were %
minutes from Expo,” “eight block,” |
Expo,” or. “Expo view suite — ©
weekly or monthly rates” were com 5)
place, she noted. ; if
Lane said there are several cases of 7
and breakfast” evictions. Landlords
ing to convert premises to that servic®
do so, but they must apply to the city
development permit and a business lice |
The only problem, Lane said, was that” }}
cases are difficult to trace. Re |
The problem is compounded by “4
West, the private housing registry that? 4)
a monopoly on Expo accommodations:
phone calls to the office by TRAC
revealed the company does not ask cli@!
they have complied with city bylaws:
Lane said ResWest has been con
homeowners around the city as®
they’re willing to rent premises tO
tourists.
On Monday, Harcourt was meeti
Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Rite?
well as Green and Pattison, aboU
increasing evictions.

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