Decaying hotels vital temporary answer to social housing in Vancouver: experts
VANCOUVER — Despite the rats, roaches and clogged toilets at decaying rooming houses and hotels in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, activists and experts say they provide necessary affordable housing to the poorest people who would otherwise be pushed onto the streets.
The Balmoral Hotel recently became the focus of the housing crisis in the neighbourhood when the city issued an evacuation notice for about 143 tenants after it determined the building is at risk of collapse.
Vancouver’s bylaws define single room occupancy as hotels or rooming houses with non-market units of less than 320 square feet that typically come with shared bathrooms and don’t have a full kitchen.
There are 156 buildings with a total of 7,199 units that meet the categorization and 43 per cent are privately owned and managed. The rest are either owned or managed by non-profits or the government.