Category Archives: Olympics

PSA: civil city slam Vancouver

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From Pivot Legal Society:

“Civil City Slam”

Tuesday, May 22, at 7 pm at First United Church 320 E. Hastings St, at Gore Ave.

This forum is being organized as a result of an initiative undertaken by 16 Vancouver progressive elected representatives, representing 3 levels of government, including MP Libby Davies; MLAs David Chudnovsky, Adrian Dix, Jenny Kwan, Gregor Robertson, and Shane Simpson; City Councilors David Cadman, George Chow, Heather Deal, Raymond Louie, and Tim Stevenson; School Board Trustees Allan Blakely, Sharon Gregson, and Allan Wong; and Parks Board Commissioners Spencer Herbert and Loretta Woodcock.

David Eby from Pivot Legal Society will speak at this event.

Read Pivot’s reaction to the appointment of former B.C. attorney-general Geoff Plant in today’s papers, including the International Herald Tribune.

Where is Ottawa?

Wednesday, May 23, at 7 pm – 9 pm at Unitarian Church 949 West 49 Ave.

“Stop homelessness for now, for 2010, forever.” Organized by the Carnegie Community Action Project in cooperation with The City Wide Housing Coalition.17 Members of Parliament from Vancouver and the GVRD have been invited to discuss what the role does federal government have in solving homelessness and housing crisis.

Come and say hello to the Pivot volunteers and staff at the Booth table!

HOPE IN SHADOWS: Can you help?

We are full-steam ahead in organizing this year’s HOPE IN SHADOWS photography contest, exhibition and calendar. Every year we need corporate sponsors, and this year is no exception. We are hoping to expand on the successful training we offered last year, but we need a few more businesses interested in supporting us. If you know of any company that has a policy of helping the community, please let Paul Ryan know. We accept all levels of sponsorship, from the purchase of a month by to in-kind donations. Please e-mail Paul at pryan at hopeinshadows dot com or call Paul on 604 782 2861 if you can help, even if it is just telling us about a company you think would be suitable, and we will contact them. HOPE IN SHADOWS now has its own website: http://www.hopeinshadows.com

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About Pivot Legal Society
Pivot’s mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins. We believe that everyone, regardless of income, benefits from a healthy and inclusive community where values such opportunity, respect and equality are strongly rooted in the law. 

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Olympic evictions declared illegal

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From Pivot Legal Society:

“Olympic” evictions declared illegal 

Vancouver – Pivot Legal Society and a coalition of advocacy groups won two low-income housing eviction- and rent-increase cases for residents of one of the Downtown Eastside’s low-income hotels today.

Two residents of the Golden Crown Hotel received notice today from the Residential Tenancy Branch that their illegal eviction notices and rent increases linked to the Olympics were set aside.

“We are pleased to be part of a process that set aside these flawed eviction notices and rent increases,” says Shabnum Durrani of Pivot Legal Society who was counsel for the tenants. “However, this is a short term solution. The only real solution is for government to reinvest in social housing.”

The eviction notices given were for March 31, 2007, to the 28 units in the Golden Crown Hotel located across the street from the Woodward’s building. The eviction notices and rent increases are linked to the 2010 Olympics as owners of the hotel have indicated that they would like to use the hotel to provide housing to Olympic workers rather than the current residents.

In setting aside the illegal eviction notice, the dispute resolution officer in the case wrote, “the ‘Notice’ given by the landlord is not an ‘effective’ Notice because it is not in the approved form and it is fatal in its deficiency because it does not inform the tenants of their [rights]…I find the ‘Notice’ given by the landlord is void from the beginning.”

The Golden Crown hotel was one of the four hotels scheduled to close to low income individuals in the last four weeks. As a result of the work done by Pivot and several other advocacy groups including the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association and the Save Low Income Housing Coalition, three of the four hotels have remained open and operating for low income individuals.

Earlier today 46 single room occupancy (SRO) hotel rooms were saved when the new owners handed management of the Carl Rooms to a local non-profit organization. Community advocates, including David Eby from Pivot Legal Society, convinced a partnership of developers, 0773477 B.C. Limited, to turn over management of their recently-purchased SRO to Atira Property Management, a non-profit property management organization. Atira is a Vancouver-based company that operates three other low-income buildings in the Downtown Eastside. The owners’ agreement with Atira includes plans to renovate and improve the building, while it remains at rent levels accessible to those on basic social assistance.

Link to the Court decision, (6-page pdf)

For more information contact:
Shabnum Durrani – Pivot Legal Society – 778 228 5952 or (604) 255-9700 ext. 104
Reginald Walton – Resident of the Golden Crown Hotel – 778-235-4557

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About Pivot Legal Society
Pivot’s mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins.   We believe that everyone, regardless of income, benefits from a healthy and inclusive community where values such opportunity, respect and equality are strongly rooted in the law.

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Dave Eby of Pivot Legal Society on new evictions

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Click this link for more information on the Pivot Legal Society and the eviction epidemic of Vancouver.

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PSA: Empress Hotel to close: City to play along

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Sound familiar? It should by now, but it’s going to get a damn site more familiar as we approach the Olympic construction deadlines.

From the Pivot Newswire:

October 18, 2006

Empress Hotel’s new owner plans to shutter it

Employees of the Empress Hotel, a landmark low-income rental building in the DTES, are reporting that the new owner of the hotel has told them they are fired, and that he intends to evict all of the tenants within three months. The Empress Hotel has 74 rooms available to Vancouver’s poorest residents.

“He told me that my job was over, and that he was giving all of the tenants three-month eviction notices,” said Charles Humble, an employee and resident of the hotel.

The new owner has apparently applied for a business license to continue operating the hotel as a low-income rental building; however, the story being told to employees of the building is a different one.

“This is just like the American Hotel,” said David Eby, lawyer with Pivot Legal Society. “The owner says one thing to city hall, and a different thing to the rest of the world. The American is now closed because the City refused to look beneath the surface or act when everybody else was telling them that the building was going to close. The same thing must not happen with the Empress.”

This week is Homelessness Awareness Week, an ironic twist on the recent news coming out of the Empress Hotel. In addition, on Thursday a motion is coming before city council to ban the conversion of low-income housing in the DTES to other uses.

“When these 76 rooms close, which is clearly the owner’s intention, those people who live in the Empress and have lived there for years and years will be living on Vancouver’s streets,” says Kim Kerr of the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association. “The residents of the DTES are tired of their housing being closed while council waits for funding that is never going to come. Council must act to protect this housing from conversion immediately.”

The 74 rooms in the hotel represent more than 1/3 of all of the 175 wet/cold weather shelter beds opening for this winter in Vancouver. Current vacancy rates for housing available to people on welfare is near 0, as reported in Pivot’s recent report on housing in the DTES “Cracks in the Foundation” which found only two rooms available in the entire city for people at the current welfare shelter rate.

For more information contact:

Kim Kerr – DERA – (604)785-0009

Charles Humble – Resident and employee of the Empress – Room 701

David Eby – Pivot Legal Society – (778)865-7997

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About Pivot Legal Society

Pivot’s mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins.   We believe that everyone, regardless of income, benefits from a healthy and inclusive community where values such opportunity, respect and equality are strongly rooted in the law.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Pivot Newswire, just send a note with that subject line to newswireatpivotlegaldotorg.

Another low-income building threatened with closure

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Pivot Photograph 

Vancouver – The relentless assault on low-income housing in Vancouver continues in August as the American Hotel, a 37-unit low-income residential hotel on Main Street in Vancouver issued illegal eviction notices to all of its tenants demanding that they leave by September 30, 2006.

“This is beginning to look more and more like Expo 86,” said David Eby, lawyer for Pivot Legal Society. “The eviction notices are illegal, but the process for appeals under the Residential Tenancy Act is so difficult that most tenants will probably get kicked out nevertheless.” 

The reason given by the American Hotel on the eviction notices for evicting all the tenants is that renovations they are planning cannot occur with tenants in the building.  However, no City permits have been obtained, a requirement before evicting a tenant to make renovations under the Residential Tenancy Act.  In addition, the forms used were invalid.  When the representative of the American Hotel was advised of this fact, he told lawyer David Eby: “I don’t care.  I’m going to change the locks at the end of September anyway.  If you want to help, get some money together to pay rent for these tenants to go somewhere else.”

Under the Residential Tenancy Act, a tenant who wishes to appeal an illegal eviction notice must go to Burnaby to obtain an arbitration decision, a process which can take up to 6 weeks.  If the landlord ignores the ruling and changes the locks anyway, the tenant must apply to Supreme Court for an enforcement order.  This entire process can take up to two months, is complicated, involving multiple court appearances and multiple trips to the residential tenancy office – an almost insurmountable challenge for many low-income tenants. 

“The temptation for owners of SRO hotels to find ways to evict their tenants and make a quick dollar is only going to increase as the Olympics approaches,” said Eby.  “If the City of Vancouver and the Province of BC do not begin to make good on their commitment to protect low-income housing, the world will arrive on our doorstep in 2010 to witness a major homelessness crisis.”

The impending closure of the American Hotel (37 units) by the owners of that building follows the slow-motion closure of the Lucky Lodge (61 tenants as of July, 2006) by the City and the Province where 9 units are now vacant due to welfare’s new policy to refuse to issue rents to prospective tenants of that building. These closures in progress follow the dramatic closures of the Burns Block hotel (18 units) and the Pender Hotel (36 units) in March, 2006, and the closure of the Marble Arch hotel (148 units) and St. Helen’s hotel (100 units) to low income tenants through renovations and rent increases.

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Further Comment:     David Eby (778) 865-7997 – Pivot Legal Society

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The 2010 Inner-City Inclusivity Commitment to protect low-income housing and ensure that people are not made homeless was part of the Vancouver Bid Book, the formal application to host the Olympic Games. 

To read the Inclusivity Commitment Statement, visit: http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/housing/sra/pdf/statement.pdf .

About Pivot Legal Society
Pivot’s mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins.   We believe that everyone, regardless of income, benefits from a healthy and inclusive community where values such opportunity, respect and equality are strongly rooted in the law. 

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Pivot Newswire, just send a note with that subject line to newswireatpivotlegaldotorg.