From Pivot. And if you're wondering why this has the "Olympics" tag, think it over…it'll come to you, at least by 2010 it will.

Burns Block Tenants Taking Owner to Arbitration

Vancouver: On March 30, 2006, the City of Vancouver evicted 18 tenants from the Burns Block building at 18 West Hastings for fire code violations in the building.  Tenants were ordered by police and fire officials to leave the building immediately with all their possessions.  Pivot Legal Society is now assisting former tenants in making residential tenancy claims against the owner.

“I was lucky to find a place, I only had to spend one night in a shelter,” says Alfred Melnychuk, one of the former tenants “I moved all of my belongings in a shopping cart to my new home. I’m 53 years old with bad knees, and I had half an hour’s notice of the eviction.”

Melnychuk is one of the lucky ones; at least two other tenants evicted from Burns Block are now sleeping on the street. 

The Neighbourhood Integrated Services Team inspection on March 30, 2006 that resulted in the closure of the Burns Block building was described by the City officials as a routine inspection.  It was the first such inspection by the Fire Department in almost two years. The inspectors cited four reasons for the emergency closure: (1) blocked fire exits; (2) windows to fire escapes that were screwed closed (3) untested sprinkler systems; and, (4) untested alarm systems.

“One starts to wonders if the City is treating people in the Downtown Eastside differently because they are poor,” said David Eby, lawyer for some of the tenants.  “Obviously the landlord has to be held accountable, but it’s hard to imagine the City evicting residents of an apartment building in Kitsilano with so little notice, short of a bomb in the building.”

The Burns Block building is now for sale, and the owner has received several offers.  It sits beside the future City of Vancouver tourist walkway called the “Carrall Street Greenway,” and across the street from the Woodwards development. If the building is sold, it will be the second building closed and sold to developers as a result of City of Vancouver inspection actions in the last three months, following the Pender Hotel at 31A West Pender Street, which is transferring ownership on May 15 to the condominium developer who owns 33 West Pender.  The Pender Hotel is 200 feet from Burns Block. 

The tenants are seeking damages of $5,000 plus $1,000 in moving expenses from the landlord, as well as an order that the Burns Block building be repaired so that it is available again as housing.

With the closure of Burns Block, Vancouver has lost almost 300 low-income housing units since last June.  This is in addition to 514 low-income housing units lost in the Downtown Core between June 2003 to June 2005, the loss of which accompanied a simultaneous 663 person rise in homelessness.
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Further Comment:     David Eby (778) 865-7997

                             Alfred Melnychuk – Room 316 – Travellers’ Hotel – 57 West Cordova Street