[Wamvan] Fwd: [dnc-board] Our Hotels (love the sign from Times Square)

[Tami Starlight]

  Homelessness Numbers Spun Out of
Control<http://themainlander.com/2011/05/24/homelessness-numbers-spun-out-of-control/>
EDITORIAL
| Evicting History at the American
Hotel<http://themainlander.com/2011/05/26/editorial-evicting-history-at-the-american-hotel/>
   City’s fake policy hides disappearing housing at the Colonial and Seaview
Hotels
*By Maria Wallstam and Nathan Crompton<http://themainlander.com/author/mwnc/>
On May 25, 2011 · 2
Comments<http://themainlander.com/2011/05/25/city%e2%80%99s-fake-policy-hides-disappearing-housing-at-the-colonial-and-seaview-hotels-2/#comments>
*
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<http://themainlander.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/2049rosler_housing.jpg>

Martha Rosler, "Housing is a Human Right" (1989), Times Square, New York

This month more buildings were added to the list of disappearing affordable
housing in Vancouver. On May 1st the Colonial and Seaview hotels were
privatized, with rents now scheduled to increase significantly in the coming
months. For two years the buildings were run by the Portland Hotel Society
on a non-profit contract with the private owners. According to the new
building manager of the Colonial Hotel, the $375 rent in the 170 units is
now scheduled to increase by a minimum of $50 in smaller units and
“exponentially more” for larger units.

In August, the Flint Hotel will also be privatized. However, none of these
changes will be registered by the city as reductions in the low-income
housing stock. The city claims to adhere to a “one for one” housing
replacement policy under the Zoning and Development By-law. The policy gives
the appearance of maintaining the number of low-rent units by maintaining a
stable number of SROs across the city. However, the number of SROs does not
reflect how much affordable housing is available since an SRO is not defined
on the basis of affordability, but rather on the basis of size. Dramatic
rent increases in formerly low-income buildings are not measured as “losses”
so long as they remain “designated” buildings under the city’s SRA By-law.

The Lotus Hotel at Pender and Abbott, for example, which currently falls
within the “SRA” category, is undergoing renovations and will be opening in
the coming months at market rates far out of reach of the low-income
residents formerly living there. The same is true for the American Hotel,
Burns Block, and countless other private hotels that have undergone
upscaling due to gentrification.

At least one current resident of the Colonial Hotel has already decided to
move out despite not having found alternative housing. Others will be forced
to leave because their rent allowance will now be less than rent itself.
Eviction is also now more likely because the new management explicitly does
not believe in harm reduction and have stated they will toughen their
approach towards residents who use drugs. When asked about his eviction
policy, the new building manager at the Colonial replied, “my boot.”

Not only do the numbers of SROs fail to convey the affordability of the
housing, but also its quality and adequacy. The residents of the Colonial
live in sub-standard living conditions sharing the three bathrooms on each
floor with twenty other residents, and the only kitchen is to be shared
between 140 residents. The building is in a state of decay with constantly
leaking pipes and miniscule, closet-sized rooms regularly infested with
cockroaches and bedbugs. This is not unique to the Colonial but the reality
of the majority of SRO’s in the DTES. Nonetheless, these buildings
absolutely must be maintained at affordable rates until other housing is
built. They represent a last resort for the people whose only alternative is
the street.

The upscaling of hotels like the Lotus, Colonial and Seaview is taking place
within a larger process of neighborhood change. A recent study released by
the Carnegie Community Action Project, “Pushed Out” (2010), found that the
number of hotels renting at welfare rates has decreased to 12% from 29% the
year before. These trends show that the interests of private owners are
simply not compatible with the needs of low-income renters, yet the city
routinely sides with owners over renters.

Rent control without loopholes is needed to ensure that SROs remain
affordable. Not only are current regulations full of loop-holes, it should
also be added that if owners have enough money, they can buy their way out
of the “one for one” by-law altogether. If the owners do not themselves have
enough money to pay the fee, investors and speculators are increasingly
closing the gap. When an investor or an SRO owner’s interests coincide with
the city’s – for example, in Gastown where the city’s “revitalization”
policy strives to make the neighborhood better for tourism, consumption and
business – the conversion fee can be decreased at the discretion of council
and even waived entirely.
Inadequate rent controls, combined with the false appearance of “one for
one” replacement policy, hide the actual effects of gentrification and
“revitalization”: the increasing precariousness of the people who pay
month-by-month rent in Vancouver’s low-income hotels. Only by questioning
Vision Vancouver’s illusion of progress can we fight for an actual progress
that takes into account the needs of people.



-- 
Meegwetch/Thank you/Merci
*Tami M. Starlight*
Vancouver, Canada
tamistarlight at gmail.com
tami.cosmic (facebook)
tami_starlight (twitter)
604-200-2445home
604-790-9943cell
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