City taking slum landlords to court
Posted June 30, 2011 10:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – For the first time, the City of Vancouver is filing an injunction against two low-rent hotels on the Downtown Eastside. The city hopes court action will force the landlords to repair the buildings.
Councillor Tim Stevenson calls both the ‘Palace’ and ‘Wonder’ hotels slums. “Rat infested, bug infested, cockroach infested. There’s holes in the walls, the plumbing doesn’t work, they’re really in very bad shape. There’s about 140 infractions against them.”
About ten renters came to council to describe their circumstances, hiding their identities for fear of being evicted.
Stevenson says it was emotional to hear their stories. “Not very often do I get a lump in my throat. One woman, she and her husband live there, she was just breaking down crying, saying ‘I don’t know where we’ll go if he [their landlord] kicks us out.'”
The injunction is meant to give a judge the leeway to demand that landlords bring their buildings up to code, and if they refuse, the judge can apply fines or jail time.
