Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) marked the release of Still Losing Housing, their second annual Hotel Survey and Report for the DTES, by holding a press conference in front of the infamous Balmoral Hotel.
"Balmoral is a symbol of despair in the Downtown Eastside," said report co-author Jean Swanson. "When we were doing our mapping with local residents it’s the hotel that cropped up most, where people said they felt unsafe and uncomfortable. It was also renting at $425 and over per month."
According to the report over 1,600 SROs are renting at $425 and over per month, despite welfare and disability rates averaging $375 per month in the DTES. That's a 44 per cent increase of rooms charging over $425, with some rates reaching as high as $800 per month.
The report also outlined concerns that double-bunking — the legal but dubious practice of putting two tenants in an SRO — has increased four fold from four to 16 SROs since the last report. Rental rates for two people in one room range from $500 to $750 per month.
Olympic evictions are also a concern thanks to a city bylaw that allows hotels to rent up to 10 per cent of its rooms on a daily or weekly basis.
"If you Google Vancouver hostels you’ll see more of them advertising — one of them even advertises that it’s across the street from the Olympic Village," said Swanson.
Swanson concluded the CCAPs list of concerns by touching on a promise made in the city's Downtown Eastside Housing Plan to replace all SROs with self-contained social housing units — a promise CCP says at the current rate will take 53 years to fulfill.
"We think that a 10-year replacement plan, rather than a 53-year replacement plan, we could live with that," said co-author Wendy Pederson. "That would be 500 units a year, for 10 years, and people would see a dramatic improvement in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood."
Balmoral resident Terry Pratt ended the sidewalk press conference by giving impromptu testimonial to reporters about her experience living in the area while suffering from diabetes, HIV, and Hepatitis C.
"I pay $550 a month for a place with a washroom full of rats,"said Pratt, who moved into the Balmoral June 1. "It’s gross, it stinks in there, I got two baby rats the other day on a rattrap."
"I need a different place or I’m going to die. I just moved in June 1."
Pratt invited reporters to look at her room, but they were refused entry by the Balmoral's desk manager who said media needed the building manager's permission to enter and film.
