Residents of the Downtown Eastside’s Golden Crown Hotel have once again been threatened with eviction, just two years after the owners tried unsuccessfully to replace the low-income tenants with Olympic construction workers.

On August 24th, Golden Crown owner Daniel Jun gave some of the residents of the 28-unit Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel on West Hastings notice that the building was going to be renovated because of “health problems”.

Jun says the building has become infested with cockroaches, bed bugs and rats and that attempts to clean “room by room” have been “frustrating” because the insects and rodents simply move into the next room. Jun wrote that he will have to rip up the “filthy, stinky carpets”, block and patch rat holes, replace beds and paint rooms and hallways. He also cites a city order to solve the pest control problem.

“All rooms to be emptied for couple of months during the work period,” the note says in broken English. “We have no choice but close the doors in order to improve the hotel.”

However, community activists believe this is the Downtown Eastside’s first “Olympic eviction”, which could see unscrupulous landlords empty their buildings of low-income tenants for the Games and rent out rooms at inflated rates to tourists.

“As far as we’re concerned, this is an Olympic eviction,” says Kim Kerr, executive director of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA), which is representing some of the Golden Crown tenants. “This is particular concerning because it is first one of its kind, now that we understand that he intends to empty the entire building and from what we understand plans to turn this place into housing for visitors and/or workers for the Olympics.”

During Expo 86, more than 1,000 residents were evicted from their SRO hotels in Vancouver so landlords could rent the space out to visitors. Community activists have long warned that the same thing would occur in the city during the Olympics.

In February 2007, Jun attempted to evict the Golden Crown tenants so he could rent out the building to Olympic construction workers. Golden Crown is located directly across from the new Woodward’s development and Jun had hoped to clean up the building and charge higher rents.

“We want to rent out for workers because the hotel needs the working people” hotel manager Ted Oh told Street Corner (now known as Megaphone Magazine). “We have a problem right now we can’t find tenants… drug dealers come in. We hated that. Gradually as the city clean up the area, when Woodward’s [is complete], it will be a beautiful city centre and we have to match [that appearance].”

But because Jun did not have the proper permits, the evictions were deemed illegal and were overturned.

The city’s chief licence inspector, Barb Windsor, says that, once again, Jun does not have the permits in place to carry out a major renovation and that proper eviction notices have not been given to the residents.

In a note she sent to Jun today (September 3), Windsor wrote, “The District Inspector advises that the eviction notices have not been issued in accordance with the Residential Tenancy Act.”

Along with the explanation note, Jun simply gave residents a form to sign that reads, “I understand the situations of the Golden Crown Hotel and I accept your offer that moving out from my room of Golden Crown Hotel by end of September.”

Windsor also notes that the city doesn’t believe the rodent and bug problem is bad enough to justify a mass eviction and says that landlords can’t evict tenants for cosmetic repairs.

“Could it use probably some cleaning up? Probably. But not to the point that required him to evict,” she told Megaphone.

This time, however, Jun is not talking about the Olympics and told residents in the in the letter that they will be given “first priority… at the same rate” when the hotel’s doors reopen in a couple of months. Rents range from $550 for a bachelor and $750 for a one-bedroom.

But hotel residents say Jun refuses to create an official contract that would make that promise official, or give the residents back their rent or damage deposits.

“They just told us to get the hell out,” said Mary Mallet, who has lived in the hotel for eight months. “But where the hell are we supposed to go? They won’t give us back our [September] rent or our security deposit. I’m just supposed to believe them that they’ll give me my money and take me back after I leave?”

According to the province’s Residential Tenancy Act, when a tenant is legally evicted, the landlord must give them back one month’s rent and their damage deposit.

Mallet says the eviction note is causing a lot of stress amongst the tenants, many of who have mental health or addiction issues. She says the rooms are riddled with bugs and rats and that drug dealers work through the building at night, but that Jun refuses to take any action.

The Golden Crown’s daytime desk manager Tait Uh told Megaphone that if the tenants do not agree to leave over the next month, official eviction notices will be given.

However, Kerr says that at least two tenants have been told to leave by tomorrow (September 4), just a few days after they paid their rent.

"We need this to stop," says Kerr, "and we will do whatever we can to see that it stops and that these people aren't thrown out tomorrow."

A media event will be held tomorrow at 11 a.m.

By Sean Condon
Photo by Jay Black