‘It’s terrible’: No running water or heat for six weeks in DTES apartments, residents report
The West Hotel’s new owners say they’re working to repair problems that predate their ownership of the building. Tenants and their advocates report a different story.
By Dan Fumano
Last updated 1 day ago
After the water in his home on the edge of Vancouver’s Chinatown stopped working in mid-September, Nicholas Umphrey said he started taking a 10-litre jug to the neighbourhood grocery store to fill. Some of his neighbours turned to a tap at nearby Andy Livingstone Park.
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Umphrey and his fellow tenants at the West Hotel then lugged their buckets of water back to the century-old, eight-storey building so they could wash their hands, or manually fill the toilet tanks to flush. They had to take the stairs each time because the elevator has been out of service for more than two years.
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“Luckily I’m able to walk, I’m more mobile than some of the tenants living there. A lot of tenants there are on disability,” said Umphrey, who has since moved out of the hotel and into another SRO not far away. “These are citizens living without basic necessities. It’s abhorrent. It’s terrible.”
The West is a 98-unit single-room occupancy hotel, or SRO, that has long provided homes for low-income residents. On Oct. 16, the landlord — a family that has owned and operated SROs in and around the Downtown Eastside for decades — entered into a settlement agreement with B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Branch, committing to restoring water service to all floors before Oct. 26.
As of Nov. 6, that has not happened, tenants’ advocates say.
Property records show the West Hotel is owned by a numbered corporation directed by Mario Laudisio and Antonietta Maria Laudisio, who acquired the property, along with two other nearby Downtown Eastside SROs, in February from the properties’ previous longtime owner Christopher Wall.
The Laudisio family has long owned and operated SROs in the Downtown Eastside and elsewhere in Vancouver. In an emailed statement this week, Giuseppe Laudisio said: “We purchased the property in the spring. We are experienced landlords, the property had a lot of deferred maintenance. Once we got in there, it was worse than originally thought/seen. We are and have been attending to all necessary repairs with full dispatch.”
Laudisio declined to answer questions about whether water service had been restored, as per the tenancy branch settlement deadline, or the heat was now working, but said: “The issues predate our purchase in the spring. We have no further comment.”
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The West tenants had a different perspective, Umphrey says. “The consensus (among residents) was that we had, basically, a good standard of living for a long time, and it hadn’t changed for years and years, and all of a sudden … this place just went downhill real quick.”
Some Downtown Eastside service providers say they have noticed an increase in complaints about the West since the change in ownership in February.
“This has come to our attention over the last few months, where previously it hadn’t been,” said Sarah Marsden of First United.
“And I can definitely say there is no evidence of any repair or of any of these issues being addressed. … And when it’s something like heat or something like water, it’s not acceptable to let that drag on,” said Marsden, director of systems change and legal for the non-profit service provider that works with low-income tenants in the Downtown Eastside.
“This is one of the worst situations I’ve ever seen in a building,” said Marsden. “Pretty much every aspect of it seems like the landlords are falling desperately short in every aspect of their maintenance obligations, including basic things like heat and water, basic cleanliness, and locks.”
Inspectors found problems earlier this year with the West’s sprinkler system, but the City of Vancouver said this week that those have been resolved. Despite the ongoing issues with running water, the sprinklers are now operational on all eight storeys, and the fire alarm system is functioning, the city said.
In an emailed statement, Vancouver Fire Rescue Services said while some components of the West’s fire alarm system still require maintenance or testing, the department “is working proactively with the property owner to address these items. The owner has been cooperative and continues to meet fire and life safety requirements while the required maintenance and testing are being completed.”
The water service has been restored in the pub on the West Hotel’s ground floor and for some of the lower residential rooms, but not on all of the residential floors as per the RTB settlement agreement.
In August, The Tyee reported that the West was part of a “wave of single-room occupancy hotel foreclosure in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside … sparking fears of mass evictions by the new owners and the loss of hundreds of housing units serving vulnerable renters.” In that story, Tyee reporter Jen St. Denis analyzed B.C.’s land ownership transparency registry and found that Antonietta Laudisio holds an interest in $97 million worth of properties in B.C., including SROs in Vancouver, apartment buildings in northern B.C. towns, and a four-bedroom house in West Vancouver worth $9 million.
SROs are a crucial part of Vancouver’s housing system because they keep people out of homelessness, and much of the privately owned stock is currently in a “precarious” situation, says new B.C. NDP MLA-elect Amanda Burrows.
There are concerns in the neighbourhood about three other large SROs that are now going through foreclosure proceedings and could end up in court-ordered sales within weeks, said Burrows, a former executive director of First United whose Vancouver-Strathcona riding includes the West Hotel and most Downtown Eastside SROs. Many worry about what might happen after those properties change hands. If conditions deteriorate and people move out, either voluntarily, or through eviction or coercion, that could lead directly to homelessness, Burrows said.
Vancouver Coun. Sean Orr said he’s worried about the other three SROs going through foreclosure. Although “we (at the city) certainly don’t have the money to buy three hotels,” he said, he wants to explore whether the city might be able to intervene in the court proceedings to seek time to work with senior governments to secure funding to acquire them before they fall into other hands.
— With research by Carolyn Soltau
