‘Slum landlord’: Granville bar flood exposes conditions inside BC Housing SRO - BERITAJA

A barroom proprietor successful Vancouver’s Granville Entertainment District (GED) said he’s fed up aft his nine was flooded again from the supportive lodging successful the erstwhile Howard Johnson Hotel above, and this time, he was shocked astatine what he recovered erstwhile he tracked the water.

Alan Goodall told BERITAJA he arrived astatine Aura astatine 8 p.m. connected Friday, April 24, to find h2o pouring down successful beforehand of his main bar.

Goodall said he called Community Builders, which operates the provincially-owned Luugat single-room occupancy (SRO) building, to spot if it could root the leak.

After about 2 hours, Goodall said the lodging usability couldn’t find wherever the h2o was coming from, and truthful he went upstairs pinch the plumber and nighttime manager.

“We recovered the leak wrong 30 seconds,” recalled Goodall.

The plumber, he said, discovered an overflowing toilet successful a first-floor unit, which besides contained grounds of hoarding.

“This was for illustration months of build up,” the Aura proprietor said successful an interview. “We’re talking 2 to 4 feet of garbage aliases hoarding garbage aliases nevertheless you want to picture it, but it was correct up to the door.”

Goodall said the room had nary bed, and the conditions wrong made it uninhabitable.

“For me, it’s conscionable frustrating,” he said. “If we do immoderate speedy mathematics here, the state paid $55 cardinal for this building, disagreement it by 100 rooms – that’s $550,000 a portion – and this portion was fundamentally being utilized arsenic a retention room.”

“It’s horrific,” said BC Conservative interim leader Trevor Halford. The truth of the matter is that the state is operating for illustration a slum landlord.”

Halford precocious toured Aura and said pinch Goodall about the ongoing challenges he’s knowledgeable arsenic the ground-floor commercialized tenant successful the BC Housing building.

B.C.’s Housing and Municipal Affairs curate said the lodging usability is doing its champion to support residents pinch precocious needs and vulnerabilities, and denied the state is simply a slum landlord.

“I don’t work together pinch that,” Christine Boyle told BERITAJA successful an question and reply connected Tuesday. “These are challenging conditions, of course, successful a building that wasn’t purpose-designed arsenic supportive housing.”

Goodall, who said he pays an mean of $30,000 successful monthly rent, said he was forced to adjacent early connected Friday nighttime owed to the latest flood.

“It’s perfectly captious that I americium capable to gain gross connected the weekends,” he said. “I’ve been dealing pinch this for six years now, truthful it’s incredibly frustrating.”

After enduring much than 200 floods since the state purchased the erstwhile edifice successful June 2020 to location group from encampments, Goodall said he now has full-time drying instrumentality astatine the ready.

Still, he said, it doesn’t rectify the harm to drywall and electronics.

Goodall said a number of Aura’s LED walls and speakers successful the ceiling nary longer work, while cookware lights supra the barroom person popped out.

“I person galore areas about the nine that haven’t been fixed, and it’s been months now,” Goodall told BERITAJA.

“They’re taking a nonaccomplishment of income because the state is failing to meet its obligations arsenic being a landlord and that to maine is unacceptable,” Halford said successful an question and reply Tuesday.

Boyle said BC Housing will beryllium assessing the harm related to Aura’s latest flooding arena to find if there’s basal compensation, arsenic it has done successful past incidents.

“I don’t cognize the specifics yet of the costs and damages of this flooding incident and truthful we’ll get those specifications and past location will beryllium activity to look astatine what compensation is needed, knowing the challenges this business proprietor is facing,” Boyle told BERITAJA.

Boyle added she understands the business owner’s frustrations, and it’s why the state is moving to relocate Luugat tenants to good, stable, replacement housing.

Last November, the provincial authorities announced the Luugat would adjacent by the extremity of June.

Boyle said she’s optimistic that deadline will beryllium achieved and arsenic of Tuesday, much than half of the original 80-plus tenants person been relocated, while a number of different tenants person been offered replacement housing.

There is still nary timeline for the closure of 2 different provincially-owned SROs, the Granville Villa and the St. Helen’s Hotel.

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services told BERITAJA that caller occurrence inspections show occurrence and life information systems are being maintained successful the Luugat astatine 1176 Granville Street, though inspectors do not spell wrong individual rooms.

Despite an April 9 fire, Deputy Chief Justin Mulcahy said the wide occurrence information condition continues to amended arsenic the building is being decommissioned arsenic an SRO, pinch tenants only domiciled connected the first and 2nd floors.

“As occupancy has decreased, we person observed a corresponding simplification successful occurrence incidents astatine this address,” said Mulcahy. “Specifically, location has been a 60 per cent simplification successful fires pinch harm successful 2026 erstwhile compared to the first 4th of 2025.”

As for the resident surviving successful the portion supra Aura wherever the about caller flooding originated from, Boyle said the usability is moving pinch them to reside “cleanliness issues” successful their unit.