Receiver For Hotels In F'closure Wants To Sell Bldgs Vacant, Boot 71 Low Income Renters In Process Despite Improvements Already Made By Advocacy Group

In Vancouver, British Columbia, CBC News reports:

• Dozens of low-income tenants in two hotels in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are facing an uncertain future, as their new homes might soon be sold out from under them, CBC News has learned.



• The owner of the Palace Hotel and Wonder Rooms has run into serious financial problems and his buildings have been placed into receivership and the receiver wants the tenants evicted.

***

• The hotels are owned by George Wolsey, who has battled with the city for years over building code violations. In September, Wolsey agreed to hand over operations of the hotels to the Community Builders Group, a local non-profit organization.



• The group has tried to get the building up to code, cleaned up rooms that were once unlivable and then moved dozens of tenants in, unaware of the financial challenge Wolsey faces. “We had no idea this was close to receivership,” said Julie Roberts, of Community Builders Benevolence Group.(1)



• “The receiver is talking about selling the building empty and evicting all 71 tenants and having an empty building in two months. And that obviously causes a lot of anxiety for our tenants who have nowhere else to go." [...] The fate of the tenants could be decided as early as a foreclosure hearing Nov. 3.

For more, see 71 tenants on Downtown Eastside facing eviction.

(1) See Communiy Builders affadavit for the non-profit organization's account detailing the improvements they made to the reportedly dilapidated, below-code hotels and the screwing over they will be taking if the tenants get evicted despite having made all the improvements.