Single Room Occupancy Hotels

De-bugging bed bugs: a technical paper on heat treatment rooms

Heat treatment rooms (often referred to as bed bug saunas) are the newest weapon in the fight against bed bugs. These have been built at the Walton and Orwell hotels in Vancouver (managed by Lookout Emergency Aid Society and Vancouver Native Housing Society) and at Lookout’s Russell Housing Centre in New Westminster. The Lux, which is operated by RainCity Housing and Support Society, also has a purpose-built heat treatment room.

Plans are underway to include heat treatment rooms in a dozen or more new BC Housing sites currently in development. The rooms are large enough to heat furniture, mattresses, household items and personal possessions to very high temperatures for two hours - long enough to kill bed bug eggs, nymph/larva, and adults. Items are treated as new tenants move in or when an infestation breaks out.

Michael Kennedy, BC Housing’s Manager, Standards and Innovation, has created a technical bulletin on heat treatment rooms that can be accessed at www.bchousing.org/resources/Programs/ILBC/29-09-12-15-Heat_Treatment_Room_for_Bed_Bugs.pdf. "The measures we’re taking won’t eliminate bed bugs infestations but they do help to prevent and contain them to individual units and control their spread," said Kennedy.

Reno updates

Renovations are now complete at the Orwell Hotel. The 55-unit SRO underwent a major restoration of the heritage façade, upgrades to the mechanical and electrical systems and received new finishes. The new storefront and ground floor amenity space have just been completed.

A replica of the original 1930s art deco neon sign has been reinstated on the Rainier Hotel’s exterior. Funding for the sign was provided by the City of Vancouver’s Great Beginnings Program.

Phase 2 of renovations at the Marble Arch were recently finished allowing for tenants to move back into units on the south side of the building. The entire southern exterior wall had to be replaced. Phase 2 of renovations also saw new electrical systems, upgrades to the mechanical system that serve the southern side of the building, and new finishes.

Renovations are ongoing at Dunsmuir House. Contractors expect to have completed work on the renovated units and bathrooms by late February. The washrooms were in a deplorable state when BC Housing took possession of the building and renovations on these are being done on a floor-by-floor basis. Kitchens are being added to every floor. There is a laundry room already on level 2; a second is being added on level 4.

Tentative SRO construction schedule as of February 1, 2010

Hotel Units Tenancy status Non-Profit Operator Renovation Status Anticipated Completion Date
54 East Cordova 34 Tenanted Atira Property Management COMPLETE COMPLETE
566 Powell Street 2 12 Tenanted Atira Property Management No renovations required COMPLETE
Arco Hotel 64 Tenanted Atira Property Management Pre-renovation TBD
Beacon Hotel 47 Tenanted PHS Community Services Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
Carl Rooms 44 Tenanted Atira Property Management with support services provided by PHS Community Services Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
Dominion Hotel 63 Tenanted Atira Property Management COMPLETE COMPLETE
Drake Hotel 3 26 Tenanted Atira Property Management COMPLETE COMPLETE
Dunsmuir House 4 166 Phased renovation/partially occupied Atira Property Management with support services provided by RainCity Housing and Support Society UNDERWAY TBD
Gastown Hotel 93 Tenanted Atira Property Management Pre-renovation TBD
Hazelwood Hotel 112 Tenanted Atira Property Management with support services provided by MPA Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
London Hotel2 72 Tenanted Atira Property Management COMPLETE COMPLETE
Marble Arch Hotel 142 Phased renovation/partially occupied Atira Property Management with support services provided by PHS Community Services Society UNDERWAY Ph. 1: COMPLETE
Ph. 2: COMPLETE
Ph. 3 & 4: TBD
Marr Hotel 29 Tenanted Atira Women’s Resource Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
Orange Hall 27 Tenanted S.U.C.C.E.S.S. COMPLETE COMPLETE
Orwell Hotel 55 Tenanted Vancouver Native Housing Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
Park Hotel 50 Tenanted Atira Property Management with support services provided by PHS Community Services Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
Pender Hotel 23 Empty Vancouver Native Housing Society UNDERWAY TBD
Rainier Hotel 41 Tenanted PHS Community Services Society COMPLETE COMPLETE5
The Rice Block 42 Tenanted Atira Women’s Resource Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
Roosevelt Hotel 42 Tenanted PHS Community Services Society UNDERWAY January 2010
Savoy Hotel 25 Tenanted Atira Property Management with support services provided by MPA Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
Shaldon Hotel 54 Tenanted RainCity Housing and Support Society Pre-renovation TBD
St. Helens Hotel 86 Tenanted Atira Property Management with support services provided by Coast Foundation Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
Tamura House 110 Tenanted Lookout Emergency Aid Society Pre-renovation TBD
Walton Hotel 48 Tenanted Lookout Emergency Aid Society COMPLETE COMPLETE
1 Unit numbers are best estimates of how many units there will be in each building post-renovations.
2 Five-year renewable lease.
3 This City-owned building is being used for tenant relocations. It will be replaced with a new building managed by RainCity Housing and Support Society.
4 Three-year lease.

Outreach workers find homes for at-risk youth in SROs

When youth run away from home, many find themselves living rough on the streets in the Downtown Eastside. It’s not a place you would want any child to be. To make things worse, there is little if any affordable, safe housing for these at-risk youth, especially youth who are still using drugs or alcohol.

That’s why Watari staffers Shannon Gaudette and Mich Low (formerly Cyr) were pleased when the government-owned SROs’ began providing low-barrier supportive housing to the community. Watari is a non-profit society offering youth, community and family services in the Downtown Eastside. Shannon coordinates its Hard Targeting Project and works with high-risk/street-involved youth up to age 21; Mich is Watari’s Youth Outreach Worker in the Downtown Eastside and works with clients up to age 24. They work with at least 80 homeless youth in the area.

"Most of the youth we work with struggle with addiction and mental illness," said Shannon. "With childhoods filled with abuse and trauma, many of the youth ran away from their family homes and/or government-funded care homes at very young ages and ended up on the Downtown Eastside. Many have been homeless for years. In the system, these youth are often referred to as street entrenched and service resistant. We’ve found that this is far from the truth. What needs to happen is the services need to be adapted to meet the youth where they’re at."

Shannon and Mich connected with staff from the Supportive Housing Registry (SHR) last spring and to date have placed about a dozen youth in the government SROs. "We go with them to their assessments for emotional support," said Shannon. "The SHR staff are very positive and respectful, but this is something that’s outside a youth’s comfort zone so it’s important to be with them." When a Watari client finds housing, Mich and Shannon make sure they have the best shot possible at a successful tenancy. "We give them a start-up kit and introduce them to the hotel staff," said Mich. "We teach them how to clean their rooms and can help mediate issues between them and other tenants or the staff. The hotel staff all know who we are; we make a point of being very visible. We check on them or leave food a couple times a week. They know they can call us if anything comes up."

"All of them really appreciate having a home," added Shannon. "A lot of them still have pretty chaotic lives; they’ve spent years in addiction and trauma. I remind myself that the first step in any healing process is having a safe home that is their own and is always there. The next step will be to develop some second-stage housing for those youth who are ready to move forward from the low-barrier programs."

Frontline worker says things are getting better in the DTES

Jeff Colvin grew up in East Vancouver, not far from where he now works as RainCity Housing and Support Society’s manager of the Shaldon Hotel. He was first drawn to the Downtown Eastside some 13 years ago when a family friend told him there was a position available at RainCity’s Triage Shelter as a cook. While it was the opportunity to have a job that initially sparked his interest, it was the difference RainCity makes in so many lives that has kept him active in the neighbourhood.

"The work I saw RainCity doing inspired me to want to do more for the community and created a sense of personal responsibility," said Jeff. "Over the years at the shelter, I saw friends of friends who needed to use its services. It reminded me that most of us are just one or two paycheques away from possibly being homeless. And, it made me want to make our community a better place."

After working as the Triage Shelter’s cook for a couple of years, Jeff became a community support worker. Other jobs with RainCity followed including work as an in-house tenant support worker, time spent as part of an outreach team engaging with people with concurrent disorders, then supervising and later managing the Triage Shelter. In September 2008, Jeff accepted the position of manager of the Shaldon, a 100-year-old single room occupancy hotel that had recently been purchased by the provincial government.

"Since then, we’ve seen lots of tenants move on to better housing," said Jeff. "A large group moved out to the Lux, a new supportive housing development operated by RainCity which is just across the street. A few have moved into treatment for their addictions. And, one woman had a baby and has consequently found a better home."

Other tenants have chosen to stay. "Several decided to remain at the Shaldon; they’ve lived here a long time and like the building and the staff," added Jeff. "There’s a really positive attitude in this building." Jeff believes life is improving for people living in the Downtown Eastside. "I’ve been down here a long time now and I can definitely say it used to be much harder to get into drug/alcohol treatment or to get assessed for mental health concerns. There’s also improved access to housing. It’s not as good as it needs to be, but it’s definitely better than it was.




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