Balmoral Hotel’s tenants describe lives in squalor

The sidewalk outside the Balmoral Hotel was a busy place Friday, as residents scurried in and out trying to figure out what was happening with Vancouver’s most notorious low-rent hotel.

Kevin Brown told the story of how he’d gone from working on the oil rigs in northern Alberta to falling under cocaine’s spell and winding up in a tiny room where he and his wife pay $850 a month.

Suddenly he heard something behind the hotel door.

“Oh, he’s going to go beat that guy,” said Brown, 52. “He’s going to beat that guy right now. The security, they’re going to go beat one of the residents.”

Why?

“I don’t know,” he said. “They were yelling and screaming at him. The security are very violent.”

This is the kind of thing that happens at the Balmoral, where conditions have become so dire the city has taken the rare step of declaring the building unsafe for occupancy.

The city’s order was based on the deteriorating condition of the century-old hotel.

Many of the Balmoral’s residents wound up there after health problems forced them to quit physical work. Mario Fortin was a drywaller, but contracted hepatitis C and was later evicted from his apartment.

“I figured I’d just stay here for a couple of months, but it’s been 2½ years,” said Fortin, 58.

“They charged me too much, $450 a month for a small room. I have (had) no water for the past two months. When I have water, it’s either hot or cold. And it’s leaking through the ceiling through the walls.

“My wall and my ceiling caved in once, there was so much water. But they didn’t fix the leak, they only put new drywall on top. The bathroom, you don’t want to go there, it’s horrible. Plus I’ve got rat issues, I’ve got mice issues.

“Now they (the city) gave me 10 days notice that I have to get out of here. I don’t know what to do.”

As bad as it can be at the Balmoral, though, it’s a place with a roof.

“Besides the fact that this place is like a shithole, it wasn’t so bad,” said Daniel Leclaire, 35, who lives in the Balmoral with his dogs Pebbles and Sheba. “It is a shithole, though.”

How bad is it? Daniel Tahmasebi, 34, recently left his $375 room at the hotel after four months. His new home is an alcove on the street, a stone’s throw from the Balmoral.

Even though he prefers the street to the Balmoral, he wasn’t happy to hear the city was telling the Balmoral’s residents they had to move.

“Why don’t they help the people?” said Tahmasebi, who grew up in North Vancouver.

“It’s making matters worse. We already have a hard time living down here. You clearly see that. Every car that passes by they look at us like that (he points his finger), ‘Look, look!’

“You know this block doesn’t have a garbage can? Not one garbage can on this block. Why is that?” His friend Jody Gates has never lived in the Balmoral, but has spent a few nights there.

“You don’t really get a good sleep, that’s for sure,” said Gates.

“There’s people screaming, people getting hurt. People getting beat up in empty rooms.”

The 100 block of East Hastings can be a violent place. Gates said he “enforces the rules” on the block so it doesn’t get too out of hand.

Asked what that means, he said “You can’t bunk anybody sellin’ fake dope. No bear spraying, because those battles just never stop.” Bear spray? “You know, you’ve got a problem with someone, they bear spray you, you bear spray them,” explains Gates, who’s originally from the Okanagan.

“It goes back and forth, a never-ending battle and everyone’s getting caught up in it. It’s bad for everybody.”