Heat, hot water flow at The Lion at long last
Owner of Downtown Eastside hotel has been ordered by city to effect repairs
City of Vancouver officials plan to inspect all the rooms at The Lion hotel after warning the owner of the low-income rooming house in Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside that heat and hot water needs to be fully restored by Tuesday.
The Lion’s owner, Abol Abdollahi, was given a written order in late November to have the heat and hot water problem permanently fixed by Tuesday or the city would do the repairs and bill him.
Tenants of the 76-unit housing complex at 316 Powell Street complained to the city that, during the cold snap in November, their rooms were so cold they could see their breath in the morning.
Some residents of the dilapidated single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel had complained they hadn’t had heat for years. But, on Sunday, it appeared Abdollahi had corrected the heat and water problems.
Since city inspectors acted, fire inspectors have also gone into the building and assessed the owner thousands of dollars in fines for a variety of fire and building code infractions.
Notices of the city inspection have been posted throughout the hotel and residents are being advised that the room-to-room check will begin at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
“Residents please close all windows and turn off all portable heaters, hot plates, grills etc. at least 30 minutes prior to the inspections,” the notice reads.
“This will allow inspectors to determine if the heating system is functioning properly.”
“We have heat now,” said resident Ron Kuehlke, adding the radiator in his room began to emit heat last week for the first time in six years.
“The city has pushed pretty hard on it,” he said.
Like others in the hotel that houses many people on social assistance, Kuehlke said he’s hoping the heat and water problems are reviewed by inspectors on a regular basis. “It needs to be monitored,” he said. The city has some history with Abdollahi. He was the co-owner of the low-income Clifton Hotel, which before it was recently shut down, was deemed the second-worst building in the city, with 105 violations relating to the upkeep of the Granville Street premises.
Mohammad Valayati of the SRO Collaborative said two months was too long to have no heat in The Lion.
“That building was so cold, tenants were sleeping with winter jackets on,” Valayati said. “The city has to do routine inspections.”