Supportive-living tenants face eviction from site
Amir Zkhatib has a TV, slow cooker, air fryer and private bathroom.
Located in a former TraveLodge on Marine Drive in North Vancouver near the Lions Gate Bridge, his place is clean and it's tidy.
Inside the lobby there's coffee and snacks, alongside produce and bread donated by groceries and bakeries. Some of his meals are provided by the HAVE Culinary Training Society.
“It's very comfortable, the staff are fantastic,” Zkhatib, a Canadian
Armed Forces veteran, said. But the supportive-living site was always a temporary fix and, in January, Zkhatib and the other tenants found out they have to be out by May 31 so the building can be demolished for redevelopment.
About three dozen tenants have no clue where they'll live next.
The property is owned by a private developer, who plans to erect buildings of 27, nine and four storeys, as well as townhouses.
Ultimately, finding new shelter for the tenants is B.C. Housing's responsibility, and it is working
with Lu'ma, the Aboriginal Housing Management Association, community outreach teams and other community partners to come up with answers, said Heidi Hartman, associate vice-president of supportive housing and homelessness.
“I'd say a lot is being done right now,” Hartman said, citing some tenants who have moved back to their home communities.
“We don't take our foot off the gas pedal, and we're hopeful for an extension (past May 31).”
Hopeful, but realistic: “There is a need to secure additional safe housing for these residents ... (but) it's a challenge to find replacement shelters all around the province, it's not exclusive to one community.
“We really do all we can to meet people's preferences to stay in their community ... looking at whatever we can do to appropriately offer people housing options that meet their needs.”
The provincial government is building a 65-unit, six-storey supportive housing building near Mountain Highway and Keith Road, which North Van district council approved after a lengthy public hearing in which many neighbours were strongly opposed.
That doesn't help Zkhatib and the others now.
“At the moment I don't know what I'm going to do,” Zkhatib said.
The motel began serving as a shelter when COVID-19 began in March 2020, after the B.C. government started renting hotel rooms around Metro Vancouver to ease the strain on packed emergency shelters, before evolving into temporary supportive housing.
Zkhatib, who has lived at the motel for two years, had just returned from yet another back surgery at Lions Gate Hospital on Jan. 24 when he and the other tenants residing in the 61 rooms got notices to vacate.
“After four surgeries, I can't walk,” he said. “And me and all my belongings have to be gone by May 31.”
The site is managed by the Lu'ma Native Housing Society with $1.5 million a year in operating costs coming from B.C. Housing.
Staff said they're heartbroken and Lu'ma is trying to help as best it can, but its options are limited.
Zkhatib said many of his fellow tenants are worse off than he and would not do well living on Vancouver's East Hastings Street because of mobility and mental-health problems.
Before injuries prevented him from working any longer, he was a granite and marble fabricator, working in construction for more than 20 years.
“The people here are really suffering,” he said.
“I hear people crying at four o'clock in the morning because they're in so much pain. You throw these people on the street, they're not 15 or 18 or 20 years old, they 're all over 60, they're not going to survive on the street.
“It's not proper.”
He said he phoned B.C. Housing and was told the situation “is hectic.”
“I said, `I understand, but that it's not like I'm living outside trying to get into housing; I'm in housing and I'm getting kicked out.'”
He was told, he said, that if worse comes to worst, to call B.C. 211, a service that provides information and referrals for food and shelter, mental health and addictions, legal and financial assistance, and seniors support.
Some tenants have found alternatives elsewhere, such as across the street on Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) land, but with little or no other space available on the North Shore, Zkhatib said moving elsewhere isn't practical for him or most others affected.
“Maybe they send me to downtown Vancouver or to Abbotsford, but all my doctors, all the hospital people I'm dealing with are in North Vancouver. So I need to see the doctor and I ask my (North Van-based) friend to come pick me up and get me to the doctor and then drive me back to Abbotsford?
“I can't do that.”