4 former SRO hotels on Downtown Eastside up for sale could be marketed as micro-suites: councillor
Posted December 6, 2019 10:17 am.
Last Updated December 6, 2019 10:21 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Four single-room occupancy hotels on the Downtown Eastside are up for sale.
Previously used to discourage speculators and slow down the loss of affordable low-income housing, 180 units are now at risk of disappearing.
City Councillor Jean Swanson says the units, formerly occupied by people with no other option than the street, are being marketed to upscale buyers as micro-suites and investment opportunities.
She says rents in the hotels would then skyrocket.
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“So what’s happened before when this happens is that the low-income tenants get pushed out and then the rents get raised a lot, like hundreds of dollars more.”
Swanson is asking the B.C. government to tie rent increases to rooms rather than tenancy to discourage speculators and slow rent increases.
“This is just a motion to call on the province to bring in vacancy control, which is when landlords can’t raise the rents as much as they like when a tenant leaves.”
Landlords would still be able to raise the rents by 2.6 per cent a year.
If Victoria won’t act, she wants to look at how the city can.
