VANCOUVER'S PROBLEM HOTELS

City Police Have Labelled These Ten Hotels In The Downtown Eastside As
The Most Problematic: Each One Of Them, Police Say, Contains A
Shooting Gallery For Drugs

The New Zealand, 235 Main St.

The North Star, 5 West Hastings

The Hotel Balmoral, 159 East Hastings

Gees Royal Rooms, 237 Main St.

The Evergreen, 333 Columbia

The American Hotel, 928 Main St.

The Walton Hotel, 261 East Hastings

The Golden Crown, 116 West Hastings

The Gastown Hotel, 110 Water St.

The Beacon, 7 West Hastings

Smelly, blood-stained and rife with welfare fraud, 10 Downtown
Eastside hotels provide housing that isn't much different from living
on the street, says a Vancouver city police report.

"From my investigation of these hotels, it is clear that the owners
are benefiting financially at the expense of their clients' health and
are making no efforts to maintain an acceptable standard of living,"
concludes Constable Jodyne Keller, who was asked in February to
conduct a fact-finding review of 10 of the most problematic hotels in
the Downtown Eastside.

Keller said she chose the hotels by deciding on the issues she needed
to explore, then asking the agencies that deal with those issues to
name 10 of the worst hotels as far as they are concerned. "All hotels
are of concern to all agencies more than any other hotel in the
Downtown Eastside."

Her subsequent study found:

- - All hotels have outstanding fire order recommendations.

- - Every hotel is at least 70 to 100 years old, and six have management
and maintenance problems. One hasn't paid property taxes or bought a
business licence.

- - Seven hotels do not use a guest book; one does not keep a register,
one keeps altered registers and all registers are inadequate.

- - The 10 hotels have a combined 565 rooms. In 1999, police responded
to 780 emergency calls and 58 overdoses at the hotels. The majority of
the calls were for assaults, drugs and prostitution. At three of the
hotels, 80 per cent of the calls were strictly for drugs, the study
said.

- - Two hotels had no desk clerks, many rooms are fire hazards, many of
the hotels smell of urine, a stove in one hotel was full of stolen
property, toilets were overflowing, there were open and active drug
dealing and prostitution; there were galleries for shooting up drugs
in every hotel, and one such shooting gallery had a bucket of urine in
the middle of the room.

- - Welfare fraud appeared common.

- - There was an average of three staff members per hotel, with some not
being paid at all and one being paid in cigarettes.

One of the purposes of the report, Keller said, "is to clearly
illustrate the magnitude of the problems we have with a number of the
hotels in the Downtown Eastside.

"The other is to coordinate a starting point for all agencies to work
towards a common goal. We (being every agency that has an interest)
are providing this community with housing standards that are not much
different than those who are living on the street.. . We have to
acknowledge these issues and clean up the hotels.

"This report is not intended to shut down these hotels, but simply to
encourage the kinds of change that would provide a healthy, safe
environment. We all have to take ownership for what we are allowing to
take place."

Sergeant Ken Frail, who works the Downtown Eastside, said: "If the
humane society knew you were keeping a dog in one of those rooms,
you'd be charged for cruelty to animals.

"It's that bad, it's terrible."

Mayor Philip Owen said the police findings will be addressed by city
staff.

"It's a complicated process to get these hotels shut down or cleaned
up, but we'll have a look at it," Owen said Wednesday.

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PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED BY VANCOUVER CITY POLICE IN A STUDY CONDUCTED THIS YEAR

- -Every hotel has a shooting gallery for drugs.

- -780 911 calls to 10 hotels in 1999.

- -58 overdoses reported at 10 hotels in 1999.

- -Majority of calls related to assaults, drugs and prostitution.

- -Three of the hotels have 80 per cent of their calls related only to
drugs.

- -Many hotels smell of urine.

- -Open and active drug dealing and prostitution.

- -Six hotels have management and maintenance problems.

- -One hotel hasn't paid its property taxes or business
licence.

- -Seven hotels do not use a guest book.

- -Toilets overflowing.

- - Many rooms are fire hazards.

- -Seventy-three per cent of tenants on welfare.

- -Average of only three staff per hotel.

- -Average price of a room is $25 to 50 a night, and $325 a
month.

- -Seven hotels do not use a guest book.

- -All registers are inadequate.