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Neighbours rage at Ramada open house

City of Vancouver failed to notify residents about temporary social housing at former hotel, say residents who attended meeting
ramada
More than 200 area residents attended the open house at the Ramada hotel on East Hastings to hear from the city and housing organizers about the proposal to use it for temporary social housing. File photo Dan Toulgoet

Security was called at a jammed open house Wednesday night on temporary supported housing at the former Ramada on East Hastings after it turned ugly.

More than 200 area residents attended the open house at the hotel to hear from the city and housing organizers about the proposal. But with so many people squeezed into a tight space, answers were difficult to find.

The information boards the city set up were tough to see amid the throngs. Within an hour, Mandarin-speaking visitors were using the back of a board as a solid base for a piece of paper where they listed their email addresses for one another.

A security guard was called into the fray when a group started yelling in Mandarin, as translated for the Courier by onlooker Fanny Wong.

“There’s no consulting with us and we don’t want this shelter,” one woman bellowed repeatedly, according to Wong. She said the woman was particularly perturbed because she had been told to shut up.

Residents learned at the open house that Community Builders Foundation, a network of humanitarian organizations in different countries, will operate the building and the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Society will select the bulk of the residents from the 201 Central St. shelter it runs.

Wong and other residents at the open house say the city should organize a presentation and question and answer session at the nearby community centre. It was difficult for more than one person to hear the answers a representative provided amid the din.

Lara Davis, chairperson for the parent advisory council at the neighbouring Franklin elementary, said no one south of Hastings Street received a letter from the city about the project. Franklin’s principal learned plans for the building from a parent within the last two weeks.

“I feel bad for the operator,” Davis said. “Because the city tried to bypass any community input, he might not be able to do his job and he might not be able to help those people.”

Sheldon North feared the Ramada, like the Bosman hotel that he works across from on Howe Street, would accommodate hard-to-house people with mental illness and bring more drug dealers and violence to the area where he lives with three infant children.

He was relieved to hear the Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society will select seniors and the working poor from its shelter near Main and Terminal to live at the Ramada.

Susan Tatoosh, executive director of the society, said Central has 32 guests ready to rent in a supported setting. Residents will probably be moved in 10 at a time starting this month. Seniors with health problems including arthritis, which is exacerbated in inclement weather, will move in first. The city wants approximately 40 people housed in the building at Hastings and Skeena.

Tatoosh said a couple of spots would be left open for homeless people from the area near the Ramada.

Residents will have a tenancy agreement and pay rent.  

Area resident Michael O’Brien asked Gordon Wiebe, chair of Community Builders Foundation, if his organization would find out whether potential residents have a criminal history.

Wiebe said Community Builders would be transparent if anything goes wrong.  

“My concern is really related to the safety and welfare of the kids, full stop,” said O’Brien, whose daughter attends Franklin.

Neighbours wanted to know whether residents of the Ramada would be permitted to use drugs and alcohol at the hotel.

Wiebe said they could as long as they function as quiet and respectful neighbours. Overnight guests won’t be permitted. “We have a zero tolerance for criminal activity,” he said.

Debra Nothstein, principal of Franklin, said she’s heard good things about Community Builders, which operates supportive housing at the Jubilee, Dodson, Powell and Vogue rooms.

crossi@vancourier.com
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