Episode 6: Room 821
Image: The Balmoral Hotel from street level, shut down and boarded up. The building was declared unsafe by the City of Vancouver in 2017. (Photo: Alexander Kim)
What happens when your options are being kicked out on the street or living in a room filled with mould, trash and rats? Episode 6 of Crackdown looks at how the housing and overdose crises are intertwined, and what happens when tenants fight back.
This story features a profile of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative as well as their Tenant Overdose Response Project. Find out more here.
If you want to learn how to use Naloxone to reverse an overdose, you can get training here: naloxonetraining.com.
Transcript
Image: “Battle of the Balmoral” Block Party, June 11, 2017. (Photo: Garth Mullins)
Image: Jay Slaunwhite and Garth Mullins across the street from the Balmoral. Jay moved into the Balmoral Hotel in 2014. (Photo: Sam Fenn)
Call to Action
The housing crisis and illegal evictions disproportionately impact people who use drugs. The BCCSU is calling on the City of Vancouver and the Government of British Columbia to:
Include people who use drugs in policy-making decisions around low-income rental housing. Nothing for us without us;
Track evictions from private and non-profit housing to help identify potentially problematic landlords;
Revise the Residential Tenancy Act to protect and meet the needs of the most vulnerable tenants;
Change to opt-out arbitration for evictions and fund community legal advocates to support vulnerable tenants;
Enforce standards and maintenance by-laws and issue real penalties, including expropriation for the worst offenders;
Require a higher threshold for evicting tenants from non-profit housing;
Reading List
Bardwell et al. (2018). Addressing Intersecting Housing and Overdose Crises in Vancouver, Canada: Opportunities and Challenges from a Tenant-Led Overdose Response Intervention in Single Room Occupancy Hotels. Journal of Urban Health.
Collins et al. (2018). Surviving the housing crisis: Social violence and the production of evictions among women who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada. Health and Place.
Fleming et al. (2019) Housing in Crisis: A qualitative study of the socio-legal contexts of residential evictions in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. International Journal of Drug Policy.
Kennedy et al. (2017) Residential eviction and exposure to violence among people who inject drugs in Vancouver, Canada. International Journal of Drug Policy.
Wendy Stueck and Mike Hager (May 28, 2018) For low-income residents in Vancouver, a different kind of real estate. The Globe and Mail
Paul Johnson (Jun 11, 2018) Protest block party held outside Balmoral Hotel on the eve of evacuation deadline. Global News B.C.
Credits
Garth Mullins is Crackdown‘s host and executive producer.
Crackdown is produced by Alexander Kim, Lisa Hale, Sam Fenn, Polly Leger and Gordon Katic.
Production help from Alex de Boer and Sharon Nadeem.
Consulting from Samantha Pranteau, Jay Slaunwhite and Al Fowler. Glen Mofford, author of “Along the E&N: The Historic Hotels of Vancouver Island” gave us some Balmoral history.
Crackdown’s Editorial Board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fess, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Laura Shaver, Dave Murray, and Al Fowler. Rest In Peace Chereece Keewatin.
Our scientific adviser is Ryan McNeil from the BC Centre on Substance Use.
Original score written and performed by Sam Fenn, Jacob Dryden, Kai Paulson, James Ash and Garth Mullins. Our theme song was written by Garth and Sam with accompaniment from Dave Gens and Ben Appenheimer.
Funding for Crackdown comes from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
