SRO Upgrading and Cooling/Warming Retrofit Grants

Statement Watch

Awesome. Everybody. Good afternoon, counsel. I'm. Wendy Peterson from the SRO Collaborative, and I'm here with tenants who are leading various tenant-based initiatives in their hotels. The diehards are still here. We're from the SRO Collaborative. And first, a little bit of context. There's about 100 privately owned hotels under the SRA bylaw. By my count, 46 of them are now renting mostly to workers and students and have pushed out the very low-income tenants. The remaining 54 hotels... which have about 2,500 tenants, very low-income tenants, are living on the edge of displacement. In the city's recent survey on SROs, two-thirds of the tenants had previously been homeless, and two-thirds feared becoming homeless if they lost that housing. So just a little bit of context. And we're about to lose 200 more rooms soon, which I'd like to talk to Councillors about at some point. But in the meantime, we're here to support the approval of the proposed $1.9 million worth of grants for SRO upgrades. For a long time, the private SRO system has been failing, and nobody was taking responsibility. And we're very thankful that this council has stepped up to be part of the ecosystem of support that we're all trying to build. to preserve, protect, and eventually replace the hotels. Preserve, protect, and replace. That's our new mantra. We were going to make a big banner that says preserve, protect, replace. So the proposed cooling warming rooms in the six new privately owned hotels will help protect tenants from extreme heat. These rooms not only save lives, but they also bring the tenant community together, help calm buildings and create goodwill with landlords, potentially helping them hold on to their buildings a little longer. The capital upgrades for Powell Rooms and Abbott Mansions help preserve SROs as more habitable places to live in while we wait for redevelopments to replace them. It is urgent that we preserve more of the at-risk privately owned hotels through additional capital grants and land trust acquisitions. The best way to support acquisitions is to consider putting seed money into an SRO acquisition fund like they did in Toronto and the city of San Francisco, and then have senior governments top it up. once in a while, and I'd love to talk to people about that, too, in the next little while, if you're interested. And the third part of our mantra is replacing the SROs, which I know you're on board for doing as well. It's not on our agenda, but it's part of our mantra, and it's always on our minds. And it's urgent to protect tenants from homelessness by replacing their hotels with new housing. The 25-footer proposal that you supported last December gave us a lot of hope. And now that the pile of rooms is secured, we're working hard on a demonstration replacement site. More on that soon. Last sentence, thank you again for your consideration to approve these wonderful capital grants. And thanks for listening to the tenants who are about to speak.

Statement Watch

Hi there. My name is Paul Sumner. I live in one of the SROs. I'm in a building called the Laurel at 610 Alexander. And I'd like to just voice my concern about the cooling rooms. I think we really need them a lot in all of the SROs. My understanding is that the SROs are 10 degrees warmer than the outside temperature. and they're hottest in the middle of the night. And it causes a lot of sickness. And in some cases, it has caused death. And to have one room in the building that's air conditioned where people can get a break from the heat. really important additionally I have an idea and I'm not representing the organization with this is just my idea that is my building is one of the ones that's for sale at the moment and the asking price is almost the same as the as the as the multi appraised value the assessed value which is uncommon and it's a good time to jump on that building and it's because the landlord is extremely motivated to sell and I think that the city should, could create a fund and an organization that helps our organization to purchase buildings such as this one. There are so many that are available for sale, but also buildings that aren't for sale should have offers made on them. I personally have bought two SROs in my past that weren't for sale. And with no money down. So it does happen. You just have to put a bug in somebody's mind and they'll call you a year later. I don't see how the city couldn't do something like this. And that would be to give a 99-year term with 99-year amortization. zero down, zero interest, they're going to get their money back anyway. And it benefits the community in such a great way. And it enables the organization or whoever the new owner might be to charge very low rents and to do a lot of renovations that are in need in almost all of the hotels as they haven't been properly maintained. I don't think any of them have in 100 years. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Welcome. Hi, my name is Heather Iron, and I live in the downtown Eastside, on and off since 2010. I've lived in the power rooms for the past five and a half years, and I'm here to speak in support of funding for the power rooms and cooling rooms. Before moving into the power rooms, I was homeless. After moving in, I got invited to work with the SROC, distributing water to my neighbors during the summer, and later helped collect tenant surveys. Through this, I got to know my neighbors, and we take care of each other through harm reduction and other programs. Plenty of us in the building are dealing with serious issues like mold, which causes health problems and sometimes leads to hospital visits. Bathrooms are often backed up and breakers blow because the electrical system cannot handle the load. There are holes in the building that allow pests to get in. The funding will help fix these conditions so people can live safely and with dignity. I also want to say how grateful I am that the building is now owned by the community land just gives me peace of mind knowing that I will not be affected and that our community is displaced to lose the programs that support us. At the Power Rooms, we understand how everything is connected to creating a safe home, and this funding will go a long way in making that possible.

Statement Watch

My name is Jean-Guy Gagnon. I'm from the caretaker from the Arlington Hotel. I've been living there for 15 years, five years as a caretaker. Along with the SROC, we started a cooling room at the Arlington with a heat pump and a water filtration system. It took about a little while to set the room up, but it's managed by the tenant for the tenant. Since opening the rooms, the tenants are more community-oriented and more connected. Most of the tenants are over the age of 60 years old. We need the cooling room to prevent them from dying or heat stroke and to get them more connected to the other tenants. Many tenants were isolated and didn't leave their room until we put the cooling system. The cooling room is much more than a place to cool down. It's a cooking space, a place to gather with other tenants. I believe the city should find more cooling rooms. It makes a huge difference in our building and could change other buildings too. If we lost the building or it was sold, we would lose the rooms and our sense of community. The permanent SRO acquisition fund would prevent that from happening and give the community land trust or other organization to opportunity to approve the building further. I'm a part of the tenant advisory committee for the DTES community land trust. The recent acquisition of the power room should be celebrated and more funds should go to the land trust to improve the quality of life in the building and hopefully more in the future. Thank you very much.

Statement Watch

Hi. My name is Richard Schwab. I am a tenant of the Arlington Hotel. I'm also the Chairman of the Board of the SROC and a part of the Tenant Advisory Committee for the Downtown Eastside Community Land Trust. Along with the SROC and my neighbors, we started a cooling room in the Arlington two years ago equipped with a heat pump and a water filtration system. Before we had this room, the building was really, really hot. Now, because we have this space, no one is dying from heat stroke, heat-related illness, or dehydration. The heat pump has saved money on electricity and prevents tenants from running individual air conditioners, which we know the old electrical breakers in these buildings simply cannot handle. But I need you to know that it is a community room, not just a cooling room. We cook meals together for the whole building. We sit down and solve building problems together. Because of this space, some of the more isolated tenants have come out of their shells and built connections with their neighbors. We want to partner with City Council for a win-win situation. In the long run, funding spaces saves the city and the province money by keeping people safe and out of the hospital. The frightening part for us is that the Arlington could be sold or shut down tomorrow. And then this room and the entire community we built would be lost. Now, the Powell Street Rooms was acquired by the... Land Trust. It was built in 1912, the exact same year as the Arlington. So it's really old. Almost heritage, you could say. Give us these funds to buy our building and others. Fund these cooling rooms and give us the acquisition funding to take these buildings out of the private market so we don't lose our homes. Doing this would make sure we don't lose the home we've built and the community we've created. You have community at home. You have families. And many of my neighbors don't. Can you put a price on that? So let me reiterate. Join us. Fund us. Help us keep building community.

Statement Watch

Thank you. My name is Gabby Dabelli. I'm a longtime resident of Vancouver. I'm a housing researcher at UBC with the Center for Climate Justice, and I've worked in the Downtown Eastside for seven years. So I'm speaking in support of the funding for the SRO Cooling and Warming Room Retrofit Grant. I was the lead author on a report about extreme and prolonged heat in SROs, and I'm the lead researcher on an evaluation of the cooling room pilot project at the Arlington Hotel. So as we've heard from folks today, SRO buildings are very hot. Data from 14 SROs show that tenants experience prolonged heat exposure in their homes with indoor conditions that are hotter than outdoors and don't offer a reprieve from the heat. So as you can see on the slide, For almost two straight months, indoor heat in SROs does not dip below safe temperature guidelines that are set by the city. Some rooms even reach 40 degrees Celsius, and in general, they can be around 10 degrees hotter than outdoor temperatures. Many tenants also don't have access to trusted water or to cooling resources like air conditioning. And all of this combined means that indoor heat exposure in SROs is dangerous and leaves tenants at elevated risk of heat-related illness, injury, and death. Funding for cooling rooms is the best way to combat extreme and prolonged indoor heat in SROs and to support tenants' well-being. Our team has evaluated the Arlington pilot cooling room, and our preliminary results, if you go to the next slide, please. Thank you. Our preliminary results show that almost all of the tenants in the buildings use the room regularly, and it provides a space for them to cool down in the summers. 93% of tenants we surveyed report feeling more comfortable in the heat because of the cooling room, and they reported that they go to the cooling room to cool down rather than public cooling spaces. In the winters, this room also offers a space for tenants to warm up if they need it. In addition, the most commonly used appliance in the room is the water dispenser, meaning the room serves as a hub for tenants to access trusted water sources and stay hydrated in the heat. Without the water filter and dispenser that is available in this room, many tenants don't trust the building's water and may boil it before using or buy bottled water instead. So in this way, the cooling room facilitates tenants' access to trusted water, so they're able to stay more hydrated and manage the heat. Finally, the cooling room acts, as folks have said, as a social magnet that is managed by tenants, creating a friendlier building atmosphere and giving tenants the opportunity to build community and connect with each other. This reduces social isolation, which can also contribute to risk of heat-related illness. In summary, indoor heat threatens the well-being of SRO tenants, but cooling rooms are an important measure that support tenant access to cool spaces and trusted water. I hope this council will vote in support of the cooling and warming room retrofit grant. Thank you.

Statement Watch

Good afternoon, mayor and council. Yes, good. Good afternoon, mayor and councillors. My name is Mohammed Rafi Arafat. I'm a Vancouver resident and a professor at UBC Geography and also the Center for Climate Justice. So I'm speaking today in support of the SRO cooling and warming room retrofit grant. Yesterday, I emailed you all a letter signed by climate and housing researchers detailing our thorough support for this funding. The Center for Climate Justice is an academic research center that carries out impactful community engaged research, documenting the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the provinces most vulnerable. We work to develop policies and solutions to the pressing problems of climate impacts that are changing our cities and putting British Columbians at risk. So since the 2021 heat dome that killed over 619 people, including over 100 people in Vancouver, our center has worked with community partners to come up with interventions that will protect residents in extreme heat events. and in prolonged bouts of elevated heat now across our different research reports we've come back time and time again to the need for in-building communal cooling and warming rooms outfitted ideally with heat pumps which serve to both reduce building emissions and adapt buildings to a warming city Now, this intervention is especially needed in SROs in the downtown east side. SROs, as you know, are some of the oldest buildings in the city located in the neighborhood that registers some of the hottest surface temperatures. Together, these factors combined with chronic health issues put many SRO tenants at disproportionate risk for heat-related injury and indeed death. As the previous speaker has shown, our research demonstrates that it gets extremely hot in these buildings, regularly exceeding the city staff suggested indoor temperature of 26 degrees. Now, I know you may ask yourself, don't we already have public cooling centers? well our researchers at the center have found that while these are an important part of the response to heat alone they are not enough our research has documented a series of obstacles to accessing public cooling centers for residents who are disabled have chronic health conditions or find themselves in these stages right before heat stroke in building cooling rooms are the necessary intervention To be clear, this is a straightforward solution that avoids injury and saves lives. So in conclusion, I support this motion to fund in-building cooling rooms. The city and the province have enacted measures to prevent heat-related injury and harm for other neighborhoods and other building types throughout the city. I'm asking today that you do not leave these buildings and their tenants behind in our warming city.