A Vancouver-based grassroots group is working to educate tenants in downtown eastside buildings, informing them of their rights so they can start taking their landlords to task.
On Sunday, the Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative hosted its second annual convention for tenants, aimed at helping them better understand municipal bylaws and provincial regulations geared towards renters.
“People are living with rats, rats in their mattresses, mice. There’s no toilet paper, plugged toilets, no heat. Just the list goes on,” said Wendy Pedersen, one of the group’s co-founders.
In August, the collaborative took legal action against the landlord and building managers of the West Hotel, a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) building in downtown Vancouver. The collaborative filed one of the largest complaints with British Columbia’s residential tenancy board in the province’s history.
Former tenant turned advocate Mohammad Valayati said many tenants don’t know how to navigate the legal system.
“They don’t know about the rules, lots of tenants. They don’t know that the landlord is doing illegal things,” said Valayati.
While she’s calling for better living conditions within those buildings, Pedersen said what’s really needed is more affordable housing.
“The city needs to buy land and set it aside for social housing in the downtown eastside and all over the area, all over Vancouver.”
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