Going, Going...

Poverty Hotel Buying Binge
Fast turnover of SRA hotels has Vancouver housing activists 'on red alert.' A Tyee special report.
By Monte Paulsen
Published February 12, 2007

One out of every five cheap rooms in the Downtown Eastside changed ownership in 2006, as rising real estate prices fuelled the sale of aging single-room-accommodation (SRA) hotels in Canada's poorest neighbourhood.

At least 20 SRA hotels were sold between March and October of last year, according to figures provided by the City of Vancouver. Those hotels represent about 1,010 of the estimated 5,000 SRA rooms that remain in the Downtown Eastside. More than a third of those recently transferred rooms are now in the hands of developer Robert Wilson, a relatively unknown player in Vancouver's fastest-changing neighbourhood.

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