Hotel 911

by Mike Howell-staff writer
Vancouver Courier

One of the most comprehensive reports ever conducted on single-room occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside reveals the extent to which life is unsafe, unhealthy and miserable for the people who live there.

Researchers from the city, Vancouver Police Department, Vancouver Fire-Rescue, Vancouver Coastal Health and three provincial government ministries examined 54 hotels in Vancouver's most troubled neighbourhood and discovered they had generated 11,269 emergency calls in 2005.

Many hotels were also rife with welfare fraud, fire code violations, management problems and bedbug and rodent infestations, according to The Vancouver Agreement Hotel Analysis Project report, which was obtained by the Courier.

Read the rest here.