Audit of 'slumlords' pushed

Coun. Stevenson targets Sahota family building owners
David Carrigg, The Province
Published: Monday, October 22, 2007

An audit of all low-income housing owned by the "slumlord" Sahota family of Vancouver should begin immediately, says city Coun. Tim Stevenson.

"These people are basically slumlords," he said, after touring a Sahota apartment complex evacuated last week when water poured through the roof, causing ceilings to collapse and rooms to be flooded.

"There was an inch of water in some places and a dead mouse hanging from some wet insulation where the roof has collapsed, so it has rodent problems."

The Sahota family of Shaughnessy, comprising Pal, Gurdyal, Parkash and Ranjit, are well-known to the city building inspectors who deal with their multimillion-dollar building empire.

The most recent dealing occurred last Thursday when tenants of a three-storey apartment in the 2100-block Pandora Street called inspectors when the ceiling started to leak.

The 50 residents, mostly aboriginal women with kids, were given a few hours' notice and ordered out of the building as water poured down the walls and the ceilings gave way.

One of the residents, Kyle Goddard, said he complained several times to the landlord when his carpet became moist. At the time, sections of the roof were covered with tarpaulins.

"They've been saying for months they're going to do something. They haven't done nothing. So it's come to this. Now we're all going to be out on the street," Goddard said.

A security guard in front of the building yesterday said he preferred to stay outside in the rain rather than in the apartment lobby because the smell was so bad.

"Some of us have been getting headaches," the guard said.

Last July, a rotting balcony at a Sahota

family apartment complex in the 500-block East 5th Avenue collapsed, sending two people to hospital.

In December 2005, Vancouver police accused the Sahota family of preying on the homeless after an undercover investigation into welfare fraud at the family's Astoria Hotel.

In 2002, the family lost, but later recovered, some of their business licences after a police probe.

As well as the two apartment complexes and the Astoria, the Sahota family owns the Downtown Eastside's notorious Cobalt, Balmoral and Regent rooming houses. Emergency services are called to those properties hundreds of times a year. Stevenson said the family operates the hotels through various companies.

He said the city needs to find exactly what the Sahota family's property holdings are, then begin an immediate audit to ensure the buildings are safe for tenants.

"The inspector said [the Pandora building] it was the fastest he's ever closed a place. They are lucky no one was killed," Stevenson said.

"The Sahotas have a huge reputation with the city, they have a long track record. They are chasing them down time and time again."

Stevenson said he also wants council to beef up the bylaws governing the condition of rental properties. Presently, those bylaws cannot force a landlord to make a major investment, like replacing a roof.

The tenants displaced from the Pandora building are being housed temporarily through funding from the Provincial Emergency Program. The city and B.C. Housing are trying to find long-term accommodation for them.

Pal Sahota told The Province he will return the Pandora tenants' damage deposits and rent for October. He would not make any further comment.

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