About 25 tenants of the Port Hotel in Port Alberni have been forced out after the building failed to meet fire codes and asbestos was discovered in drywall samples.
The Port Alberni Fire Department issued a notice to vacate the building this week after the owner failed to fix fire-code violations found this year, including missing fire extinguishers, smoke alarms not working and exit doors blocked by bags of garbage.
Tenants were informed they had to leave Wednesday.
As people moved out, the city boarded up the 5170 Argyle St. hotel, which also held a pub. The hotel is owned by a numbered company based in Richmond.
Tenants leaving the building were met by officials from the province, city and social-service agencies, who worked to find them a place to stay on short notice.
The City of Port Alberni, which has been regularly inspecting the hotel, was notified about the asbestos problem this week and sent an information notice to tenants, municipal chief administrative officer Mike Fox said Thursday. WorkSafeBC prohibits people working in buildings with materials such as asbestos without special protective equipment, he said. Staff are preparing a report for council’s June 10 meeting outlining options for dealing with the building, which also has building-code violations, Fox said.
Port Alberni RCMP Cpl. Jordan Hamlyn said police were called to the hotel 88 times last year for assaults, weapons, mental-health issues and property offences.
The building is in a general state of disrepair and does not have the basic amenities needed for a safe living environment, Hamlyn said.
“During routine patrols and while attending calls, police have observed tenants of the building to be living in deplorable conditions, which include excessive accumulation of human waste and refuse in the hallway.”
The hotel was inspected in January by city staff, the fire department and the owner.
A city report cited doors missing from units, exposed wires, rats, leaks from ceilings, missing drywall and black mould.
Council voted unanimously in January to impose a remedial work order, giving the owner 30 days to fix up the property, assessed at $1.16 million.
Since then, the owner has gone silent and no remedial action has been taken, said Fox.
He said that, so far this year, the city has spent about $200,000 in dealing with the hotel, largely to pay for a security company to check the building every 15 minutes around the clock to ensure fire had not broken out. The owner has been levied $40,000 in bylaw infraction fines.
Staff are determining the cost to upgrade the building to the point where it would be safe to live in, he said. If council chooses to take that route, the upgrading expense would be added to the owner’s annual property taxes.
If the total amount is not paid, the city could sell the property to recoup its costs.
The Bread of Life Centre is among agencies that showed up to help tenants on Wednesday. It brought food and four tenants stayed overnight in its shelter.
Centre spokesman Travis Clem said some tenants were upset, but “all considering, it went well.”
There were a few couples but most of the tenants were single people, he said. “Everybody is doing what we can to place them, find them housing.”
The Port Hotel opened in 1948 as the King Edward Hotel, replacing a building of the same name that was destroyed by fire in 1947.
The new hotel suffered from a minor fire in 1954, according to the local archives. After the fire, another 10 rooms were added to the 30-room hotel and the dining room was expanded.
It featured a cocktail lounge called the Tyee Room, decorated with fishing nets.
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