Tenants at the Old American Hotel, located at 928 Main Street in Vancouver, were given notice today that they are expected to vacate the lodging house tomorrow. The management of the American began boarding up the building’s windows this afternoon.

The Old American Hotel provides housing to people who can’t afford to live anywhere else,” said David Eby, lawyer for Pivot Legal Society. “There were almost 30 tenants in the building, but now there are fewer than ten. The people who haven’t left yet are the most desperate, those that can’t find anywhere else to live.”

Both Vancouver Police and the City of Vancouver have refused to take action to prevent this eviction, which is based on eviction notices declared illegal by the Residential Tenancy Office on Friday of last week. Residents received the illegal notices on August 1, 2006 and were told to be out by September 30, 2006. Manager Bob Woodroff has stated publicly that the low-income tenants of the building were being evicted to allow the owner to build market condominium housing.

This entire scenario is incredibly disappointing,” said Eby. “We have three levels of government who have committed themselves to preventing displacement of low-income residents from the only housing those people have left, yet one landlord can flaunt every provincial and municipal law designed to prevent that displacement without consequence.”