‘We want to be heard’: Portland Hotel residents, advocates hold protest in Vancouver

Around a dozen people were seen outside the West Georgia Street office building Wednesday afternoon, demanding “recognition, dignity and compensation."

A group of residents, advocates and union representatives gathered Wednesday outside the PHS Community Services Society board members’ office for a protest

Around a dozen people were seen outside the West Georgia Street office building Wednesday afternoon, demanding “recognition, dignity and compensation” related to their months-long elevator outage at their supportive housing facility, the Portland Hotel.

“We want to be recognized, and we want to be (listened to),” Mark Tobiasson, a Portland Hotel resident.

Tobiasson said residents at a different single-room occupancy, that dealt with a similar elevator issue, were offered compensation of $30 a day — which is something Portland Hotel residents are looking for.

“Now, that altogether is not outrageous — we want our demands to be heard,” he said.

“I think if you look at the residency tenancy act, there is a stipulation in there for compensation and (PHS) seems to be withholding that from us. The people who are partially handicapped have had to use the stairs for months, now they are more handicapped.”

The facility’s elevator was fixed on Feb. 11 after being out of service for five months.

Previously, B.C. Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon pointed to “supply chain issues” as the culprit as to why it was taking so long to get fixed and PHS’ director of housing said the elevator was fixed after a “broken wire” had been replaced in February.