NORTH DELTA – The North Delta fire department has shut down Indo-Canadian owned hotel which led to 28 residents of the North Delta Inn being kicked out of their homes, because their building has been declared a fire risk.
The North Delta Inn is a motel, but many people like Sandy MacDonald have been living there for years. Now that they’ve been handed eviction notices and must vacate by June 15, many of them don’t know where they’re going to go.
“The cities are always saying they want to do things to remove homelessness, but they keep doing things to create homelessness,” MacDonald says.
A recent inspection found a long list of fire code violations, ranging from poor lighting to blocked emergency exits. The risk was deemed to be so severe that the property owner was ordered to hire security guards to be on site 24-hours a day in case of an emergency.
The North Delta Inn is a motel, but many people like Sandy MacDonald have been living here for years.
Residents know about the hazards, but many of them are seniors who can’t find another place to live for $600 a month.
“Places like this, especially for seniors … they have somebody next door to help or to knock on the walls,” says Tracy Patrus, who is being evicted. “There aren’t a lot of places out here that they can go to.”
This isn’t the first controversy involving the North Delta Inn. A few years ago, developers wanted to turn the area into a condo tower, but those plans were shelved. Later on, a recovery house moved in, but the municipality shut it down because of a bylaw issue.
The City of Delta says it’s working with the property owner and the province to provide whatever help it can for those being kicked out.
