The North Star hotel is a former hotel at the southern edge of Gastown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at 5 West Hastings Street, it is a four-story red brick Victorian Italianate construction completed at an unidentified date, between the 1890s and 1904. [1] [2] [3]
The building was constructed as mixed use, with the main floor including storefront space. Details making it typical of late Victorian architecture include its four arched, vertically-coupled recessed double-hung windows; its rusticated stone stringcourse and sills; its front elevation with decorative brickwork, including stepped brick dentil below cornice level, semi-circular arches over fourth-storey double-hung sash windows, and moulded brickwork under rusticated stone string course. [1] It may have been designed by George William Grant, whose nearby Ormidale Block bears some similar features. [4] In 2003, the city of Vancouver recognized the building as one of historical significance. [1]
Like others built around the turn of the century, the lodging house originally hosted primarily single men working in seasonal resource industries. In 1913, it was called "Drexel Rooms", a name it kept until the 1980s, then later renamed the North Star Hotel or North Star Rooms, a single room occupancy hotel. It closed in 1999 after repeated code violations. [4]
At approximately 4 p.m. on October 22, 2006, organizers from the Vancouver Anti-Poverty Committee launched a march from Vancouver's Pigeon Park to the North Star hotel which was entered and declared a squat. The top floor of the building was occupied by a handful of squatters while protestors remained outside.
Protestors claimed the action was taken because of the failure of Vancouver's Non-Partisan Association (including Mayor Sam Sullivan) to purchase unused hotels and convert them into affordable housing. Since Vancouver housing costs had increased dramatically in the past years (making it the most expensive housing market in Canada), protestors were concerned that buildings with single-room accommodation would be converted to other, more expensive, forms of housing. In 2006, hotel closures have led to a loss of as many as 200 housing units. [5]
At first the police resisted any immediate action. "We're not going to move in until there's any sort of health and safety issue or until we've heard from the owners," said Vancouver Police Constable Tim Fanning. "It's been very peaceful." [6] On October 24, however, 20 police officers announced a final warning and entered the North Star hotel to evict the six squatters inside. A group of protesters followed the police wagon on foot, protesting and blocking traffic. Vancouver APC organizers have declared their intention to occupy another building in the near future. [7]
In 2014, in what was described as a "highly unusual" application, the Solterra Group applied for permission to renovate the building with half the rooms reserved for low-income residents. In the proposal, five of the rooms were to be rented at the provincial shelter rate, and another 13 rooms at the provincial rent supplement rate, locked in for 30 years. [2] [8] In 2015, city hall voted to give the developer $50,000 to restore the building's facade, though as of 2016, the plans had not received all necessary permits. [3]
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there were one billion slum residents and squatters globally. Squatting occurs worldwide and tends to occur when people who are poor and homeless find empty buildings or land to occupy for housing. It has a long history, broken down by country below.
The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues, including disproportionately high levels of drug use, homelessness, poverty, crime, mental illness and sex work. It is also known for its strong community resilience, history of social activism, and artistic contributions.
The Woodward's Building is a historic building in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The original portion of the building was constructed in 1903 for the Woodward's Department Store when that area of Cordova Street was the heart of Vancouver's retail shopping district. At one time, this was the premier shopping destination in Vancouver. The store was famous for its Christmas window displays, and its basement Food Floor and the "W" sign at the top of the building was distinctive landmark on the Vancouver skyline.
Vancouver Public Library (VPL) is the public library system for the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2013, VPL had more than 6.9 million visits with patrons borrowing nearly 9.5 million items including: books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, video games, newspapers and magazines. Across 22 locations and online, VPL serves nearly 428,000 active members and is the third-largest public library system in Canada.
Single room occupancy is a form of housing that is typically aimed at residents with low or minimal incomes who rent small, furnished single rooms with a bed, chair, and sometimes a small desk. SRO units are rented out as permanent residence and/or primary residence to individuals, within a multi-tenant building where tenants share a kitchen, toilets or bathrooms. SRO units range from 7 to 13 square metres. In some instances, contemporary units may have a small refrigerator, microwave, or sink.
Spartacus Books is a non-profit, volunteer and collectively run bookstore and resource centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1973. Spartacus sells new and used books, zines, comics, magazines, CDs, videos, T-shirts, patches, pins, posters and cards. Spartacus Books is one of the longest-running collectively run bookstores in North America.
St Agnes Place was a squatted street in Kennington, south London, which resisted eviction orders for more than 30 years. When a number of derelict houses were scheduled for demolition to extend Kennington Park in 1969, squatters occupied the properties and a High Court injunction prevented the demolition. The street was run by a housing cooperative until 2005, when Lambeth London Borough Council obtained an eviction order. Demolition was completed in 2007.
East Vancouver is a region within the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Geographically, East Vancouver is bordered to the north by Burrard Inlet, to the south by the Fraser River, and to the east by the city of Burnaby. East Vancouver is divided from Vancouver's "West Side" by Ontario Street.
Oppenheimer Park is a park located in the historic Japantown (Paueru-Gai) in Downtown Eastside, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The Hotel Vancouver, the second of three by that name, was a 15 story (77m) Italian Renaissance style hotel built in 1916 by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The architect was Francis S. Swales.
The Beatty Street Drill Hall is a Canadian Forces armoury located at 620 Beatty Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the home of The British Columbia Regiment, an armoured reconnaissance reserve regiment, the oldest military unit in Vancouver, and the most senior militia in the province.
Bloody Sunday was the conclusion of a month-long "sitdowners' strike" by unemployed men at the main post office in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was Depression-era Vancouver's final violent clash between unemployed protesters and police that provoked widespread criticism of police brutality.
Sinclair Centre is an upscale shopping mall in Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. It is located at 757 West Hastings Street between Granville and Howe streets. The centre comprises four buildings that were restored and connected by a new atrium space designed by Henriquez Partners Architects and Toby Russell Buckwell Architects in 1986. The cost for this work was 38 million. The main post office was housed here from 1910 until the new one opened in 1958. The Post Office Building is in an Edwardian Baroque style, combining English and French influences. It features an atrium clock consisting of four 12-foot-diameter (3.7 m) clocks built in 1909 and is the largest clock movement in Western Canada; the minute hands alone weigh 92 kilograms each. In addition to the mall, the building has a seven floor office tower occupied by the federal government. The buildings that comprise the centre are the Post Office, the handsome and architecturally esteemed Winch Building, the Customs Examining Warehouse, and the Federal Building. The mall is home to elite boutiques. The complex was renovated in 1986 and announced on November 13, 1983 that it was to be renamed after James Sinclair, member of Parliament for Vancouver North and later Coast—Capilano as well as Minister of Fisheries. Sinclair is the maternal grandfather of 23rd Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.SkyTrain Waterfront Station
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The Frances Street Squats were a set of six squatted houses, including one women-only building, that existed between February and November 1990 in Vancouver, Canada. They were occupied by SAVE and took a stand against development which was generally supported by local people. The Vancouver Police Department evicted the buildings.
In England and Wales, squatting—taking possession of land or an empty house the squatter does not own—occurs for a variety of reasons which include needing a home, protest, poverty, and recreation. Many squats are residential; some are also opened as social centres. Land may be occupied by New Age travellers or treesitters.
Historically, squatting occurred in the United States during the California Gold Rush and when colonial European settlers established land rights. There was squatting during the Great Depression in Hoovervilles and also during World War II. Shanty towns returned to the US after the Great Recession (2007–2009) and in the 2010s, there were increasing numbers of people occupying foreclosed homes using fraudulent documents. In some cases, a squatter may be able to obtain ownership of property through adverse possession.
Squatting in the Republic of Ireland is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. In the 1960s, the Dublin Housing Action Committee highlighted the housing crisis by squatting buildings. From the 1990s onwards there have been occasional political squats in Cork and Dublin such as Grangegorman, the Barricade Inn, the Bolt Hostel, Connolly Barracks, That Social Centre and James Connolly House.
Liz Evans is a Canadian nurse and harm reduction pioneer. She is the founder of the nonprofit Portland Hotel Society and a cofounder of North America's first sanctioned supervised-injection facility, Insite.
The modern political squatting movement began in Hamburg, Germany, when Neue Große Bergstraße 226 was occupied in 1970. Squatters wanted to provide housing for themselves amongst other demands such as preventing buildings from being demolished and finding space for cultural activities. The Hafenstraße buildings were first occupied in 1981 and were finally legalized after a long political struggle in 1995. The still extant Rote Flora self-managed social centre was occupied in 1989. Squatting actions continue into the present; more recent attempts are quickly evicted, although the Gängeviertel buildings were squatted and legalized in the 2010s.