‘Old Olaf’s’ Death Sparks Controversy : Vancouver Hotels Evict Poor to Cash In on Expo

Olaf Solheim was a fixture on Vancouver’s downtown east side, an 88-year-old retired logger who enjoyed watching pigeons and children playing in the park. He lived in the same hotel for more than 60 years.

Last week, “Old Olaf,” as he was known in the neighborhood, died--a confused and disoriented old man who didn’t understand what had happened to him.

He died two weeks after being evicted from his 10-by-10-foot room in the Patricia Hotel so it could be renovated to house some of the millions of people who will crowd the city for Expo ‘86, the world’s fair that opens May 2.

“The spark went out of him after the eviction,” said Dr. John Blatherwick, Vancouver’s medical health officer. “This was a man whose way of life was completely disrupted. He just stopped living. . . . I’m not going to duck it: This was the cause.”

Ordinarily, the death of an old man with no known relatives or any noticeable position in society would pass without much comment. It would be noticed only by the other poverty-ridden old-timers who shared his simple life style in the run-down area on the edge of Vancouver’s downtown.

But Olaf Solheim has become the symbol of the dark side of what is being otherwise boosted as one of the greatest civic celebrations of the age, an exposition that will show the world the glory of Canada’s Pacific Coast.

So, while Vancouver and its province, British Columbia, have been building, cleaning and promoting, hundreds of people, mostly poor and elderly, have been evicted from residential hotels and rooming houses by landlords who expect to make a lot of money from the 18 million visitors expected for the six-month party.

And, according to Jim Green, organizer of the private, nonprofit Downtown Eastside Residents Assn., five of the dispossessed have died in the last two months, two of them by suicide.

In addition to the human dimension, the situation also illustrates a fundamental split between the provincial government and its opponents.

‘A Real Crisis’

“This is a real crisis,” Green said during an interview in his run-down office across the street from a hotel that had just turned out several long-term residents.

But Jack Kempf, the minister of housing for the ruling Social Credit Party, disagreed, saying, “There is no problem there.”

Both men may be partly right; it all depends on the perspective.

Kempf points out that almost all the evicted tenants found other housing. “We’re looking after all those evicted,” the housing minister said. “I have made a commitment that we would find alternate housing for everybody.”

That may be true, Green acknowledges, but as in the case of Olaf Solheim, it is not a question of new rooms but of the traumatic disruption of life.

Average Age 60

“This is a tight-knit, stable community,” Green said, describing a part of town where 9,500 people live, nearly all in rooming houses and residential hotels. The average age is 60, and the average period of time someone lives in a room is 15 years, Green said, citing a recent study.

Most of the people are on welfare and receive an average of 450 Canadian dollars a month (about $320). They pay out $230 a month--slightly more than half their incomes--in rent. “So you can see,” Green explained, “they don’t have much mobility, and they have all their friends here. They also get all their services here. There is a medical clinic, and the cafes and pubs are where they can afford to eat and socialize.”

In detailing case after case of hotels dumping people into the streets, sometimes in lots of 25 or more, Green said several people have been dispossessed two and three times.

Besides, Green said, “the forced dislocation of the elderly is a medical problem. The health risk goes up.”

Medical officer Blatherwick agreed, saying that the shock of eviction can be damaging to health. “We know this from a statistical basis,” he said.

In a report that he presented to the Vancouver City Council asking, “Does a health problem exist?” Blatherwick answered in the affirmative, saying about 10% of the people checked “have serious health or handicap problems and thus are a risk from the increased stress brought on by relocation.”

Blatherwick acknowledged at the time that it was impossible to directly attribute deaths to the moves. But that was before the death of “Old Olaf,” whose passing the doctor blamed directly on the trauma of moving.

In that case, Solheim refused to unpack after being relocated and was once found wandering the streets near his new room in a public housing unit, evidently trying to find his way back to the Patricia Hotel.

Volunteers from the Downtown Eastside Residents Assn. said he refused to eat.

Others Bewildered

Several other elderly people told reporters of similar reactions, often expressing dismay about their new locations and refusing to go outside. “I don’t know where to go,” said Roger Peterman, a 70-year-old welfare recipient who found a room in a neighborhood about eight miles away. “I don’t know how to ride the bus, and I don’t have money for a cab.”

But Kempf denied any cause-and-effect relationship between the evictions and the deaths.

“There just is no problem,” he said in an interview. “It is preposterous . . . for anyone to suggest (the evictions) caused any deaths.”

Not only does a problem exist, Green contended, but it was foreseen and could have been prevented.

“We have been discussing evictions since 1980,” when planning for an exposition was started, Green said. Including rooms lost when hotels were torn down for parking lots and other facilities related to Expo, the known evictions total about 600, he said, and could reach 2,000 by the time Expo ends in mid-October.

Province’s Responsibility

The problem can be attributed partly to perceptions and political belief. Under the British Columbia system, public housing is the responsibility of the provincial government, not the city, and the government of Premier William Bennett does not strongly support construction of new public housing.

Bennett’s administration also accepts the right of property owners to do what they wish with their property. “If they (hotel operators) want to renovate, they have the right to upgrade their status,” Kempf said. “It’s not the government’s place to say they can’t renovate or spruce up. In fact, we should be promoting that.”

This belief resulted in the refusal of the provincial government to accept proposed legislation to help the evicted residents, requests made by Green’s group and the Vancouver City Council.

“Over a year ago, we asked for legislation to protect long-term residents in hotels,” Green said. “We wanted something that would prevent rent increases of over 10% and no evictions without cause for people who had lived in a residential hotel for a year or more.”

Actually, he said, two hotels agreed to that plan (“we saved 200 people”), but the government and the other hotels refused. It is ironic, Green said, that most of the area’s residents have spent more years in the hotels than most people live in regular apartments and houses, yet they have no tenant protection at all.

Several hotel owners refused to discuss the matter, saying they had been treated unfairly in the press. One manager, who would not give his name, said that his hotel has a right to make as much money as possible and that it will be providing a public service by making rooms available at reasonable prices to Expo visitors.

Not Likely to Last

A survey by the city government and Green’s organization indicates that rooms that now rent for $230 a month will be rented out during Expo for anywhere from $50 to $100 a night.

Even at those prices, it is doubtful that all the hotels will come out ahead in the long run since most are located in shabby, often dangerous, areas and are unlikely to attract tourists after Expo.

Kempf acknowledged this. Some hotel owners “are probably wrong” to have renovated and may end up losing money, the minister said. “However, that is their decision.”

But as it stands, the owners are going ahead, renovating the buildings that were at best Spartan and more often shabby and tacky into what they describe as “character hotels.”

Meanwhile, Green and others are hoping to keep the memory of “Old Olaf” alive. “We want the visitors to know what is happening here,” he said. “We want the government to know that the price for Expo is too often a life.”