WHEN A BROKEN ELEVATOR MEETS A HEAT WAVE

by John Streit
Click on images to enlarge

When Don Walker arrived in the West End in May 1968 as “an immigrant escaping the freezing Alberta winter climate,” he was certain he’d made the right quality of life decision.

**Gordon Fahrni House on Barclay Street** *(Google Image)*

“When I visited Vancouver earlier in the year, and saw people playing tennis in the park, then off to ski on Grouse Mountain, returning later to sit around a fire with friends on English Bay, I was sold,” Walker said.

Walker would go on to open a small clothing boutique and graphic design business in Gastown as it was being transformed into a tourist hub.

Then, disaster struck in, sadly, a very Vancouver-like way.

“Several months later my store was robbed of everything I owned. People like me from the prairies don’t really think about being robbed. Just lock the door. I hadn’t bought insurance.”

**Gordon Fahrni House RESIDENT DON WALKER.**

After that, Walker said he gave his friend the store lease and worked for him – spending the next ten years in the garment industry. The following 15 years were spent working in the special events industry, everything from fashion shows and corporate seminars to grand openings, including BC Place in 1983 and the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria.

Walker is a senior who is battling lung cancer. He lives in Gordon Fahrni House at 1630 Barclay Street, a seniors-living rental building owned and operated by the Brightside Community Homes Foundation (the building was named after the charity’s founder in 1969).

Walker describes Brightside service staff as good at responding to any problems they have in the apartments. “Most problems are quick fixes; bigger works are upgrades. I’m sure there are some individual squabbles with Brightside, but I’ve never seen anything explosive in my ten years, until now.”

On June 22, the only elevator in the nine-storey 42-suite building broke, leaving many of the residents with mobility issues essentially stuck in their apartments.

**Liam Griffin with Brightside Homes. (***Brightside photo)*

Liam Griffin is Brightside’s manager of communications and partnerships. He said the biggest hurdle was working with the contractor, Richmond Elevator. “We contacted Richmond Elevator immediately upon learning there was an elevator issue at Gordon Fahrni House. After some initial challenges reaching Richmond Elevator and some subsequent delays in receiving a quote for the repair, we paid an additional premium to expedite the necessary parts, at which point we were given a timeline of two to four weeks for delivery and installation,” Griffin said.

Walker said a letter posted by Brightside in the building asked, “for your understanding and cooperation.” But, he admits, frustration and anger grew among the tenants the longer the elevator remained broken. Then the heatwave began in early July, cranking up temperatures in most of the non-air-conditioned apartments at Gordon Fahrni House.

Griffin says Brightside’s initial response included:

Bi-weekly assistance with garbage pickup.
Cooling centres on the top and bottom floors.
Chairs in every other staircase landing (floors 3, 5, 7) serving as rest-stations.

Some residents, like Florence Rogers, tried to make do without the elevator. The 88-year-old with mobility issues uses a walker and the elevator is her life-line in and out of the building. She told Global News that after two weeks, she attempted to slide down the stairs on her behind to do some laundry but got stuck. Local media, including Global, were alerted to the difficult situation faced by residents.

Griffin said Brightside contacted the West End Seniors Network (WESN), with whom the non-profit has had a long-standing partnership. “Folks from WESN have been in the building offering assistance with things like grocery shopping/delivery, laundry assistance, etc. Community service organizations like these provide assistance that independent-living tenants may require with their daily living and are able to provide services that non-profit independent-living landlords like Brightside are not able to provide. It is important to note that Brightside Community Homes Foundation provides exclusively housing for tenants that are able to live independently, and we do not provide any supportive or assisted living housing. As such, we are only privy to details about individual tenants’ needs and mobility requirements if that information is shared directly with us by the tenant,” Griffin said.

As temperatures rose in and out of the apartments, Griffin said Brightside got in touch with West End NDP MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert’s office. “They were able to expedite the delivery and installation of free air conditioner units for any tenant that requested one as part of the BC Hydro program. At least 19 were delivered and installed on July 11 and a few more on July 12. The Brightside team was on-site carrying the AC units up the stairs to each unit for installation by the company contracted by BC Hydro.”

On Tuesday July 16, some good news for residents. The elevator was fixed.

Griffin, who delivered update notices to each tenant’s door personally, said Brightside continually encourages tenants to contact them directly if they have any specific needs. “We will always do whatever we can to accommodate them – typically requiring connection with neighbourhood or community resources like WESN,” he said.

Griffin adds the Gordon Fahrni House situation only reinforces the need for more affordable rental homes for independent-living seniors in Vancouver. “Brightside recently opened a new 12-storey 82-home affordable rental building – The Aster – in Mt. Pleasant, and will be opening another two buildings – Timbre & Harmony – in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood, which will be geared entirely toward seniors 55+. Both of these projects are modern, energy efficient buildings with many new features necessary for seniors to continue living independently and age in the right place,” Griffin told TWEJ.

With calm returned to his beloved building and everyone “smiling and relieved,” Walker can focus on his art and creating ESL programs.

“The best element of the building is the people I live with. We are all nice to each other; except for our two grouches. There is a party room and sundeck with flowers on the ninth floor. Halloween, Easter, and Christmas parties, birthdays wherein we all marvel that we made it another year, and we mourn the loss of the people we knew who died. I call our building ‘The Stairway to Heaven.’ We all take numerous medications, visit a number of doctors, socialize, and just slowly, knowingly, we stroll to the light which gets closer each morn,” Walked said.

He had some final, half-joking, words of advice …

“The first lesson for senior renters to learn is don’t rent in a building that only has one elevator.”