Vancouver seniors living in supportive housing say they’re fed up after a heating issue has left their apartments colder than city bylaws allow.
“It feels like being outside,” said 77-year-old Carol Martinez, who is a resident of Southwynd Place on Yukon Street.
Temperatures in Vancouver dropped to -7 C on the night of Feb. 11. With the wind chill, it felt like -13 C.
“It wasn’t too bad until the cold snap came. It’s horrendous [and] really, really cold,” said Martinez.
Southwynd Place is owned by the Kiwanis-Soroptimist Senior Citizens Housing Society and receives partial annual funding from BC Housing. More than 90 people call it home. Martinez has lived in the building for 18 years in a bottom-floor unit. She told Glacier Media she has to wear layers to bed in order to stay warm.
"My nose is cold at night. I have to wear my hoodie to bed and I wear three blankets,” she said.
During an interview at her home Tuesday night, Martinez counted the six layers she had on.
“It's like walking outside, when you change your clothes, you're just shaking… you’re shaking with the cold.”
Temperatures below city requirements
In the City of Vancouver, buildings must be kept to minimum temperatures, according to the bylaw.
The bylaw states the temperature in supportive housing units, including seniors housing, must be at least 20 C between 8 a.m. and midnight, and 16 C from midnight to 8 a.m.
On Feb. 11, between 10 and 11 p.m., Glacier Media used two thermometers inside Martinez’s unit. One thermometer showed a reading of 14.3 C while the other read 16 C.
Glacier Media reached out to the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs, which BC Housing falls under, on Feb. 11 to learn what was being done to address the heating issue.
In an emailed statement on Feb. 12, the ministry said it recognized “this is a difficult period for residents” and that both the province and BC Housing became aware of the issue on Feb. 11.
"BC Housing is committed to ensuring its non-profit housing providers are aware of the need to keep on top of repairs, especially those related to health and safety, and supports them to address concerns as soon as possible — including, if deemed necessary and if requested by the operator, providing emergency additional resources to support urgent building repairs where appropriate.”
The ministry said the Southwynd Place heating problem was caused by two of the building’s three boiler systems becoming inoperable.
It also noted BC Housing “has no involvement with managing the day-to-day operations of the building.” The building’s contracted property manager is Atira Women’s Resource Society.
The ministry’s statement further said: ”It is our understanding that this temporary service outage has resulted in colder temperatures in a limited number of units, and that Kiwanis has distributed space heaters to affected residents to ensure appropriate unit temperatures until full service is returned."
The ministry said work is also underway to inspect baseboard heaters and “ensure they are fully functioning.”
"The society has informed BC Housing that work is underway to address this issue, and BC Housing has asked that repairs to the heating system be expedited as soon as possible,” said the statement.
BC Housing will be monitoring the repairs and has been informed it will be completed in the coming weeks, Glacier Media was told.
Tannaz Alesafar with Atira Women’s Resource Society said board members have met with residents to explain the replacement process.
"A quote has been approved, and work is already underway. The new system is expected to be fully operational within the next two to three weeks,” said Alesafar.
According to a “tenant relocation information package” sent out this month and seen by Glacier Media, the Kiwanis-Soroptimist Senior Citizens Housing Society is “exploring the redevelopment of the building.”
“This building is facing challenges (heating, maintenance) and increasing costs,” the package states under the heading “Why are we redeveloping?”
The document notes a rezoning application was submitted to the City of Vancouver on Jan. 28. The timeline for redevelopment has not be finalized “as the project is in the application stage and has not been approved.”
Warnings ignored, resident says
Rudolf Marek, 86, has lived in the building since 2000. The retired engineer claimed he warned management about the boilers back in 2024.
"I wrote letters to higher ups to take care of it, and nothing happened,” he said Tuesday night. “They had several notices, at least three notices and there was no response."
Emails shown to Glacier Media date back to June 2024; in one email, Marek wrote, “The situation with our heating is concerning,” and that they are running in emergency mode.
“It's like everybody's almost surprised that winter came,” he said. “We are lucky that the [one] boiler is still running and the winter is relatively mild this year.”
Marek was quick to add he’s happy to have a roof over his head and that things are “not exactly miserable.” The temperature inside his unit, which is on a higher floor than Martinez’s, was 20 C on the night of Feb. 11.
According to Marek, the last functioning boiler is providing hot water and heat.
“It’s not enough… it’s not hot, but warm,” he said.
Heat and water are included in the seniors’ fixed rent.
“We have very little hot water,” said Martinez.
‘Unacceptable’
Martinez's daughter Jayden Jamieson has been advocating for the heating system to be fixed after learning about the situation.
“That is just so unacceptable,” she said. “It makes me pissed off.”
After hearing how cold her mother was, Jamieson started searching for portable heaters for residents.
"I put an ad on Facebook Marketplace to get donations for heaters and heating blankets,” said Jamieson. “My fear is there are a lot of frail seniors in that building. What if they get hypothermia in the middle of the night and don’t wake up?"
Martinez explained how the building does have a lot of vulnerable people, some with serious medical problems.
“What about the other people who don't have anybody to care about them, who don't have children who come and check on them, who don't phone them regularly like our children do and say, 'Mom, are you OK?’ Or, ‘Dad, are you OK?’” she said.
Martinez is using a heater her daughter bought to stay warm; another tenant who did not want to be named in the story has two heaters running.
“There is no signage anywhere in the building that says, ‘If you’re cold, we will supply you a heater.’ So how are people going to know?” said Martinez, adding she knows of two residents who were unaware of the offer.
Jamieson wants the issue to be fixed immediately.
"I want to see action. If there's no actions or results, like positive results, what they're saying right now means nothing to me,” she said.
