Social agencies scramble to find housing for people displaced by Surrey fire

Social agencies are scrambling to find housing for some of the 18 people left homeless by a weekend fire at the Flamingo Hotel in Surrey.

Some of the displaced residents stayed at the Surrey Urban Mission, found hotel rooms or stayed with friends on Saturday night.

Two residents, however, told CBC News they chose to sleep on the street instead of at a shelter.

Surrey Fire Assistant Chief Chris Keon says the fire started around 12:30 p.m. Saturday on a dresser in one of the suites.

"There was no structural damage," Keon said.

"The fire was extinguished by a sprinkler system and subsequent to that, the sprinkler system needed to be shut off."

He said the sprinklers caused significant water damage to the building.

Where will they go?

Many hotel residents received eviction notices earlier this year and had made arrangements to move out in May.

Developer Charan Sethi — who plans to eventually replace the hotel, bars and businesses on the block with highrises and townhouses — said he and his staff have been working with residents to help them find places to live.

"B.C. Housing will now try to locate them permanently in housing so they're not left in shelters," he said.

"Right now we are working with the city to have people take whatever belongings they need out of the hotel because it's deemed to be not habitable."

Surrey Urban Mission Executive Director Mike Musgrove says some of the tenants will stay in shelters until they can find long-term housing.

"If everyone cooperates, these people are going to end up in really good situations," Musgrove said.

"It's a bit of a long haul because of the way the rental market is going right now."

Flamingo's future

There are three bars on the property that are connected to the hotel.

A non-profit arts group struck a deal last year with Sethi to use the venues for live music and corporate events until the property is redeveloped.

David Geertz — who manages the shows — says one of the bars will remain closed for some time because of water damage.

He says some gear was damaged and they'll likely have to cancel some corporate events, which are a big moneymaker for the organization.

Geertz has split his time over the last couple of days between rescheduling shows and helping tenants.

"A lot of people were preparing to be moving out between the first of May and the 15th," he said.

"A lot of them had plans for that but had nowhere to go in the interim and now the shock of this has been problematic."