Notorious Vancouver slumlord facing arrest for ignoring tenant compensation orders

George Wolsey is, by all accounts, a piece of work.

The former owner of two decrepit flophouses on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside was once a pharmacist who lost his licence over allegations he'd been forcing his tenants to fill their methadone prescriptions through him or face eviction.

His two buildings, the Palace and Wonder hotels, were so badly maintained, the City of Vancouver went to court to force repairs. Faced with a court injunction, Wolsey sold them last year.

But the notorious slum landlord's problems are not over.

The Pivot Legal Society, which advocates for Vancouver's poor, is going after Wolsey with a vengeance.

The society has obtained arrest warrants for Wolsey for failing to pay more than $18,000 in compensation owed to several residents of his former properties. The money was damages awarded by the B.C. Residential Tenancy Branch to renters in his single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels who endured insect infestations, broken doors, non-functioning plumbing and other problems.

[ Related: Weighing in on future of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside ]

“We heard from residents about cockroaches, bedbugs, holes in the walls, showers that weren’t working, plumbing that didn’t work and didn’t work for weeks on end," Pivot lawyer Doug King told a Wednesday-morning news conference, according to CKNW. "No matter how much they complained to Mr. Wolsey, nothing was done.”

Wolsey has missed court appearances and ignored court orders to pay the money, prompting Pivot to obtain 10 arrest warrants covering judgements for 10 former tenants.

Wolsey has been invisible but the warrants give him a week to turn himself in or the B.C. Sheriff's Service will find him, CKNW reported.

In a news release, Pivot criticized the Residential Tenancy Branch for leaving it up to it and other anti-poverty groups to deal with slumlords like Wolsey.

“Without the help of lawyers, advocates and volunteers, these individuals will never actually be compensated," said lawyer D.J. Larkin, who brought the warrant application to court Tuesday.

"The Residential Tenancy Branch needs to take initiative to investigate landlords who are shown to be the worst of the worst, and the city needs to keep proactively ensuring that landlords are maintaining their properties."

King told CBC News Pivot, which posted a background of all the actions taken against Wolsey, will be putting up wanted posters concerning him on the Downtown Eastside.

"We decided we wanted to make these wanted posters and put them up in the neighbourhood so not just landlords in the neighbourhood and tenants understand that there is some resolution to this case [but] we want to bring this landlord to justice," he said.

[ Related: Vancouver database gives renters an online guide to problem landlords ]

Wolsey is by no means the only slum landlord on the Downtown Eastside. Although the provincial government has bought up and renovated a number of SROs in the city to provide safe, affordable housing for low-income residents, problem buildings still exist.

The City of Vancouver earlier this year launched a database aimed at helping renters pinpoint properties with health and safety issues.

"It is not clear however whether or not this database has been effective in changing the behaviours of Vancouver’s worst landlords, and Pivot is urging the City to continue placing pressure on deficient landlords," the society said in its news release.