Kenny Shih is not taking any restaurant reservations for the month of June.
The owner of The Pantry Restaurant in Maple Ridge is not sure what’s going to happen to his business of 31 years, after learning that the Quality Inn next door is about to be bought by B.C. Housing and converted into long-term supportive housing.
Shih would like a phone call, from anyone, telling him what’s going to happen to his business in June, when the 61-unit motel, to which the restaurant is attached, is renovated and converted to institutional use.
“Till now, no one has contacted me,” Shih said Monday, taking time out from the pre-lunch rush.
On a spring-break week, the place on Lougheed Highway and 217th Street is busy with its crowd of seniors who have trundled in off a bus, mixed with minor hockey players on a road trip from Terrace.
“Our restaurant has stayed here more than 30 years,” said Shih. “We need to stay here, it’s most important.”
Shih says neither head office, the motel nor the city have contacted him.
“At this moment, I don’t know. Everyone says it’s only a proposal. At this moment, I won’t project anything into the future.”
Shih is not only worried about keeping his own business going, but also for the 22 employees who work in the family restaurant. Some are long-term employees, having worked there more than 20 years.
If the renovations take place and the motel is converted to supportive housing, he’s not sure he can remain open in the space that he leases. Many of his customers are seniors who he says wouldn’t come to the restaurant if it’s next to long-term supportive housing.
Staff and customers feel the same way. Server Heather Hopp has started a petition demanding, “Stop the Move of the Homeless Shelter to the Quality Inn.” It’s placed at the counter and already has more than 100 names.
“I’m not fighting for my job, I’m fighting for my community. Obviously, I want my job, but my community is the future,” said Hopp, a server at The Pantry for 17 years.
Instead of a shelter, she thinks treatment centres are needed. Keeping homeless people in a room and closing a door isn’t helping them, she added.
Closing the motel means there will be only one remaining motel in the area to host visiting sports teams or to act as an emergency accommodation during a fire or disaster. A doctor’s office is supposed to be opening nearby and a Gold’s Gym is proposed across the highway.
“I just feel that this is not the right area. I think there’s got to be a better location, I really do,” she said.
Keara Baggio has also worked at The Pantry for 17 years and has written Premier Christy Clark, Housing Minister Rich Coleman and Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read after learning last week of the plans.
“Everybody is shocked. We couldn’t believe it,” she said.
She thinks converting the motel to housing would destroy the business.
“I feel that this is the wrong approach, taking our hotel.”
No one wants to bring their kids or grandparents to a place surrounded by homeless people, Baggio said.
In her letter, she said many travelers stay at the Quality Inn.
“I’ll say it once again, that this is the wrong place to have a homeless shelter.”
Instead, she suggests a long-term facility be built, and in the meantime, people in the shelter could be housed at the former Riverview Hospital for the mentally ill in Coquitlam.
“Because we don’t have anything in our community.”
Matt Kelso, who’s been watching the temporary shelter since it opened in October, said converting the motel into housing is just matter of moving the people from one place to another.
He’s concerned about the number of closed meetings that council is having.
• A rally involving people concerned about the announcement takes place this Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Quality Inn.