Moving day for residents of the Balmoral Hotel

Dozens of people formed a long line outside the derelict Balmoral Hotel in the hopesofreceivingsettlement chequesfrom the owners, the Sahota family, after the city deemed the building uninhabitable.

Mervin Small Legs was first in line to receive a cheque outside the single room occupancy hotel at 159 East Hastings Street.

"Well, I gotta go buy furniture for my new place."

Moving trucksand workers with the City of Vancouver helped residents relocate their belongings, which included lamps, guitars, bikesand a hamster.

Small Legs received a cheque for $1,575from Balmoral Hotel Ltd.

He will be living in social housing at another location. He says that's better for his asthma than the Balmoral,which has mould problems.

A woman who had been waiting to receive money too says she was told the cheques for people living on the sixth floor were not ready yet and she left empty-handed.

Ten days ago, the chief building inspector for the City of Vancouver ordered the building's 175 rooms evacuated by today after determining water damage and rot put the hotel at risk of collapsing.

Activist group delivers threat

An activist group, which calls itself the Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative, warned the Sahotasthat if tenants did not receive their settlement cheques, there would be "war."

That battle appeared to be averted as chequeswereissued to more residents as the day went on.

The group says tenants are eligible for approximately twomonths rentand the return of their damage depositback, but there is a condition.

It says if residentsaccept the cheques, they will have to sign a release form, which prevents them from suing their landlords in the future for aggravated damages related to the evacuation.

Even so, not everyone has a home despite the city and provincial governments' last ditch efforts to relocate 160 people from the hotel.

"Right now, we still have about 16 tenants who don't have housing. Lots of housing organizations have stepped up to the plate to bail the city out of this predicament," said Eliot Galan, a spokesperson for the Vancouver Tenants' Union.

Mayor defends city's actions

City Hall has been facing criticism for not acting sooner, despite several years of complaints about the hotel.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson says the city's enforcement tools are limited, and the B.C. government doesn't give the city the abilityto hand out fines of more than $10,000 to SROs.

"A lotof the enforcement that we push to the courts is not effective. It doesn't come back with consequences for the building owners, so this is where there needs to be more teeth."

The owners of the hotel have until July 14to make repairs, according to a city order.