ponedjeljak, 12. lipnja 2017.

 ‘Inevitable’ demise for many manufactured homes in Surrey
Will manufactured homes and trailers become a thing of the past in Surrey?
Along Surrey’s King George Boulevard, the city estimates there’s more than 1,000 of these homes. But with light rail planned along the major artery, will they remain?
Surrey’s Community Planning Manager Don Luymes predicted many will fall.
“As the city grows and transit investments are made along King George, it’s probably inevitable that many of these sites will be redevelopment candidates,” said Luymes.
While the city is not actively pushing for densification along the route, he said the “natural evolution of the city makes it likely” many will face such pressures.
“Part of the reason, of course, is they’re fairly centrally located, they’re on good transit corridors and these are well-located properties,” said Luymes.
“Whether a light rail stop or even rapid bus transit is nearby, at some point the value of those properties for higher density developments may lead these property owners to redevelop the site.”
Luymes said when that does happen, the city has requirements for developers to compensate the tenants in such sites when they face redevelopment.
He said city policy “goes beyond” the provincially mandated compensation.
“What council is essentially saying is anybody wishing to redevelop their property from a manufactured home park to another use would have to come with a relocation and compensation plan that’s acceptable to council,” he explained.
This was the case last year at Park Mobile, along King George Boulevard at 96th Avenue, across from Surrey Memorial Hospital.
WestStone Group plans to build a $250-million state-of-the-art seniors facility there, with more than 400 units of varying levels of care as well as a research centre and offices.
Surrey city council sent the application back to staff to work with the tenants there on a transition plan. Twice, city council delayed the plan over concerns about where the park’s tenants would go.
A city report dated Dec. 5, 2016 said all 47 mobile homes had been acquired by the developer, with all tenants due out by the end of this month.
Luymes acknowledged this is a style of housing that’s “a very viable affording housing option that’s very attractive for many people.
“You have your own four walls, it’s a small house right on the ground, you’re not living in an apartment building.”
Luymes guessed that parks away from major transit corridors may remain.
“I think there will be pressure on a number of them in certain locations, but I don’t think every manufactured home park in every part of the city will face development pressure.”
Luymes said it’s important to note that there are a several types of parks: the meant-to-be temporary RV-style rental pads, those where the homeowner also owns the land, and then there’s the homeowners who rent pads from someone who owns the entire park.
The latter are the ones with most to worry about, he said.
“They have less security of long-term tenure because they don’t own the land it sits on,” noted Luymes.

Roz Bailey has lived in the 55-plus Green Tree Estates along Fraser Highway in Fleetwood for about a decade.
As the name suggests, there are many old growth trees on the manufactured home park’s property.
Bailey, who is the president of the Surrey Manufactured Home Owners Association, boasts that it’s one of the most affordable parks in all of Surrey, in terms of pad rentals, which is just under $500 a month.
Some pad rents have risen in other parks to almost $1,000 a month, she said.
It’s a style of housing she adores, said Bailey, mainly because she’s not up in a tower but instead has her own ground-level home and can garden and visit with her neighbours with ease.
“The government is always, always saying they want seniors to age in place,” said Bailey.
“It’s best if you can live safely and independently in a community and you’ve got a lot of informal supports, which are more important than formal ones really. There’s a lot of community here.”
One of her neighbours, 89-year-old Annabelle Bentley, cherishes many of the same benefits of this style of living.
“I don’t have to climb stairs,” said Bentley, sitting in her home, “and I have so many informal supports.”
Bentley, who is blind in one eye, needs eye drops four times a day. Her daughter helps, but so do her neighbours.
“I can’t do it myself,” she said.
Dianna Weys, a director of Green Tree Estates, moved into the park with her husband from a condo she owned.
“He wanted his own piece of grass and I wanted a garden,” she said.
Weys cherishes her neighbours and said she couldn’t have survived without them after her husband’s death.
“They helped me out a great deal,” she said.
“I can’t repair anything, physical work, so the neighbours helped me out a great deal. I don’t see that happening in an apartment or a condo.”
These residents are not immune to what seems to be ever-increasing housing costs in the Lower Mainland.
They fear they may be facing a rent increase of 40 per cent soon, as new owners come in.
It’s a scary thought, they all agreed, because many in the park are on fixed incomes.
A Colliers International ad touting the sale of the property called their park a “development opportunity.”
It is now marked as sold.
The ad stated the approximately 10-acre Fleetwood property had “significant development potential” and “municipal support for rezoning” and highlighted its proximity to commercial developments, access to major routes such as Highways 1, 15 and 10, and to several medium density residential developments nearby.
Where would they go if their park ever faced redevelopment?
“I have no idea,” said Bentley, as the others nodded in agreement.
“There’s nowhere to go,” added Bailey.

Surrey-Newton NDP MLA Harry Bains vows to advocate for such people, and has done so for years already.
His fight began, he said, back in 2006 when Seacrest Motel and RV Park residents in South Surrey were given eviction notices, so that a new land owner could develop it into condos.
“We met with the homeowners and what really got me moving on this was I sat across from a couple, they were in their late 80s …. and they had tears in their eyes looking directly at me saying, ‘Harry this is our home. We’re told we will be made homeless.’ What had they done wrong to deserve this?” recalled Bains.
“That really got me thinking that these people, many of them serve our country and build this country and province.
“These are seniors and these are the last years of their lives and they’re being told to pick up their house and move.”
Bains said there was no place for the seniors to move to.
“And even if they found a place, their house is old, it might not last a move. They were right that they would be homeless. I thought something’s wrong with this picture. We must do better.”
They won that fight in 2007 when Surrey council, led by then-mayor and now-MP Dianne Watts, rejected the developer’s plan.
But the developer changed plans, and following rules laid out in a city bylaw, found a way to make it work.
In March of this year, the last remaining residents of the Seacrest Motel and RV Park agreed to move off the property.
While officials with developer Lark Projects Ltd. said “everybody was happy,” others disagreed, and faced the challenge of finding an affordable place to live.
“We are human casualties of Surrey’s fast development, closing down beautiful communities for homes we can’t afford,” said Nancy Malloy, one of the last residents to accept a financial settlement package from Lark.
She said she’s been searching for a nearby, affordable trailer park but that search has proved to be fruitless.
“It’s becoming a dying way of living and with the rents the way they are, it’s insane,” Malloy said.
Malloy said she’s encountered several barriers when searching for a new trailer park.
The area parks are either too expensive, at capacity or don’t accept trailers that are older than 10 years.
Another issue, she said, is that some people pay to rent a lot year-round, but only use it for a portion of the year.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” she said.
Bains vowed to fight to have rules changed to better protect and compensate people like Malloy.
Under the current Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act, tenants receive 12 months notice if a site is to be redeveloped, with moving expenses capped at $5,000.
“There’s no way to move a house for $5,000,” said Bains. “They’d be left with big bills, no place to go and no home left. In this case, they have to actually unhook the services, move their entire home, find a new place to go. All the decks and siding have to be moved as well.
“It’s a costly, costly exercise.”
Bains said he has twice introduced a private members bill to increase compensation significantly.
When he first introduced it, he sought a cap of $25,000 and a transition plan developed together with owners and homeowners so they had somewhere to go.
That bill was shot down, he said.
He reintroduced a bill before the provincial election on May 9, and now seeks $30,000 for the moving expense cap.
In the legislature on March 16, Bains said the “Liberal government has refused to protect the manufactured home people. … In my own community, Surrey, we have hundreds, if not thousands who are worried right now that if they are evicted, they will be made homeless.
“These are our seniors, many on disability and on fixed incomes, and they have no place to go when they are evicted. We, on this side, have introduced bills numerous times in this House. This government, each and every time, has refused them.” In response, then-housing minister Rich Coleman replied that the province has an act for such tenants and pointed to things cities could do.
“Real estate prices are going up and developers are looking at these lands to develop and make more money. No one is thinking about these people and what happened to them,” Bains said, adding he worries about LRT and what it will mean for the people living along the King George corridor.
 “There’s so many manufactured homes along that strip. They’re all in danger. Developers will be looking at them for higher density developments and I’m worried that city hall will be in favour of that in order to make LRT more successful,” he added.
Bains said with ever-increasing housing costs in the Lower Mainland, this style of housing “should be considered part of our affordable housing strategy, both at the provincial and city level.
“These are really nice, small, little communities. They look out for each other. We need to preserve these,” he added. “This will be a huge loss to our affordable housing stock.”
St. Paul's Hospital addressing ‘brutal lack of dignity’ allegation in treating Alzheimer’s patient
Health officials are investigating after a Vancouver man alleges his 78-year-old mother with Alzheimer’s was roughed up by St. Paul’s Hospital security and left crying and bruised this week.
Aaron Craven is now advocating for an “overhaul” of how Alzheimer’s patients are treated and hoping other families can draw from his experience and “get out ahead” of the disease.
“I feel the entire situation was extremely poorly managed by St. Paul’s emergency staff and the result was abusive and way over the top of what was needed,” he said of his mom Patricia’s June 5 visit to the downtown Vancouver hospital.
Craven’s mother has Alzheimer’s and his dad has dementia; both of their conditions have slowly worsened. In recent weeks, Craven has been preparing to transition his parents from in-home care to a local seniors’ home.
On the recommendation of health care providers, Craven took his mother to St. Paul’s on Monday to stabilize her medication prior to the move. The pair arrived around 11:30 a.m. and Patricia was placed on an emergency ward stretcher, according to an email Craven addressed to local politicians and health officials, and has also shared with Postmedia.
After a few hours of waiting, Craven said he requested medication to help his mom calm down; she was becoming frightened due to the noisy, busy emergency-ward conditions. Craven said nurses then gave him a tablet of Quetiapine to calm his mom.
At 9 p.m., Craven said they were told there would not be a bed available in another ward and would have to remain in emergency overnight. Craven said he complained and staff freed up a room in emergency with a sliding door and took his mom there.
“By this point, she had been in the emergency ward for over 10 hours and was getting very agitated, despite all my efforts to calm her,” he said.
A short time later, Craven said his mother became upset and insisted on leaving the hospital. Security was called just as Craven was able to get his mom to return to her room. When she tried to leave again, Craven said staff ordered security to restrain her. He said she hadn’t hit anyone, fallen or thrown anything.
“My mother was thrown onto a stretcher by multiple security guards and staff (maybe 7-10 people), stripped of her clothing, put into a four-point restraint and injected with sedative,” Craven alleges in his email. “She screamed, cried and begged them not to take her clothes off.”
“Aside from the extreme heavy-handedness of the sedation, the fact that my mother was given such brutal lack of dignity and such force was incredible (sic) inhumane and unnecessary.”
Craven said his mother cried and shook for an hour after the alleged incident.
An email Craven received from the hospital’s patient relations department apologized, said staff were looking into his concerns, and promised an update sooner than the health ministry’s normal response guidelines.
“As we discussed, I am looking into the concerns you raised below. Please be assured that I am taking your complaint very seriously and will endeavour to get a response to you faster than the Ministry of Health guidelines of 40 business days,” Jenny Hyman, of the Patient Care Quality Office at Providence Health Care, says in the email to Craven. “I truly hope your mother is able to be stabilized quickly and that your experience of our care improves significantly during her admission to hospital. Again, I am extremely sorry for the distress that this incident caused for you and your mother.”
Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert’s office has also been in touch with Craven.
When contacted by Postmedia, Providence Health spokesman Shaf Hussain couldn’t speak to specifics of the incident involving Craven’s family, but said the health authority was investigating the incident.
“An incident or any patient complaints are looked at closely and addressed,” said Hussain. “We would be working closely with the family on any such complaints and/or issues that are raised.”
Hussain said patients who are brought into the emergency ward are first triaged, stabilized and assessed before being transferred to the appropriate unit as required. He said Providence Health has a dedicated geriatrics and elder-care psychiatric unit at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital, but acknowledged patients must be stabilized before being admitted there.
Craven said he hopes his family’s experience will encourage other families to seek help before things get too challenging to handle in the face of Alzheimer’s.
In a phone interview with Postmedia, Craven said his family is fortunate enough that they are able to make the time commitments and financial arrangements to care for his parents and ensure they are looked after at a full-time facility. But he notes he’s not the only one sandwiched between aging parents and raising young children and needing support.

“Getting out ahead of these issues in early stages is critical, before they compound. I wish I had been quicker to respond, but acting on the reality in front of you often comes after a period of paralysis and denial,” Craven writes.
Patricia Craven has been in the hospital since Monday and is recovering from the ordeal, but Aaron Craven said his family is still shaken from the experience.
CBSE to hold compartmental board exams for Class XII board students in July
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will hold examinations in July for the Class XII board students who were placed in compartments in this year's board examinations.

For the Class X board students whose results were declared as EIOP (Eligible for Improvement Of Performance), examinations will be held in July by their respective schools.

The CBSE, which announced the results of both the Class X and Class XII board examinations recently, opened the registration of such students on Monday. The board has directed the principals of the schools to submit the list of such students. 

The last date for submission of the list of such students along with prescribed fee for the examinations without any fine for delay is June 21. Students' list can be submitted by their respective schools with prescribed "late fee" till July 3, according to a notification issued by the CBSE on Monday.

"The online submission of the list of Class XII students placed in compartment and Improvement of Performance (Class X) for the examination scheduled to be held in July 2017 has been started. Only those Candidates whose name is submitted through the online process shall be allowed to appear for Examination to be held in July 2017," the board said.

Candidate of Class X board examination (school-based), 2017 whose results have been declared as EIOP due to them being absent in SA-2 (scholastic assessment) should approach to their schools to get registered for the score improvement examination, it added.

Students who obtained Grade 'E1′ or 'E2′ in their Class X board examinations are declared as EIOP candidates, instead of pass or fail. They get only one chance to to improve their performance after the declaration of their results. In case such candidates fail to improve their performance in this examination, they will have to appear afresh in the board examinations next year with all subjects as private candidates through the CBSE affiliated schools.
Govt to kick-start process for Rs 60,000 crore submarine programme
NEW DELHI: The government is all set to roll out the process for the Rs 60,000-crore submarine programme, moving swiftly after unveiling a major policy for defence manufacturing in the country.

The project is set to be the first one to be launched under the ambitious 'Strategic Partnership' model finalised last month which aims to rope in leading private players for defence production.

The defence ministry is likely to issue the Expression of Interest for the project soon, to kick start the process for mega deal, official sources said.

Engineering conglomerate Larsen and Toubro and Reliance Defence are the only two defence firms eligible to participate in the P-75 I programme, said another source.

The government will subsequently initiate the process to shortlist the foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for the project based laid down norms in the strategic partnership model.

Six Scorpene-class submarines are currently being built under 'Project 75' of the Indian Navy. The submarines, designed by French naval defence and energy company DCNS, are being built by Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai.
Two arrested, Hizb module busted in Handwara: Police
NEW DELHI: Jammu and KAshmir police on Monday said that they busted a module of the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist outfit by arresting two of its suspected members in north Kashmir's Handwara area of Baramulla district.

"It was a joint operation of state police and Army," a senior police official said, adding, "War like store of ammunition recovered from them."

"On a specific information regarding movement of terrorists, a joint Naka of Handwara police and 21-RR was laid at Chogal, Handwara during which two persons identified as Mehrajudin son of Gulzar Ahmad Bhat and Obaid Shafi Malla son of Mohammad Shafi both residents of Awantipora were caught while moving in suspicious circumstances. The duo was asked to stop but they started running away. The Naka party immediately swung into action caught hold of them. On their checking a huge cache of arms and Ammunition was recovered," police said in a statement.
During the investigation, the statement claimed they revealed that they had come to Handwara for receiving ammunition and other war like stores for their terror outfit in south Kashmir.

"Cyber surveillance unit of JK police also tracked their social media network accounts and found some incriminating material. They were misusing Web-chats to hatch and execute terrorist conspiracies," the statement said.
According to the statement preliminary investigating revealed that these terrorist were members of HM militant module who would not only recruit youth into militancy by radicalizing them over social media but also coordinated their training and arranged arms/ammunition.
"On the discloser of these two militants two more members of the module working as OGWs were arrested from Awantipora. They were identified as Shahid Ahmad Thoker and Irfan Ahmad Both resident of Awantipora," the statement said.
Are you making this sitting mistake at the office?

Sitting for long has been described numerously as the one big mistake that people make, with experts even putting this on par with smoking. Inactivity for over four to five hours at a stretch raises obesity risk as it accumulates the storage of fat, increases joint stiffness and bone deterioration, risk of heart disease and vein-thrombosis. In a graphic released recently, it shows a how-to guide for correct posture and sitting in the office, so as to combat back pain.

Infographic: The right way to sit




Here are tips to help you improve your posture at work, if you have to deal with long meetings and being desk-bound...


1) Keep the monitor eye levelNot many realise this, but it's important to ensure that the eyes are not strained - either looking downwards to a computer screen or upwards as this will cause a neck ache and leave you vulnerable to cervical disc injuries.

2) Relax the shouldersMake sure your shoulders are relaxed not hunched and the arms at a bend of 90 degrees. This will avoid shoulder and neck injuries.
3) Back supportThe arch of the back should get enough support so that you don't develop an unnatural outward curve or hunchback and pain. Use a pillow or fold a jacket to fit into the space between the chair and back.


4) Don't cross your feetKeep the feet too, at 90 degrees bend. If you cross the legs, it will put a strain on the joints and hamper blood flow.
5) Try some desk-erciseEvery half an hour, do a neck rotation and if possible, get up and walk around. Even something as simple as extending your arms overhead and stretching sidewards, helps. You can also a lunch hour stroll around the block.