Last month, Port Alberni's city council ordered the demolition of a pub and hotel in the heart of the city's tiny downtown. Beyond the business, the Port Hotel's 28 residential units also provided low-barrier housing to some of the community's hardest-to-house residents. 

The town has grappled with conditions in the Port Hotel since at least 2020, when city council first considered a report filled with pictures of the building's deficiencies and the man behind the numbered company that owns the …