In a rare bipartisan move, Housing Minister Sen. David Burch and Opposition MPs Jon Brunson and Gina Spence Farmer joined forces and met with two of the 56 Canadian Hotel residents yesterday to avert a crisis when they will be evicted from the building in less than three weeks.

Sen. Burch admitted the pending eviction was an ?emergency situation? and appealed for the community to unite to find a solution.

Canadian Hotel resident McCal Roberts appealed to the public for homes rather than take Government properties away from people already on the emergency housing list.

And Mr. Roberts said he created his own emergency housing list of 25 residents with contact details and housing budgets which will be posted online at www.bdalive.com and encouraged homeowners to view the list.

?We are dealing with an emergency situation. So we must come up with an emergency solution,? Housing Minister Sen. David Burch said. ?Is it ideal? Would I have chosen to do this? Certainly not.?

Mr. Roberts said: ?This is the first time we have had both parties helping out in an emergency situation. We have people there that are interested in sharing accommodations.

?We have people with families and toddlers. I did not realise we had a few toddlers in there. We are definitely in crisis.?

Sen. Burch said the easiest solution to the Canadian Hotel problem was if everyone worked together.

?Anything that assists us in being able to accommodate the residents at the Canadian Hotel we will support,? he said.

However, the Housing Minister said only seven tenants had so far registered with the Bermuda Housing Corporation.

?We would encourage those that do wish to take advantage of the alternative that we are going to provide to do so as soon as possible so we can properly plan for how we are going to go forward.

Because certainly if the numbers are considerably less than the 56 that we anticipate then clearly we can move a lot quicker in terms of renovations to the facility that we have in mind.?

Mr. Roberts said he wanted to appeal directly to the public for homes, rather than take Government properties away from the 100 people already on their emergency housing list.

Sen. Burch planned to use the first and second floors of the Southside emergency housing, while women and children occupied a third storey.

?It?s a temporary solution,? he said. ?Clearly the aim is to get on with building a replacement shelter in North Street. There is money in this budget that will be announced next week and we will start that process. As soon as we can get them relocated to that location then we shall do so.?

However, if the emergency renovations took five or six weeks, he would try and arrange a one- to two-week extension with landlord Edmund Powell and his insurance company ? which will no longer cover the hotel.

Government would supply moving trucks for the residents, he said.

?Our Ministry has a supply of (trucks). Surely we will work with them to do whatever is required. I know there is some provision been made by Mr. Powell to allow people to store stuff there if in the unlikely event we have to take advantage of the option of utilising the Regiment in an interim measure. I wish to try to avoid doing that at all because that means two moves.?

Opposition deputy leader Jon Brunson said he talked with Regiment commanding officer Lt. Col. Edward Lamb, who expressed support for the tenants.

?The objective now, and I think the pressing priority is to decide how, when, where and who is going to assist the residents to transition because that is still unknown,? Mr. Brunson said.

And Opposition Senator Gina Spence-Farmer said not all of the 65 tenants had the same moving needs.

?There are people with physical challenges, children and some people are on medication. So the main focus is getting a needs assessment.

?It sounds real easy to say ?pack a box and lets go?, but if someone is on crutches it becomes a real challenge,? Sen. Spence-Farmer said. ?It makes no sense in taking all these people putting them in an another location and there are all sorts of specific needs that need to be attended to.

?There are still some fears. For many residents they have been there for years.?

Sen. Spence-Farmer also said local churches and taxi-drivers had called to assist with packing and transportation, respectively.