The condemned Canadian Hotel was due to close its doors for the final time at midnight last night ? as the majority of its residents settled into their new homes at Southside.

Tenants, who were told just weeks ago that the building on Reid Street had to be shut down because it was no longer safe to insure, began moving their belongings out yesterday afternoon.

They lined the street outside the hotel with old suitcases, black sacks and boxes tied with string as they waited for soldiers from the Bermuda Regiment to arrive to help them.

At 3 p.m., the trucks finally rolled up and the men began carrying their possessions away from the place they had called home. Some of the residents had lived there for years, others just a few months. No one said they were sorry to leave.

Leslie Brooks, 58, a divorced father-of-two originally from Somerset, had been a resident since 1993, after he was evicted from his home. ?The people who owned the place wanted to move their family in so this was the only place I could go,? he said.

?I found it very, very good. It?s helped me in my life. It?s better than living on the streets. But I?m very happy for where I?m going because it?s a better environment. I have no regrets.?

Housing Minister Sen. David Burch arranged for at least 46 of the hotel?s tenants to immediately move into the Southside Emergency Housing Centre ? known as building 632 ? which has been kitted out with furnishings from the old Club Med.

Most residents said they expected their new home to be better than the Canadian Hotel ? and a look around the Reid Street property showed that would not be difficult to achieve.

The hotel?s dark, dank corridors give way to tiny, sparsely furnished rooms cruelly illuminated by naked light bulbs. The paint on the walls is peeling, the pay phones are broken and the bathroom suites are heavily stained from years of use.

One man, a 53-year-old originally from Spanish Point who asked not to be named, said his family evicted him from his home on Christmas Eve 2004.

?I had nowhere else to go but here,? he said. ?At the time, it put a roof over my head and you can?t knock that.

?They just threw in our face that everybody had to get out. If it hadn?t been for the Government stepping in, where would we have gone?

?But they definitely need to build more housing somewhere along the line that people like me can afford. Nobody wants to live on the street.?

Most residents lingering outside the hotel yesterday readily spoke to but asked not to be identified.

They were not ashamed, they said, but didn?t want their families to read about them in the Press.

?I?m just thankful I?ve got a roof over my head,? said one man. ?This place has been condemned and Southside is much better than here. I?m surprised how quickly they found us somewhere to live.?

His 54-year-old girlfriend, Lornette Smith, originally from Devil?s Hole, Smith?s, had less to be grateful for. She said she had lived at the hotel for four years with her partner but had not been given a place at Southside.

?I have nowhere else to go,? she admitted, her eyes brimming with tears.

Inside, another man sat on his narrow bed, his bags packed, his woollen hat pulled down and his eyes lowered. He shook his head when asked about the move. ?I don?t feel like talking,? he said.

For him, perhaps, the Canadian Hotel had provided a sanctuary of sorts and moving to Southside was moving to the unknown.

For fellow tenant, John, 57, another divorced father-of-two, originally from Warwick, the unknown had to be an improvement. ?This was a home,? he said. ?I just wanted to be on my own and it was the only place available.

?But I give all my thanks to Colonel Burch for getting us out of here.?