[URBAN NOTE] "Once voted North America’s best hostel, Canadiana Backpackers’ Inn closing"

[rfmcdonald]

Geoffrey Vendeville reports on Canadiana Backpackers' Inn's transition to being an abode for Syrians.

Beds that once welcomed travellers seeking adventure will now serve travellers seeking safety and refuge.

Once voted the best hostel on the continent, the Canadiana Backpackers’ Inn, in the Entertainment District, is closing in less than two weeks to make way for a planned 41-storey condo development, and the owner is donating furniture to Syrian refugees.

Chris Morgan gave a surplus of 40 bunkbeds to a church in Guelph sponsoring 76 Syrian families, who are expected to move to the area this year, said Jaya James, the executive director of the Refugee Sponsorship Forum.

“We were really excited because probably one of the most challenging things to acquire is bunkbeds,” she said, adding that they are in high demand among large families on shoestring budgets.

Less practical furniture, such as the stuffed moose head and lake trout that gave the hostel a distinctly Canadian air, was sold online. “François Le Pen,” a four-foot-tall wooden bear who once left the lobby to go on a pub crawl with guests, is moving to another hostel — farther from the downtown clubs, but a stone’s throw from the Kensington Market bars.