Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says the city and the province are planning to move supportive housing out of the Granville Entertainment District.
An emergency “task force” formed to address what the city calls street disorder along the Granville Strip held a press conference in downtown Vancouver Thursday, where Sim shared that Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon confirmed that the province is working with the city to move the current supportive housing units.
“As the City of Vancouver, we will help the province identify and provide city-owned lands to build purpose-built supportive housing,” Sim explained.
“And we’re going to be doing supportive housing differently, by building off of the successful experiences and examples that we have with respect to supportive housing.
“And so what does this mean? This means that as the City of Vancouver, we will support supportive housing projects that are capped at 40 units or structures, or supportive housing buildings that provide on-site security initiatives that include road to recovery. So it will help the residents that will live in these units have an opportunity to get better and overall, [with] wrap-around services that will address mental health challenges that the residents face,” Sim said.
The mayor said he is thankful that the province “finally agreed to its long-standing ask,” but said it’s “just the start.”
“What this really is about it’s about setting up supportive housing, and the individuals that need this housing, up for success. It’s also about making Vancouver, and in particular, the Granville Entertainment District, a way safer place. And it’s about having the Granville Entertainment District finally living up to its true potential as being an iconic world-class entertainment district,” he said.
Speaking for the Hospitality Vancouver Association, Laura Ballance explained that as “years” of requests to address the issues with BC Housing have gone unanswered, “we are trying something different.”
“We are speaking openly and transparently about the crisis of Granville Street, on the unbearable street disorder which our businesses are enduring.”
Ballance claimed crime and street disorder are at record levels, and are “getting worse by the day.”
“Our staff aren’t safe. Our patrons aren’t safe. This street is no longer safe. It is our position that the crisis on Granville Street is directly attributed to the chronic mismanagement of social housing on Granville Street,” she said.
Ballance explained that in 2020, the Howard Johnson Hotel was purchased by the provincial government to provide temporary housing to those with complex needs during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“At that time, everyone seemed to agree that putting people with complex needs in a concentrated area directly above and around the entertainment district of our city was not ideal, but it was an emergency, and it was temporary,” she said.
“Today, five years later, the SROs are still here, and the effect of these now derelict buildings that have been taken over by organized crime is that our street is no longer safe.”
source&photo: CityNews
