Vancouver has announced the construction of 90 new modular housing units to address homeless camps in the downtown core, at a cost of $6.9 million.
At a news conference Wednesday, Premier David Eby announced that as part of a record $7 billion invested in housing, the largest in Vancouver’s history, the province and city will immediately partner to construct two temporary, “bridge-to-housing projects” to transition individuals in shelters into supportive housing. There will be additional ongoing costs for support and staffing once the housing is operational.
The premier said modular housing and pre-fabricated units are a fast and affordable way to provide housing on an urgent basis and would be open by March 2023.
“The planned, temporary housing will be set up as two, one-storey buildings, built in a style like work camp temporary housing, on a three year term. It’s meant to be an urgent response. We have a bunch of people outside, and shelters at capacity,” said Eby.
At the news conference, B.C. MLA Melanie Mark said she had a “mother who lived on the streets of the downtown eastside for 15 years, out of a shopping cart” and that it was a “game changer” for people to have housing.
Without housing, people “can’t get to their medical appointments, they can’t get to treatment, they can’t get their kids back, they can’t get to work, they can’t get back to school unless they have a roof over their head,” she said.
The housing is planned to connect homeless people with 24-hour on-site staffing to provide health and social support, with the goal to ultimately move people into more permanent housing, free up shelter spaces, and help people move out of unsafe encampments.
The government expects there will be a cycling through the sites as people first come in from shelters needing the temporary housing with support, and are later able to transition into more permanent housing.
There are 475 people living outside right now at different encampment sites in Vancouver, according to newly appointed housing minister Ravi Kahlon. Ongoing encampments are set up in Crab Park and East Hastings Street. There are additional homeless people living outside camps that are not counted in that number.
The 2021 and 2022 homeless counts were cancelled because of COVID-19.
The city has created more than 150 new renovated spaces with support services since July, in addition to almost 600 temporary shelter spaces and 88 emergency weather response shelter spaces opened in Vancouver since November. The premier said it is still not enough to get people into safe homes.
“We are unfortunately still paying a price for a housing market that for more than a decade worked very well for big corporations and wealthy speculators. It did not work for people, especially people on the edges,” said Eby.
The new temporary modular housing will be situated at 1500 Main Street and 2132 Ash Street, and the properties are on a three-year lease. Vancouver accelerated permit approvals for the planned development.
