Reopened SRO, newly-purchased building to offer 200 units of Vancouver social housing: Ministry – BC | 24CA News
As efforts to take away an entrenched homeless encampment from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside proceed, the B.C. authorities says it’s within the strategy of bringing one other 200 items of social and supportive housing on-line.
Ninety-five of the items will probably be in a reopened single-room occupancy (SRO) constructing at 112 Water Street in Gastown, which was evacuated final yr because of the lethal fireplace that destroyed adjoining the Winters Hotel.
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The Ministry of Housing mentioned 25 of the items within the SRO, operated by the Atira Women’s Society, will go to current tenants that had been displaced by the evacuation, whereas the rest will probably be supplied to folks dwelling in Hastings Street shelters in want of secure housing.
Those tenants will probably be chosen by means of a coordinated evaluation course of and primarily based on particular person wants and stuffed over the following month, the ministry mentioned.
Another 115 items of supportive housing will probably be obtainable subsequent fall in a constructing at 1450 West twelfth Ave. the province has bought.
The ministry has earmarked $54.6 million to purchasing and renovating the 12-storey constructing, which was beforehand operated as an assisted-living facility by the Chalmers Foundation. Its occupants have already been relocated to a facility in Burnaby as part of a separate settlement between the province and BC Housing.
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The constructing consists of bachelor suites with in-unit bogs, lounge areas, a central eating room, a industrial kitchen and workplace area for workers.
The ministry mentioned the brand new supportive housing will probably be used to accommodate folks at present dwelling in SROs, with a precedence on seniors.
The SRO items vacated by the brand new tenants will probably be supplied to folks liable to or at present experiencing homelessness, it mentioned.
The “decampment” of East Hastings Street has been underway for almost per week, and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim mentioned Tuesday that greater than 80 tents had been faraway from the realm and 18 folks had recieved short-erm housing.
City crews, supported by police, will usually return to the road to “tactically and very compassionately” take away buildings and assist folks discover housing, he mentioned.
The Hastings Street encampment has been underneath an order from town’s fireplace chief to take away buildings as a result of fireplace and life-safety considerations.
The decampment has confronted criticism from a variety of advocacy teams who allege folks have had their private possessions thrown within the trash, and that shifting folks from the realm does nothing to alleviate homelessness and places these sheltering on the road additional in danger.
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