The Hook

Advocates for social housing in Vancouver want the province to follow through on its promise to develop more than one dozen supportive housing projects in the city.

When fully constructed, the dozen sites would see up to 1,200 small studio units of housing for low-income singles, with half of them focused on hard-to-house clients of mental health and addiction service providers.

But more than a year after the city and the province signed an agreement to build the houses on city land, advocates are questioning the province’s resolve to get the housing built.

“This is supposed to be new, permanent social housing. But up to this point, there hasn’t been a shovel hit the ground,” said Dave Diewert of the group Streams of Justice, a faith-based advocacy group.

There are two sites within several metres in one of the most notorious stretches of Vancouver’s troubled Downtown Eastside.

At the corner of Powell Street and Princess Ave, the Drake Hotel, a former strip club, is sitting waiting to be developed. A block down on Alexander Street, a former low-income hotel has already been demolished but not replaced.

In the evening, the surrounding area is a common ‘stroll’ for the area’s many street sex-trade workers.

“The goal is permanent social housing. The reality is an empty parking lot,” Diewert said.

Roger Wilson, 38, who has been homeless for a year, echoed Diewart's comments.

“Not a piece of soil has been turned over,” said Wilson, who said he planned on sleeping on the streets tonight. “They promised they’re going to be dong something, but nothing is done.”

In late 2007, the city and the province signed an agreement to fast track roughly one dozen projects of housing, mainly targeted at people with mental illness and substance abuse issues.

Senior governments would pay to build and operate the projects, while the city would provide the land and lease the sites to non-profits to run at nominal rents.

While most of the sites are on the city’s east side, there are also several in the Downtown core and one in the west side neighbourhood of Dunbar.

Irwin Loy reports for 24 hours Vancouver and appears regularly on The Hook.