Vancouver's third homicide of the year is having a large ripple effect in the city's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, where residents of the Cobalt Hotel are being moved into other hotels and overcrowded shelters while the investigation is ongoing.

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) told The Tyee earlier this afternoon that in order for the police forensics team to do their job, anywhere from six to 20 people could be displaced from their rooms at the Cobalt, in the 900 block of Main Street, to investigate an early-morning stabbing that left one man injured and one woman dead.

"Due to the size and the nature of the crime scene, it's anticipated that it may take some time for our forensic identification officers to process that scene and gather evidence. So unfortunately it does appear that there will be several people impacted in terms of their overnight housing," VPD spokesperson Constable Lindsey Houghton said, adding both the City of Vancouver and the VPD's Homelessness Outreach Coordinator were looking for appropriate housing for affected residents.

The Tyee has since confirmed 25 men from the Cobalt will be staying at the First United Shelter for at least tonight. Opened in 2008 as part of the city's HEAT shelters, the First United has made headlines in the last year for sexual assaults reported by shelter users, and overcrowding. But in a rebuttal to their critics published in The Tyee, shelter staff pointed out a night spent at First United is much safer than staying on the streets.

Ivan Drury, a housing activist with the Carnegie Community Action Project, says the city told him the entire hotel is being evacuated--98 people--with 20 people staying in rooms at the Balmoral and Regent Hotels, owned by the infamous Sahota family who also own The Cobalt, with the rest going to either First United or "places unknown."

"Of course we think that the police should be doing a through investigation of the murder of a woman living in the Cobalt Hotel, but the city has an obligation to take the safety of women and all vulnerable people in the Downtown Eastside seriously, and recognize that the hotels are fundamentally unsafe spaces and they can't be made safe," Drury says.

"And it's within the city's ability to displace every single person who's moved out of the Cobalt into city-owned properties, but they're not doing it. They're following the maxim of doing the absolute minimum possible, and I think this reflects a double standard of concern about people's safety and well-being, and if there was a homicide in a building Kitsilano or even on Commercial Drive, I'd be very surprised to hear the news that people were moved out of those spaces in First United Shelter."

Drury adds that the Sahota's are taking a pay cut by letting people stay in their empty hotel rooms, but when he asked the city if they would match that by opening city-owned rooms to Cobalt residents he was told no.

The Tyee called the City of Vancouver for comment but did not receive a reply.

Houghton says the VPD is working as quickly and diligently as they can, but are unsure of how long Cobalt residents will be essentially homeless.

"Unfortunately with these types of crime scenes and these investigations, because of course they're very serious, once they find one (piece of evidence), that could lead to other things, so they won't know until they reach that final point where they're very confident in saying that there is no more evidence to gather in this area, or this hallway or this room, and then they'll open that back up as quickly as they can to the residents," he says.

*The VPD confirmed with The Tyee on March 20 that all 96 rooms of the Cobalt were evacuated last night when the hotel was "locked down", although some residents were later let back into their rooms. In addition to the 25 men who went to First United, the 20 residents offered a place to stay in other Sahota hotels were all women. In an email to The Tyee, Houghton said the rest of the residents assured the VPD and the city they had family or friends they could stay with.

Katie Hyslop reports on youth issues, education, and poverty for The Tyee, The Tyee Solutions Society and others.