Premier David Eby says his government is looking into “expanding” daytime access to shelters and services in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
When Eby took over as B.C. premier one year ago, he pledged the province would take over running a coordinated approach to the DTES, saying he had “not seen it look worse.”
“I don’t support encampments,” Eby said at the time, explaining the province would take over coordinating services and measuring outcomes.
While the largest of those encampments was removed in April, homelessness and tents remain endemic in the neighbourhood’s parks and sidewalks.
In a wide-ranging year-end interview, Eby told Global News one near-term solution the province is considering is more daytime spaces to those in need.
“There’s lots of people who are outside on the sidewalk because there’s nowhere else to go … a lot of the shelters are only open at night, which leaves people out on the street for the entire day before the shelter opens,” Eby said. “When the shelters aren’t open during the day, it means that they don’t have a place to store their belongings, they don’t have a place that they can use as a base to make calls to to access services.”
In the longer-term, Eby said the province is working to identify parcels of land in the neighbourhood that can be redeveloped for housing.
That work, he said, will include major changes to a housing type that has long defined the DTES.
“Ultimately what you are going to see from us is some significant steps forward in getting rid of the SROs, those single-room occupancy hotels, that are unlivable in the summer because they are too hot, they’ve got bugs, half of them are only half full, and replacing them with self-contained units,” he said.
The province may find a willing partner in that endeavour in the Vancouver city council, which passed a motion in November instructing staff to come up with ways to speed up the full replacement of the city’s aging SRO stock.
According to the 2023 Greater Vancouver homeless count, there were more than 4,800 people experiencing homelessness in the Metro Vancouver region, up 32 per cent from 2020.
You can watch the full interview with David Eby at 6:30 p.m. on Boxing Day on Global News and BC1.