Ahead of the controversial demolition of Vancouver’s former Dunsmuir Hotel, a longtime housing advocate is questioning why another building remains empty nearly seven years after it was slated to become social housing.
The 1913-built Regent Hotel at 160 East Hastings Street has been decaying since the City of Vancouver shut it down at the end of June 2018.
The former single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel was known for its deplorable living conditions and had been the subject of over 1,000 health and safety violations over the course of its ownership by the notorious Sahota family.
The city has owned the Regent since late 2020 when it reached a settlement with the Sahotas to expropriate the property and the dilapidated Balmoral Hotel, which has since been torn down.
Both buildings were to be transformed into social housing.
“So many things have been promised to us down here that have never followed through,” Downtown Eastside resident Stephanie ‘Pink’ Berrigan told Global News Wednesday.
Housing advocate Jean Swanson said the plan was to renovate the Regent to house residents of the Downtown Eastside, the homeless and those staying in shelters.
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“Nothing’s happened,” the former city councillor told Global News in an interview. “It’s just sitting there getting more and more derelict.”
Swanson said she wonders if there’s a double standard at play.
“Is the city doing with the Regent what it’s mad at Holborn for doing to 500 Dunsmuir?” Swanson asked.
Council recently ordered the demolition of Dunsmuir House, accusing its private owner of neglecting the heritage building for more than a decade.
Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung with ABC Vancouver said the situation with the Regent is different because it and the Balmoral hotel were expropriated, or essentially taken away from their private owner.
“It takes some time in terms of ongoing conversations in terms of what that looks like,” Kirby-Yung said in an interview Wednesday. “We do not want to replace the old model of SRO housing. We want to build dignified self-contained units.”
The city of Vancouver said it has leased the Regent to BC Housing, which has carried out remediation and is preparing for “rehabilitation to self-contained social housing.”
Since August 2023, BC Housing told Global News it has started to remediate the site and remove hazardous materials, with plans to replace the SRO units with updated self-contained suites.
“I get really frustrated because there (are) a lot of elders sitting out here and they said they’ve been out here for a lot of years,” Downtown Eastside resident Lorretta Thomas told Global News. “They should move a lot faster on it.”
The Crown corporation said there’s no timeline for the start of renovation work at the Regent.
Demolition of the Balmoral property at 159 East Hastings Street was completed last year and the city said it is finalizing lease terms with BC Housing to redevelop the site and adjacent city-owned sites into social housing.
That work is anticipated to begin in 2027, subject to entering the necessary partnership agreements with BC Housing and regulatory approvals.
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