Dozens of homeless people have been sleeping in an empty lot in Vancouver’s downtown Eastside for weeks – trying to raise awareness about a lack of social housing.
On Tuesday Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson paid a visit to the site and announced the city is turning the site into welfare housing.
“We are committing to taking this to re-zoning next year in the first half of the year,” Robertson said. “That building could be as many as 300 homes in it, 300 units.”
READ MORE: Homeless advocates create tent city in DTES, demand meeting with Mayor Robertson
He said the city will be pressuring the provincial and federal government to commit to the project.
Nearly one 100 tents cover the empty lot at 58 West Hastings Street.
Robertson said the city has safety concerns about the camp.
“We definitely have concerns about health and safety on the site,” he said.
“The tent camps are never safe over the longer terms so we are going to be working now over a daily basis with people at the camp to make sure that conditions are safe.”
READ MORE: A history of tent cities in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley
Homeless advocate Jean Didieu was happy about the announcement – but he’s not celebrating just yet.
“He has committed a lot of promises for us, for ending homelessness for so many years,” he added