Vancouver city council voted Thursday night in favour of Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s $30-million COVID-19 housing action plan to support unsheltered residents.
“Tonight a majority of councillors had the courage to take action and support my plan to allocate up to $30 million to support rapid-housing action and get hundreds of our neighbours off the street,” Stewart said in a statement.
“COVID-19 has reduced shelter capacity, forced people from SROs, eliminated incomes, and as a result pushed so many of our neighbours onto the street,” Stewart said. “The fastest way to help and get people back into safe housing with the wraparound services to stabilize people’s lives and communities is through securing spaces in hotels, vacant buildings, and SROs. This is the path that Council chose and I am grateful.”
Council had approved a motion put forward by the mayor on Sept. 14 directing city staff to explore several options from permanent housing to managed encampments on vacant land.
In an Oct. 2 memo to the mayor and council, arts, Sandra Singh, culture and community services general manager, identified eight city-owned sites that could potentially support sanctioned temporary encampments with physically distanced tents and services – including two parkades, four empty lots, the lawn at city hall and a public plaza on the north side of city hall.
List of potential temporary sanctioned encampment sites:
- 180 Keefer St. – Chinatown Parkade
- 107 East Cordova St. – parkade
- 800 Quebec St. lot
- 1500 Main St. lot
- 987 East Cordova St. lot
- 2132 Ash St. lot (next to temporary modular housing)
- City hall lawn
- Helena Gutteridge Plaza – city hall public space
Staff estimate about 750 people are sleeping outside in Vancouver. An unsanctioned encampment at Strathcona Park has grown to nearly 400 tents since activists established it in June after being evicted from a Port of Vancouver parking lot near CRAB Park. BC Housing believes about 200 people at Strathcona are currently homeless.
The estimated annual operating costs for a partially supported 40-tent encampment with round-the-clock security and daytime staff seven days a week would be upwards of $2.1 million. A fully managed 40-tent encampment with 24/7 security and staffing is expected to cost in excess of $2.6 million per year.
Editor’s note. A previous version of this story indicated that the vote was unanimous. In fact, several councillors voted to oppose certain recommendations in the proposal.
– with files from Kristen Robinson
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