As a forensic audit shines light on mismanagement at BC Housing, a clinical psychologist is slamming a model of housing that has become notorious in the province: the single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel.
Dr. Julian Somers, a distinguished health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University, described the SRO system as “far behind evidence-based standards” for unhoused populations.
“Almost everyone who is stuck long term in homelessness is experiencing mental illness and also lacks social support,” Somers explained.
“The SRO model, by concentrating people together, gives them essentially the worst of institutionalization and the worst of community-based housing.”
In Vancouver in particular, SROs have become increasingly associated with poor living conditions and a failure on the part of owners and operators to make much-needed repairs. Global News has previously reported on buildings that have had no heat in the winter, or a number of other “deplorable” health and safety issues.
There were also multiple fatal SRO fires in 2022.
An estimated 7,000 people live in the city’s SROs in 156 buildings.
Premier David Eby has already said the province intends to phase out the SRO model and replace it with “dignified housing,” but will make 241 newly-renovated SRO units available in June to help address immediate need.
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Last month’s announcement of newly-renovated units came as part of a commitment to bring 330 new units of supportive housing to DTES residents by the end next month. Eighty-nine units will be supportive housing in a pair of temporary modular housing buildings opening this spring on Western and Ash streets.
Somers said evidence has shown it’s important to empower folks with complex housing needs with the ability to make their own housing choices, and offer housing that is dispersed throughout communities.
The concentration of those in need in the Downtown Eastside, for example, came to be through a migration of people over several years, many of who came from somewhere else.
“Many of the people we’ve worked with were in provincial foster care, but almost all have extraordinary stories of difficulty, adverse childhood experiences as well,” he said.
“People living through those circumstances are in every community in B.C. and we have not planned for that at all.”
Living in SROs doesn’t allow people to enjoy the benefits of the social diversity that surrounds them, he said. Often, it also limits them to living in an area they did not choose.
The concentration then results in different standards for noise, policing and living in the area, he added.
“The path forward doesn’t involve building new buildings for people who are homeless. It’s not about the building, it’s about the social context that people are living in,” Somers explained.
“What people need help with is joining intact, healthy communities of people … that’s really one of the main lessons from this SRO experience, is that part of the problem is housing people altogether and putting them in certain areas, making it further worse.”
Speaking in the context of the BC Housing forensic audit on Monday, Eby said the government is working towards building more complex care housing. He noted that many of the folks housed by the Atira Women’s Resource Society — funded in part by BC Housing — can be difficult to accommodate.
“There have been many housing operators that have struggled to provide housing, and how to respond when someone’s hoarding, when someone’s setting fires, when someone’s threatening staff or other tenants, which is why our government introduced complex care housing, housing with additional medical supports in the building to respond to a particularly high needs population,” Eby explained.
“Our work around ensuring minimum standards for people who live in non-profit operated housing and accountability to the public, to tenants and to others, is independent of this report.”
Complex care housing projects have been announced across the province, including in Metro Vancouver, Chilliwack, Greater Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops, Nanaimo, the Tri-Cities, and more.
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