Downtown Eastside social housing project to expand

A housing project in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is being expanded from one city lot to four and will include community health and social services.

B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the proposed development in the 300-block of East Hastings Street at the former site of a Buddhist temple will be expanded after a donation of adjacent land from the charitable 625 Powell Street Foundation.

The original plan in 2018 called for 75 housing units, but foundation director Don McKenzie says the expansion will provide up to 200 people at risk of homelessness with affordable and supportive housing in a building up to eight storeys high.

Kahlon says the first floor will be dedicated to community health services.

He says the province, B.C. Housing and Vancouver Coastal Health will work with the City of Vancouver on an application to redevelop the site this fall.

The minister says that since March 2023, the government has opened more than 750 new and renovated housing spaces in the Downtown Eastside, and another 850 new and renovated spaces are currently underway.

"We know that the need in this community in particular is great," Kahlon told a news conference held in the Downtown Eastside on Friday. 

"We have SROs (single-room-occupancy units) that are not in good condition, and we know we need to move away from SROs."