City of Vancouver identifies five potential supportive housing sites to replace problematic Granville Strip locations
Mayor Ken Sim is taking new steps to advance the City of Vancouver’s strategy to relocate residents living in single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels and supportive housing within downtown Vancouver’s Granville Entertainment District (GED) to other locations.
Under the recently approved Granville Street Plan of revitalizing the entertainment district, SROs and supportive housing — including tourist hotels acquired and converted by governments into rapid supportive housing at the height of the pandemic — will be removed, with residents relocated to new purpose-built social housing and supportive housing at other locations away from the Granville Strip.
The Granville Street Plan calls for the municipal government to offer City-owned sites to the provincial government to build such new developments. At the time of the plan’s approval, B.C. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Ravi Kahlon commended the City’s strategy to revitalize the entertainment district and noted that the provincial government would explore the request to replace these properties.
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Yesterday, in a statement, Sim announced the provincial government has been provided with an initial list of five City-owned sites to replace three problematic supportive housing facilities within old hotel buildings in the Granville Strip — the particularly controversial former Howard Johnson Hotel, now officially referred to as the Luugat, at 1176 Granville St. (110 units), the former Hostelling International Vancouver Central property, now known as Granville Villa, at 1025 Granville St. (77 units), and the St. Helen’s Hotel at 1161 Granville St. (93 units).
The Mayor’s Office did not release the locations of the possible five replacement locations, but indicated that these sites are intended to enable smaller new housing developments — each with 55 to 65 units.
“This model is consistent with best practices, allowing for more focused care and better outcomes, in contrast with the warehousing approach that we have seen with the existing three sites,” said Sim.
Although the three existing supportive housing buildings only have a combined total of about 280 supportive housing units, the Vancouver Police Department received 1,364 calls for service in 2024 alone for these properties. These three buildings were responsible for one in every 125 police calls in Vancouver, even though they only housed one out of every 2,500 residents in the city.
It was also shared that between January 2020 and May 2025, the former Howard Johnson Hotel and the St. Helen’s Hotel recorded 74 fires and were the subject of 2,203 calls for Vancouver Fire Rescue Services.
This does not include the major fire incident on June 11, 2025, in the upper levels of the former Howard Johnson Hotel, which led to significant traffic gridlock across the downtown Vancouver peninsula at rush hour.
Businesses near these properties have stated that the complex needs of residents — along with related public safety concerns, disorder, and crime issues — have been highly detrimental to their operations and to the overall vitality of the entertainment district and downtown Vancouver.
During City Council’s public meeting to review and approve the Granville Street Plan, the owner of Aura Nightclub, located on the ground level of the former Howard Johnson Hotel, noted that there have been about 200 floods in the nightclub since 2020 — when the provincial government acquired the hotel for supportive housing uses — due to the activities of the supportive housing residents in the levels above. Days later, on June 11, the nightclub suffered additional damage requiring extensive repairs due to the water used to suppress the fire.
“Putting those with complex mental health challenges and substance use issues in an entertainment district was never a good idea,” continued Sim.
“With this transition of units out of the GED and into more manageably sized facilities with integrated services and proper wraparound supports, we are confident that Vancouver will become a success story on how to approach supportive housing in a different, more effective way.”
The provincial government also now appears to be acknowledging these issues.
On Monday, Kahlon announced that the Province is taking action to remove “problematic and dangerous individuals” from supportive housing, including considering removing supportive housing from the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA). This change would enable quicker interventions against individuals involved in criminal activities who threaten the safety of vulnerable residents and staff and exploit other residents.
“The City of Vancouver has consistently voiced concerns about the risks associated with the warehousing model, and with their recently proposed changes to the Residential Tenancy Act, we are pleased to see the Province begin to recognize this,” continued Sim.
“The City of Vancouver has done its part to provide viable sites for future facilities, and the responsibility to transition these units out of the GED now sits with the Province. We look forward to hearing from them on a plan for carrying this work out quickly.”
Earlier in 2025, City Council approved the Mayor’s strategy to temporarily ban net new supportive housing within Vancouver that receives support from the municipal government, instead focusing on replacing aging SROs, supportive housing, and temporary modular housing with new permanent purpose-built housing — such as what is currently being proposed for the problematic Granville Strip properties.
The City also rescinded its support for BC Housing’s controversial new 13-storey supportive housing tower with 129 units next to SkyTrain’s future Arbutus Station in Kitsilano, with Sim citing similar reasons for the decision. As the land for the project is owned by the City, the project is now effectively cancelled.
You might also like:
- B.C. government eyes new measures to remove dangerous residents from supportive housing
- 200 floods in nightclub after Granville Strip hotel turned into supportive housing
- City of Vancouver ends support for Arbutus supportive housing project
- B.C. government could explore potential new Kitsilano sites after City of Vancouver quits Arbutus supportive housing project
- Vancouver City Council approves temporary pause on new supportive housing, including in the Downtown Eastside
- Vancouver emergency services strained by SRO and supportive housing calls: statisticshttps://dailyhive.com/vancouve....r/vancouver-emergenc
https://dailyhive.com/vancouve....r/vancouver-granvill
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