Vancouver to remove supportive housing from Granville Entertainment District

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says the city is planning to move supportive housing out of the Granville Entertainment District.

An emergency “task force” formed to address what the city calls street disorder along the Granville Strip held a press conference in downtown Vancouver Thursday.

Speaking for the Hospitality Vancouver Association, Laura Ballance says that as “years” of requests to address the issues with BC Housing have gone unanswered, “we are trying something different.”

“We are speaking openly and transparently about the crisis of Granville Street, on the unbearable street disorder which our businesses are enduring.”

Ballance claims crime and street disorder are at record levels, and are “getting worse by the day.”

“Our staff aren’t safe. Our patrons aren’t safe. This street is no longer safe. It is our position that the crisis on Granville Street is directly attributed to the chronic mismanagement of social housing on Granville Street,” she said.

Ballance explains that in 2020, the Howard Johnson Hotel was purchased by the provincial government to provide temporary housing to those with complex needs during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“At that time, everyone seemed to agree that putting people with complex needs in a concentrated area directly above and around the entertainment district of our city was not ideal, but it was an emergency, and it was temporary,” she said.

“Today, five years later, the SROs are still here, and the effect of these now derelict buildings that have been taken over by organized crime is that our street is no longer safe.”

More to come.

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