Modular housing project for the homeless approved for Downtown Eastside

Feb 3 2018, 2:29 am

The City of Vancouver has approved a temporary modular housing project for the vacant site at 1115-1141 Franklin Street on the eastern edge of the Downtown Eastside district.

A development permit has been granted to construct 39 new temporary modular units at the site, and the units will be prioritized for people who are unsheltered or living in a shelter and homeless people living in the area.

Each unit will be about 250 sq. ft. with its own bathroom and kitchen facilities. A total of seven units will be fully wheelchair accessible.

Residents in the building will have communal amenity spaces and laundry facilities.

The facility will be operated by non-profit group PHS Community Services Society to oversee the tenanting and management of the building, and provide support services to the tenants 24/7.

It will be constructed by Alberta-based Horizon North, which built the city’s first modular housing building at 220 Terminal Avenue and is building the second project at 650 West 57th Avenue.

Surrey is getting modular housing

Vancouver’s first modular housing project at 220 Terminal Avenue was completed in early 2017. (Kenneth Chan / Daily Hive)

“I’m very pleased that a development permit has been approved to allow the development of urgently needed temporary modular housing on Franklin Street,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson in a statement. “This is a vital step to help the City meet its target of establishing 600 new safe and secure homes across Vancouver for our most vulnerable citizens.”

Modular housing structures are being pursued as they can be built much quicker and at a small fraction of a conventional, permanent structure. These structures can also be dismantled and relocated to another site, when the sites they sit on are ready for permanent development.

Construction will begin in early-February for a completion in April.

The project is funded by the provincial government’s $66 million budget to build 600 modular housing units in the city.

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