Supportive housing building with 72 units approved for South Vancouver

Artistic rendering of 1925 Southeast Marine Drive, Vancouver. (Human Studio Architecture & Urban Design/BC Housing)

Vancouver City Council has unanimously approved a new permanent building that will provide supportive housing for 72 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Their decision to approve BC Housing’s rezoning application for the site at 1925 Southeast Marine Drive — located just west of the intersection with Victoria Drive — in Tuesday’s public hearing came after listening to public speakers, who mostly spoke against the project over their concerns relating to crime, public disorder, and drug use. Their concerns were based on the outcomes of some existing problematic housing facilities elsewhere in the city.

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“As a former police officer, I’ve probably be in almost every SRO in the city. Some of them are horrific, they’re horrible places to live. It’s one of the reasons why we see people out on the street,” said ABC councillor Brian Montague during the meeting.

“It’s important to remember these aren’t SROs, these are very different from what we typically see as a SRO. This is a huge improvement over what these places are.”

The six-storey, 43,300-sq-ft building, containing 72 single-occupancy units, each with a private kitchen and washroom, will be a prefabricated modular wood structure, built to a Passive House green building design. Human Studio Architecture & Urban Design led the project’s design team.

1925 Southeast Marine Drive Vancouver supportive housing bc

Artistic rendering of the supportive housing at 1925 Southeast Marine Drive, Vancouver. (BC Housing)

Upon completion, non-profit housing provider The Kettle Society will operate and maintain the building, and provide wrap-around services to the residents.

“With regards to some of the public comments about accountability, I have the same concerns — public safety and street disorder is a huge concern of mine whenever it comes to issues in the City. But I have a lot of confidence in The Kettle Society, I think they’re a great operator. They have a great track record. When it comes down to it, it comes down to operator and tenancy,” said Montague.

He suggested much of his confidence with The Kettle Society’s future operations for this building stems from their operations management plan, which is over 20 pages long. This includes protocols for reporting on outcomes, documentation of significant issues, and challenges, as well as maintenance standards for the building exterior, providing the neighbourhood with contact information to report issues, and forming a community advisory committee.

Furthermore, he says, tenants will be required to sign a crime-free addendum, which outlines expectations for continued residency and forms a part of the lease agreement. A breach of the good neighbour addendum may lead to eviction.

“We all know how one tenant can be very disruptive. The fact that Kettle Society has a plan to deal with problematic tenancy is really nice to see, it’s nice to see accountability in this project… I think this plan and this project is off to the right start,” said Montague.

1925 Southeast Marine Drive Vancouver bc housing supportive housing

Site of 1925 Southeast Marine Drive, Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Green councillor Adriane Carr also acknowledged the community concerns, but suggested in some cases the type of concerns feared by neighbourhood residents did not transpire.

“I realize there are some community concerns, and people did come out to speak about that, and we did have a petition on that. But I’m very hopeful, as it happened with some other projects that we’ve been involved with in terms of temporary modular housing, where community concerns were extremely high prior to the project, but then afterwards it has been great and there haven’t been those concerns, and the community has worked well together within the housing and around the housing,” she said.

This project is now one of two BC Housing supportive housing proposals in Vancouver approved by City Council this month. Earlier this month, City Council also approved a rezoning application to build a permanent supportive housing building at 2518-2540 South Grandview Highway, near SkyTrain Renfrew Station. Upon completion, its 64 supportive housing units will be operated by Community Builders.

Both projects are part of the provincial government’s September 2020 commitment of building at least 350 additional permanent supportive modular homes over several years. The City of Vancouver is providing the land for both buildings, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is covering the cost of construction and BC Housing is providing annual operating funding.

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