B.C. government agrees to close three problematic SROs on Granville Strip | Daily Hive

A police incident at the Luugat (former Howard Johnson hotel), turned into a supportive housing site, at the Granville Entertainment District in downtown Vancouver on July 25, 2025. (Kenneth Chan)

The City of Vancouver and the Government of British Columbia have finally reached an agreement to close and replace three aging single-room occupancy (SRO) and supportive housing buildings in downtown Vancouver’s Granville Entertainment District with new housing located outside the area — a move that will improve living conditions for residents while supporting the district’s revitalization as an entertainment hub.

The agreement, signed on Monday by Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and B.C. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Christine Boyle, outlines a joint plan to relocate tenants from the controversial Luugat Hotel (former Howard Johnson hotel) at 1176 Granville St., St. Helen’s Hotel at 1163 Granville St., and Granville Villa at 1025 Granville St. (former Hostelling International Vancouver Central), and replace those sites with 280 new purpose-built, self-contained housing units elsewhere in the city.

Over the past few years, local businesses and residents have increasingly directly linked these problematic buildings to the Granville Strip’s accelerated decline, with many blaming the provincial government’s pandemic-era acquisition and conversion of the hotels into rapid supportive housing for rising public disorder, theft, vandalism, and other crime in the area. Businesses and business advocacy organizations assert that the severity of these issues escalated dramatically following the conversions.

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As previously announced in November 2025, the provincial government will lead efforts to relocate residents from the Luugat Hotel by June 2026 and work with housing operators to update supportive housing models with coordinated services and community integration. The provincial government will also work with BC Housing to develop new sites and consider new involuntary care beds serving people in Vancouver.

While plans and a timeline are in place for the Luugat Hotel’s closure by early Summer 2026, the letter does not establish a strategy or precise timeline for the closure of the other two properties on the Granville Strip. This work is forthcoming.

The municipal government, meanwhile, has committed to helping secure land for up to five proposed replacement housing sites, subject to Vancouver City Council approval and potential federal funding partnerships. The City will also fast-track regulatory approvals and zoning for new social and supportive housing projects linked to this plan. The locations of the potential new sites are not publicly known at this time.

The approach is intended to maintain housing capacity while improving quality and replacing units currently located in dilapidated buildings originally constructed in the early 1900s as single-room hotels. The interiors of these buildings are in extremely poor condition — partly due to age and maintenance challenges, but also because of property damage from the complex needs of residents. Some of these buildings, such as the Luugat, have also sustained extensive water damage from repeated fires by residents.

The agreement also commits both governments to maintaining Vancouver’s temporary modular housing leases for at least five additional years while longer-term housing options are developed.

In December 2025, City Council already amended its policies to enable temporary modular housing to remain in place for up to 20 years — up from the previous maximum of 10 years. Vancouver’s very first temporary modular housing building at 220 Terminal Ave. (on Main Street) will turn 10 years old next year, and there are currently over 600 units in such buildings on 10 sites across the city, with a growing number of other structures nearing this age milestone as well.

Moreover, the City’s Granville Plan, approved by City Council in June 2025, also calls for the relocation of the SROs and supportive housing as a key step to catalyze the entertainment district’s revitalization.

Mayor Sim said the agreement represents progress toward addressing long-standing concerns about the aging SRO buildings and the future of Granville Street.

“Yesterday, I signed an Agreement in Principle with Minister Christine Boyle to replace the Luugat Hotel, St. Helen’s Hotel, and Granville Villa in the Granville Entertainment District with new housing located outside the area,” Sim wrote in a post on X today.

“For months, we have been calling for a clear plan to transition residents out of these aging buildings and into better, purpose-built housing with the supports they need.”

Sim added the plan would allow residents to move into higher-quality housing while helping Granville Street “move forward as a safe and vibrant entertainment corridor.”

The announcement was also welcomed by Downtown Van, the local business improvement association for downtown Vancouver.

In a statement, the organization said it was encouraged that residents of the three existing buildings will receive new housing and support.

“The Luugat has a clear plan in place, and we look forward to continued communication with the City of Vancouver and the Government of British Columbia regarding next steps for St. Helen’s and Granville Villa,” stated Downtown Van, noting that the agreement is “an important step toward allowing Granville Street to function as the vibrant Entertainment District it was meant to be.”

The commitments outlined in the letter remain subject to additional approvals, including decisions by City Council.

Both the municipal and provincial governments have agreed to further formalize the arrangement through a memorandum of understanding by the end of this month. This forthcoming agreement may also form part of a broader “Vancouver Agreement 2.0” framework focused on housing and services in the Downtown Eastside — a concept previously recommended by former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell.

Campbell, who was also a former police officer, B.C. chief coroner, and a longtime Canadian senator up until 2023, is expected to publicly release his in-depth report this year outlining his recommendations on tackling mental health, addictions, housing, safety, crime, and public disorder challenges in and around Vancouver. In September 2025, the provincial government appointed him as an adviser for issues relating to the Downtown Eastside.

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