City of Vancouver ends support for Arbutus supportive housing project | Daily Hive

2023 revised design of the Kitsilano supportive housing building at 2086-2098 West 7th Ave. and 2091 West 8th Ave., Vancouver. (Human Studio Architecture and Urban Design/BC Housing)

The new supportive housing tower project for the Kitsilano neighbourhood next to SkyTrain’s future Arbutus Station will not be going ahead as planned.

This was supposed to be a 13-storey building at the municipally owned site of 2086-2098 West 7th Ave. and 2091 West 8th Ave., providing 129 studio units of supportive housing.

BC Housing’s rezoning application for the project was controversially approved by the previous makeup of Vancouver City Council during a public hearing in July 2022.

But the project’s progression toward further applications in the municipal government’s processes and the start of construction was held back by legal challenges by neighbourhood opponents, with the court ultimately siding with the project’s opponents in December 2024.

You might also like:

Delays stemming from legal challenges have allowed the City to conduct a strategic rethink.

“It’s clear this location wasn’t the right fit for the scale and type of housing that was proposed. While we won’t speculate on the future of the site, we fully believe in the important role that both supportive and social housing play in Vancouver’s diverse housing mix,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim in a statement to Daily Hive Urbanized upon inquiry today.

Sim added that his office has reached out to the provincial government to explore options for “smaller and better-resourced supportive housing projects” to replace the units originally planned for the Arbutus project, but he has yet to receive a response.

Daily Hive Urbanized has reached out to the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs for comment.

2086-2098 West 7th Avenue 2091 West 8th Avenue Vancouver supportive housing

Site of the supportive housing tower at 2086-2098 West 7th Ave. and 2091 West 8th Ave., Vancouver. (Human Studio Architecture & Urban Design/BC Housing)

This pivot also generally aligns with the overall intent of ABC Vancouver’s recently approved strategy of putting a temporary pause on net new supportive housing projects within Vancouver that receive support and resources from the municipal government, with Sim instead asserting a need to refocus the City’s efforts toward replacing SROs and supportive housing in poor livable condition with new permanent projects. However, some exceptions were made for in-stream projects.

It should be emphasized that there is no temporary pause on social housing, which is different from supportive housing. This Arbutus supportive housing project is not social housing.

Along the so-called “housing continuum,” individuals experiencing homelessness, mental health, and/or addiction issues move from being unhoused or in shelters to supportive housing or complex-care housing, and eventually to social housing or rental housing if and when they are capable of more independent living.

The July 2022 public hearing saw about 300 public speakers, with the majority speaking against the project.

Concerns were expressed over the prospect that, based on what has been experienced at many recent supportive housing projects elsewhere in the city, this supportive housing could bring crime, open drug use, and other public disorder to the area. The development site is not only immediately adjacent to the future public transit hub, but also to the Arbutus Greenway and St. Augustine Elementary School.

In February 2025, the City of Richmond also withdrew its support for a comparable 90-unit supportive housing proposal by BC Housing, citing similar concerns — a move that effectively killed the project.

Shortly after the project’s rezoning approval, in October 2022, community advocacy group Kitsilano Coalition for Children & Family Safety Society filed a petition in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, seeking a judicial review of City Council’s decision. They requested that the court direct the City of Vancouver to completely redo the rezoning process, including holding a new public hearing. In their petition, the group charged that the City’s approval process for the project lacked transparency, fairness, and democratic principles, including the public hearing meetings led by then-mayor Kennedy Stewart.

Then, in April 2023, the Government of British Columbia introduced legislative amendments for the Municipalities Enabling and Validating Act to override the petition before it could be heard by the BC Court of Appeal and enable the supportive housing project to proceed. These amendments were made at the request of the current makeup of City Council, which asked the provincial government to intervene in the petition filed by the group.

2086-2098 West 7th Avenue 2091 West 8th Avenue Vancouver Kitsilano Arbutus supportive housing 2023 design

2023 revised design of the Kitsilano supportive housing building at 2086-2098 West 7th Ave. and 2091 West 8th Ave., Vancouver. (Human Studio Architecture & Urban Design/BC Housing)

The court initially sided with the provincial government’s authority in November 2023 to enact such legislation. Kitsilano Coalition later appealed the decision, with all three appeal judges in December 2024 siding with the group. The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that the provincial government’s legislative amendments to push the project through amounted to an interference with the adjudicative authority of the court.

One option for moving the project forward would be to restart the entire rezoning process — submitting a new application, undergoing reviews and formal public consultation, and holding a new public hearing for the decision. However, to avoid another legal challenge from project opponents, the process would need to follow the rules to the letter.

In a press release on Monday evening, the OneCity Vancouver party criticized the municipal government and the mayor for dropping its “legal defence” of the supportive housing project.

“Ken Sim put his anti-supportive housing agenda on the ballot in the by-election — and it failed miserably. Despite his rebuke by the voters, he hasn’t shifted course – now, he’s surrendering on projects that were already well underway,” said OneCity councillor Lucy Maloney in a statement.

“A new public hearing must be scheduled without delay, for the same proposal, without watering it down.”

Construction on the Arbutus supportive housing project was originally scheduled to begin Fall 2023.

Weeks before the July 2022 public hearing, the previous makeup of City Council also approved a similarly sized supportive housing project at 1406-1410 East King Edward Ave. (on Knight Street) in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood. But in stark contrast to the Arbutus project, this one saw little to none public opposition. The 109-unit project has since proceeded into further applications, but construction has yet to begin.

You might also like: