Temporary pause on new supportive housing in Vancouver approved | Daily Hive

Vancouver City Council approves temporary pause on new supportive housing, including in the Downtown Eastside

Intersection of Main Street and East Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside. (Google Maps)

All municipally-backed proposals for new building development projects that provide a net increase in supportive housing units will not go ahead in the City of Vancouver for the foreseeable future.

On Wednesday evening, after hearing from about 80 public speakers — mostly in opposition, with many expressing emotionally charged views — Vancouver City Council approved Mayor Ken Sim’s member motion to temporarily pause net new supportive housing units in the city, especially in the Downtown Eastside.

This means the existing supply of supportive housing and single-room occupancy (SRO) units will be maintained, but there cannot be an overall increase in supply. Some exceptions will apply for projects already in progress and applications submitted over the last six months.

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Although there will be no net increase in supportive housing, new purpose-built supportive housing will still be permitted if it replaces SROs in extremely poor condition or temporary modular housing.

More broadly, this strategy pushed forward by the Mayor aims to reduce the concentration of supportive housing in the Downtown Eastside, and encourage other cities in Metro Vancouver to build their share of such projects, with increased support from the provincial government.

The city of Vancouver represents 25 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s population, but its municipal government takes on a disproportionate financial and resource burden on the challenges that directly and indirectly come from being the location of 77 per cent of the 8,150 supportive housing units found across the entire region, with the vast majority of these units situated within or near the Downtown Eastside.

“I hear from other speakers today that Vancouver has all the services and that’s why they should take on all the burden. I’m telling you from conversations with first responders and workers that these services are overburdened and it’s time to start planning more support hubs in more municipalities,” said one public speaker who lives near the Downtown Eastside.

“If the housing minister and the minister for social development is listening, I would ask them to answer why it is acceptable to keep concentrating all the supportive housing options in one part of Vancouver instead of daring to require cities like North Vancouver or Burnaby to put a real effort in putting up units.”

City Council approved Sim’s controversial motion in a 6-3 vote, with ABC city councillor Lisa Dominato, independent city councillor Rebecca Bligh, and Green city councillor Pete Fry opposed.

“The Downtown Eastside has seen decades of status quo that’s led to continued harm and suffering for some of our city’s most vulnerable residents — residents who, in some cases, live in uninhabitable conditions, who are separated from their families and communities, and who are struggling with mental health and substance use issues,” said Sim during today’s meeting.

“When we look at the situation we’re in… the definition of insanity is doing everything that you’ve done in the past, and expecting different results.”

Within Vancouver and elsewhere in the region, there is growing criticism that the existing supportive housing model implemented by the provincial government is flawed. Critics argue that these sites lack sufficient support services, and non-profit operators fail to adequately address community concerns as they arise, relating to crime, public disorder, and street cleanliness.

It should be emphasized that there will be no changes to 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.

During his remarks, Sim urged other mayors to consider examples of well-operated permanent supportive housing projects that do not negatively impact communities. He specifically cited the 51-unit Dunbar Apartments, a supportive housing building completed in 2012 at the southeast corner of West 16th Avenue and Dunbar Street in the Vancouver Westside area.

But as a case in point of poorly operated sites, ABC city councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung highlighted that a public speaker referred to Belkin House as “Belcatraz,” among the many locations deemed to be problematic by some.

“We’re leaving a lot of the people behind. They’re living in the inhumane SRO stock. If you have walked through, your foot has almost fallen through the floor. If you’ve seen the quality or lack of quality of the washrooms, the fact that doors are hanging off the hinges, and just the conditions that have been allowed to sustain… that is inhumane,” said Kirby-Yung.

“I think one of the speakers also describe the Downtown Eastside as a place of healing and maybe relatively or potentially a healthy community. That’s not my litmus test. If that’s what we’re aspiring to, really? I’m sorry, but I think we need to aspire an awful lot better.”

ABC city councillor Lenny Zhou added, “This motion is not to stop building housing. It is actually about prioritizing, replacing unliveable housing with dignified, stable homes, ensuring that we are not just adding new units, but improving the conditions who already live there.”

Zhou also shared that many prominent businesses and organizations in the neighbouring Chinatown district expressed support for the temporary pause.

Newly independent city councillor Rebecca Bligh asserted that her opposition to the motion was the reason she was kicked out of the ABC Vancouver party earlier this month.

“We’re seeing a plan being developed behind closed doors, not to improve this neighbourhood, but to dismantle it and to take away critical resources from our city’s most vulnerable need to survive in hopes that they will go elsewhere,” said Bligh.

Green city councillor Pete Fry made a plea to his colleagues in the chamber, asserting this move will “make things worse” and more “people will die” as a result.

He also suggested that this shift in Vancouver’s approach could have the opposite effect, discouraging other cities from fulfilling their proportional share of supportive housing and related services. He cited one public speaker who said the strategy has the “potential to evoke malignant NIMBYism.”

“I know you all care, and I know you do not want to cause harm. And I think that this, even though it’s not your intention, and perhaps the intentions of this motion were well meaning,” said Fry.

“Yes, the status quo is not great, but I think not giving people housing and options for housing is not going to solve a lot of the problems with street disorder and a lot of the struggles in the Downtown Eastside.”

Sim’s motion, now approved, forms one component of his new multi-faceted strategy to address the Downtown Eastside issues, which he first announced in the Safe Our Streets forum in January 2025.

Another key component ramps up the Vancouver Police Department’s efforts in tackling organized crime that targets on individuals experiencing homelessness, mental health, and/or addictions issues. This is now well underway through Task Force Barrage.

Additionally, the 2014-enacted Downtown Eastside Area Plan will be amended to introduce a more diverse mix of housing for a wider range of incomes to create a more balanced neighbourhood for the desired health and safety outcomes.

This was the second consecutive day City Council discussed matters that directly related to the Downtown Eastside.

On Tuesday, City Council separately approved City staff’s report — stemming from a member motion pushed forward by Bligh in November 2023 — to make inroads in “uplifting” the neighbourhood, including policies and initiatives that are already in progress.

Additionally, short of an audit or in-depth review, City Council directed City staff to work with the provincial government to create a list of non-profit organizations operating in the Downtown Eastside and the total public funding allocated from all government sources, with the “goal of gaining a a comprehensive understanding of service provision and service delivery outcomes, including those that align with the goals of enabling recovery and improving mental health, in order to best support and improve the lives of those in need.”

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