Vancouver mayor, business owners push province to shut SROs on Granville strip

Vancouver’s mayor and downtown business owners are pushing for three supportive housing buildings to be closed. But where will residents go?

Vancouver’s mayor is calling for the province to shutter three single-room occupancy supportive housing buildings located in the Granville Entertainment District.

Mayor Ken Sim joined business owners and the city’s police chief Thursday to reiterate concerns about fires, floods, and open drug use in and around three buildings.

“How can the province admit that these buildings are contributing to disorder and public safety issues and then fail to follow through on their commitments?” asked Sim.

Dave Kershaw, owner of Cabana Nightclub, said his business has had to shut down due to flooding from the units above.

“We’ve had objects thrown to the windows. Since 2020, we’ve endured more than 100 flooding incidents there that have caused great disruption and damage to my business,” he said.

Sim acknowledged BC Housing has committed to closing the Lugaat, an SRO operating out of a former Howard Johnson hotel. He now wants the province to close the remaining two: the St. Helen’s Hotel and the Granville Villa.

“Vancouver can not wait indefinitely while these buildings continue to destabilize the Granville Entertainment District,” said Sim.

‘What is the solution?’

Amanda Burrows, executive director of First United, says she is concerned about where the people who live in these buildings would end up.

“If these SROs are closed down, what is the solution?” she asked

She says closing the SROs is a short-sighted and ineffective response to the complex problems of substance abuse, mental health and homelessness.

“All we’re doing is moving a problem elsewhere and not really doing the investment that we know that we need,” she said.

“We need to invest in housing, but also the supports in a supportive care for residents who live in that housing.”

Sim is also pushing the province to create involuntary mental health-care beds in the city in addition to those in Surrey and Maple Ridge, saying there is not “a single new bed to serve the city with the most severe mental health cases in the entire province.”

Jill Atkey, CEO of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association, says the focus should be on addressing barriers to accessing treatment rather than expanding involuntary care.

“Lets look at voluntary treatment before we head down a significant path of involuntary treatment for substance use disorder, because the outcomes when its voluntary are much stronger,” she said.

Surge in emergency calls

Combined, between 2020 and 2025, the Vancouver Police and Fire Department have responded to emergency calls to the three SROs 6,641 times.

In a statement to CTV News, Housing Minister Christine Boyle said “we agree these conditions are unacceptable.”

“We are acting urgently to help vulnerable tenants, who—without a safe place to go— would have to resort to sheltering on the street or in encampments, which is not the path we want for the individuals or the community.”

Boyle adds her government “continues to work on plans to relocate tenants in the St. Helen’s Hotel and Granville Villa.”

The statement adds the province is also working to replace aging SROs, but did not confirm if or when the remaining two Granville Street SROs would close.