Vancouver mayor calls for local involuntary care beds as Granville Street businesses complain of disorder
CBC
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and some downtown Vancouver businesses are calling for the closure of two more social housing complexes on Granville Street.
Earlier this month, B.C. Housing announced the SRO (single-room occupancy) Luugat building would close in June 2026, a move that was hailed by some local businesses.
The Hospitality Vancouver Association, however, hosted a news conference Thursday expressing concerns about what it says is continued street disorder in Vancouver’s main entertainment district.
Association spokesperson Laura Ballance said housing people with complex mental health and addiction issues in and around the Granville Street entertainment district was a “dismal, failed experiment.”
“The level of crime, street disorder and general chaos created by those residents of those buildings has spiraled Granville Street into disarray,” Ballance said.
She said the association had called for an inquiry into the oversight of SROs in June, but hasn’t received any answers.
“Granville Street is no longer safe — not for the vulnerable population who are living in these crime-controlled, rotting and derelict buildings," Ballance said.
"Nor is it safe for the employees and patrons of the businesses who make up what was once one of our city's most historic and dynamic streets.”
Mayor Ken Sim called for the province to “immediately” provide closure timelines for St. Helen’s Hotel and the Granville Villa, both SROs on Granville Street owned by the province and serving low-income people.
“Vancouver cannot wait indefinitely while these buildings continue to destabilize the Granville Entertainment District,” Sim said at the news conference.
He also wants new involuntary mental health care beds in Vancouver.
“This is where the crisis is most urgent. This is where the need is greatest.”
Wendy Pedersen with the advocacy organization SRO Collaborative said that the push to close social housing is not being accompanied with more spaces being built — especially as Vancouver council voted to freeze future increases of supportive housing buildings earlier this year.
"This continual drip, drip, drip of loss ... really, it means more encampments and more people sleeping in alcoves and on the sidewalks," she said.
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