Vancouver council gets update on efforts to uplift Downtown Eastside – BC [Video]

More than a year after Vancouver city councillors voted for a plan to “uplift” the city’s troubled Downtown Eastside, city staff delivered an update on the work.

The 42-page report outlined a long-term plan to replace the neighbourhood’s aging and in many cases dilapidated single-room accommodation units with self-contained units.

In the short term, it calls on neighbouring municipalities to do more to house the homeless and provide mental health supports, citing modelling that suggests three-quarters of new supportive housing should be built outside the city to balance regional responsibility.

“It’s really hard to actually improve your health outcomes and your journey when the housing around you is crumbling, so we are committed to improving that housing stock,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim told Global News.

Sim’s ABC Vancouver, however, faced controversy this week when a confidential memo from October revealing more of the proposed blueprint for the neighbourhood was leaked.

That document included the idea of relocating some Indigenous residents …