Province responds after businesses say Granville strip in worst shape in decades – BC [Video]

B.C.’s housing and community safety ministers are promising change after bar owners in Vancouver’s entertainment district claim the province’s decision to purchase a former Howard Johnson hotel to house the homeless changed Granville Street overnight.

In June 2020, the province bought the former 110-room hotel at 1176 Granville Street for $55 million, to house people who’d been living in encampments, including individuals with serious substance use and mental health challenges.

Open drug use, street disorder and violence have ensued and according to the six operators of multiple nightclubs on or near the Granville Strip, hospitality traffic is down approximately 60 per cent.

Atira continues to operate the supportive housing at what’s now known as the ‘Luugat’ single-room occupancy hotel, or SRO.

“The way this building is being operated is unacceptable,” said ABC Vancouver Coun. Peter Meiszner on Tuesday, as a fire truck rolled down Granville Street with lights and sirens.

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