Vancouver to offer up land in bid to move SROs from Granville Entertainment District – BC [Video]

Vancouver city council has unanimously approved an amendment to the city’s 20-year Granville Street Plan aimed at shaking up SRO housing in the area.

The amendment directs staff to work with BC Housing and the province to offer up city-owned sites to replace existing single room occupancy (SRO) and supportive housing units in the non-residential Entertainment Core area with “modern, dignified, self-contained housing, with robust wraparound services.”

Tabled by ABC Coun. Peter Meiszner, the amendment relates to publicly-owned buildings between Smithe and Davie Streets in the Granville Entertainment District (GED).

“The city will come to the table with some free land,” Meiszner told Global News in an interview Wednesday. “We’re looking for provincial and federal government funding to transition these units off of Granville Street.”

The initial report to council on the Granville Street Plan proposed restricting new residential uses in the three-block Entertainment Core where current SROs “will be replaced over time and …