City says shelter users finding their way to hotel rooms

City says shelter users finding their way to hotel rooms

At least 80 people who used the city's five temporary homeless shelters since December 2008 have been placed in downtown single-room occupancy hotels, according to a city housing director.

Jill Davidson, the city's assistant director of housing policy, said people found housing because they made contact with homeless outreach workers visiting the shelters.

"That's the whole point of what we're trying to do--is get people into housing," Davidson told the Courier. "The SROs aren't the best form of housing but they are housing, they're not shelters."

Davidson said the hotels give people a place to call their own and an opportunity to begin a more stable lifestyle after living on a floor in a shelter.

Without the shelters, finding people housing would have been more difficult, added Davidson, who attended a press conference at city hall Monday to learn the latest developments regarding the shelters.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman and Mayor Gregor Robertson announced that four of the five shelters will be funded until April 2010, one month after the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games end. It will cost roughly $6 million to keep four of them open until April 2010. The shelters, which house an average of 450 people per night, were scheduled to close Wednesday.

Only one of the shelters, at 1435 Granville St., will close. A neighbouring shelter at 1442 Howe St. is placed on a 30-day probationary period.

Both shelters are located near the north end of the Granville Bridge. Nearby residents have complained of drug activity, fights, threats and public urination and defecation outside the shelters. "We will respond to [residents'] concerns quickly and that work is already underway," Robertson told reporters.

The city has given the Howe Street shelter's operator, RainCity Housing, 30 days to meet with residents to solve problems.

If residents are satisfied with the shelter's operation, it will be funded until April 2010. But RainCity's executive director Mark Smith told CBC Radio Tuesday that he believed the 38-bed Howe Street shelter will likely be shut down at the end of the month.

The other shelters to remain open are located at 201 Central St., the Stanley/New Fountain at 51B Cordova St. and First United Church at 320 Hastings St.

City housing staff are working with B.C. Housing to find accommodation for about 40 people who were regular visitors to the Granville Street shelter. Some could be placed in newly renovated single-room occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside purchased by the provincial government.

Neither Robertson nor Coleman would say specifically which hotels but Coleman mentioned the Backpackers Inn at 7 West Hastings as a hotel close to being renovated. The Backpackers, which will be renamed the Beacon and is located next to Pigeon Park, is scheduled to open in early August. The Backpackers has a notorious past, with Police Chief Jim Chu once calling it the worst hotel for police when it was operating a few years ago.

At the time, police responded to an average of 100 calls per year, including drug dealing, assaults, an arson and incidents involving weapons. When the hotel opens next month, a reputable non-profit organization will operate it and the government promises support services will be supplied to tenants. A police officer will be assigned as a liaison to the hotel. "We renovate and turn these into livable places that are secure for people to live in, and that's not what the Backpackers was, but that's what it will be when we're done with it," Coleman said.

Robertson also announced Monday the city will put $5 million toward creating 100 permanent supportive housing units that will open by next winter. More details will be released soon, the mayor promised.