Frances Bula
Sun
VANCOUVER – The city will be taking the unusual step of shutting down and demolishing a social-housing building in the Downtown Eastside.
“It is with great regret” that the city’s housing centre is proposing to destroy 76 much-needed units of social housing, writes director Cameron Gray in his report to council, but Marie Gomez Place is in such bad shape that there’s no other option.
Gray also notes that there is a lesson to be learned from the Marie Gomez debacle, and that is that there needs to be enough staff and support money for social housing that is going to be used for extremely low-income tenants who have mental-health and addiction problems.
Gray said the building, in the 500 block of Alexander Street, started to develop water leaks in the 1990s, a common problem of wood-frame buildings put up in the 1980s.
The Downtown Eastside Residents Association, which was asked to run the building in 1989, tried to get federal money to repair the leaks, but couldn’t because it got so little in rent from its tenants, who are almost all on welfare, that it couldn’t guarantee repayment.
In 2002, DERA emptied the building because of concerns about its condition but, a year later, allowed people to move back in because it was desperate to find spaces for the increasing numbers of homeless people.
But those who moved in were such a difficult group that the building deteriorated even more, as fires and firefighting efforts caused additional damage. DERA had only enough money from B.C. Housing to maintain a basic staff presence and, as a result, was unable to monitor residents and prevent problems from popping up.
The building will demolished once the current 54 residents have been moved out.
The proposal to demolish it is being made with the agreement of DERA and B.C. Housing.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
