Scheme could see Pennsylvania Hotel become social-housing complex
David Carrigg
Province
The Pennsylvania Hotel at the corner of East Hastings and Carrall streets in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside could be turned into social housing. Photograph by : Jason Payne, The Province
An ambitious plan to turn a dilapidated Downtown Eastside heritage building into a multimillion-dollar social housing complex is set to go before city council.
“The renovation of the Pennsylvania [Hotel] will address several city priorities,” Vancouver housing director Cameron Gray says in a report going to council next Tuesday.
Those priorities include the replacement of old, single-room-accommodation hotels, the preservation of heritage buildings and improving buildings along the soon-to-be-created Carrall Street Greenway.
Gray will ask Vancouver council to chip in $1.2 million toward the $11.5-million cost of converting the old 70-room hotel into 44, 250-square-foot self-contained units.
The balance of funds would come from the federal government, provincial government, the Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation and a heritage deal that allows the hotel’s owner to sell density from the site to a developer for $3.6 million.
The city would also provide $100,000 in grants to restore the building’s facade and a $1-million property-tax break.
The Pennsylvania Hotel, on the southeast corner of Carrall and Hastings, was built in 1909 when East Hastings was a prosperous commercial district.
In the 1990s, the hotel was used to house people who could not find housing elsewhere, including some who had been displaced from the Riverview mental-health facility.
The building has been closed for several years.
Social housing advocate Kim Kerr hopes council will back the plan.
“Anything that provides some housing for the 1,300 homeless people in the Downtown Eastside we like,” he said. “It’s an awful lot of money for 42 units, but the city can afford it.”
Carrall and Hastings was the scene last night of a protest by the Anti-Poverty Committee to create more social housing.
According to the city report, the Pennsylvania Hotel redevelopment would house singles who are either on welfare or earning less than $27,500 a year.
The development would also include commercial space on the ground floor.
B.C. Housing would be responsible for overseeing the development on behalf of the various levels of government involved.
The facility would be operated by a non-profit society.
© The Vancouver Province 2006
