Stopping the loss of supportive modulars

by Jean Swanson

Why is Vancouver losing supportive housing when thousands are homeless?

Back in November, 2023 Vancouver City Council passed a resolution called “Uplifting the Downtown Eastside” that mentioned at least 5 times that we need more supportive housing. The resolution was right about that. About 3000 Vancouver residents are on the wait list for supportive housing.

Supportive housing is housing that has support for residents like a meal, staff to connect them to services they may need, and harm reduction. Back in 2023 Vancouver had over 800 supportive modular housing units. But now in early 2025 we have lost 144 units at Little Mountain and Larwill Place, with another 39 tenants evicted this year at Powell and Jackson. All of these units are nice. People like them. They are about 3 times as big as an SRO room and have private bathrooms and kitchens.

The housing is being lost because the city has no plan to extend land leases or move the housing to other sites when current land leases expire.

Currently land leases are set to expire in 2025, 26, 27 and 28. So by 2028 all the supportive modular units, nearly 700 more, could be gone. The modular housing was designed to be moved but so far the city isn't finding sites for it. In fact, they even defeated a July, 2023 motion by Councillor Christine Boyle, now an MLA, to ask staff to look at finding sites and extending leases.

(https://bc.ctvnews.ca/vancouver-councillor-calls-decision-on-modular-housing-infuriating-and-unacceptable-1.6477833)

So why is the current council passing a motion that says 5 times that we need more supportive housing while, at the same time, refusing to extend leases or find land that would simply keep the supportive housing we have?

While BC Housing generally finds housing for folks evicted from the modulars, it is very stressful for them and the loss of the modulars, which can last for 30 or 40 years, means that Vancouver isn't getting enough supportive housing to meet the needs of thousands of residents. A housing target report from the city said that the city's target for new supportive housing in the next 5 years is 583.

(https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/housing-vancouver-10-year-targets-2024-2033.pdf)

So even if that new supportive housing gets built, we'll have fewer units in 2030 than we have now if we lose the modulars.

The Carnegie Housing Project is working with the Co-ordinated Community Response Network to try to stop the loss of the supportive modulars. We have also met with two MLA's, Christine Boyle and Joan Phillip. If you care about saving and getting housing for folks who are homeless, you could write to city council and your MLA asking them to act to preserve the modulars.