The City of Vancouver’s promise more than four years ago to turn two notorious single-room-occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside into “safe and secure low-income housing” is still a work in progress with no timelines on occupancy.
In December 2020, the city said in a news release that it had purchased the Balmoral and Regent hotels on East Hastings Street from the Sahota family. Terms of the settlement, including value of the deal, weren’t released.
“Bringing the Regent and Balmoral into public ownership marks a hopeful new beginning for residents of the Downtown Eastside and something all residents should be proud of,” then-mayor Kennedy Stewart said at the time.
“Downtown Eastside residents will be at the centre of creating a new vision for these two sites, and indeed the entire community.”
What’s happened since that purchase is the Balmoral has been demolished, leaving a vacant lot. The demolition, along with the city acquiring adjacent properties to the lot, has triggered plans for a larger housing development on the block.
Details have not been released, but the city said in an email this week that design and permit applications are underway, with construction targeted to begin in late 2027 to early 2028.
In the meantime, the vacant lot is serving as a “community hub” managed by the Carnegie Community Centre. Staff are using the space over the summer for low-barrier arts and crafts and cultural teaching, along with providing support and response to people exposed to extreme heat.
Temporary infrastructure such as a stage, seating area, gardening space and a hand washing station will be added to the site. “Culturally safe programming” will begin in the fall of 2025, the city said.
“Planning for the long-term redevelopment has taken time due to the complexity of demolishing the existing building, assembly of adjacent properties, and the need for meaningful community engagement and coordination with senior government partners,” the city said.
Regent 'uninhabitable'
The Regent Hotel, which is located across the street from the Balmoral site, remains vacant. The city described it as "uninhabitable."
The land and building have been leased to BC Housing to renovate the existing building into self-contained social housing.
The city said removal of hazardous building materials such as asbestos has been completed, and design and permit applications are underway.
BC Housing said in an email that it began leasing the site from the city since August 2023.
"The Regent Hotel is an old building that has unique challenges when it comes to construction designs and restoration," BC Housing said.
"This, combined with the need to establish firm agreements with all project partners and work through municipal permitting processes, means the design and renovations take time. We are hopeful that further renovation work will be underway in 2026, pending municipal and provincial approvals."
BC Housing said further details will be made public once plans are finalized with project partners.
The Balmoral had been vacant since June 2017 and the Regent since June 2018. Both hotels had at least 150 rooms. The city closed the buildings because they were deemed unsafe to occupy.
At the time, the city cited engineering reports detailing fire hazards, rotting wood, sagging floors, water damage and mould inside the Balmoral.
Similar problems were raised by the city in its decision to close the Regent. Six years ago, the city's estimate to repair both hotels was $90 million.
Drug activity, violence
The hotels and its former landlords, the Sahota family, had a long history with the city over failing to address dangerous and unlivable conditions for tenants.
The hotels made the city’s top 10 list of problem hotels for almost 20 years and were cited by police in numerous reports for drug activity, violence and other crimes.
City council approved expropriation of the Balmoral and Regent in November 2019 in an attempt to bring the hotels into public ownership and convert them into social housing.
The Sahota family then filed for a judicial review of the city’s expropriation. The owners withdrew their application for review as part of the settlement with the city, which declined to say publicly how much it cost to buy the hotels.
Jean Swanson, a longtime housing advocate and former city councillor, was one of the people in the community who pushed the city for years to enforce the standards of maintenance bylaw at the hotels.
Swanson said she was disappointed both buildings were left in such disrepair that they were forced to close, leaving the city short of 300 low-income rooms in a neighbourhood that is ground zero for Vancouver’s homeless population.
“They’ve had plenty of time to do something,” she said, emphasizing that the new housing planned for the Balmoral property and a renovated Regent should all be rented at the shelter rate of $500 per month.
2,715 homeless in Vancouver
The need for more low-income housing comes as a preliminary data report released July 30 from this year’s homeless count in Greater Vancouver shows a nine per cent increase in people experiencing homelessness since the 2023 count.
A total of 5,232 people were experiencing homelessness across 16 municipalities in Greater Vancouver when the count was conducted over a 24-hour period in early March. The previous 2023 count identified 4,821 people.
In Vancouver, homelessness increased from 2,420 people to 2,715, for a 12 per cent spike over the 2023 count. A total of 763 of the 2,715 people were recorded as “unsheltered,” according to the report.
“The city recognizes the urgency of the housing crisis, especially in light of this year’s Metro Vancouver homeless count,” the city said in its email.
“While the Balmoral and Regent together once provided approximately 300 units of SRO housing, many of those rooms were uninhabitable and unsafe. The city’s goal is to replace this lost SRO stock with safe, dignified, non-market housing that meets health, safety and accessibility standards.”
BIV reported in November 2022 that the city had spent at least $1.5 million on security, maintenance and other costs associated to the Balmoral and Regent, since announcing the purchase of the buildings in December 2020.
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