The fire-damaged Keefer Rooms single-room occupancy (SRO) units in Vancouver’s Chinatown were expected to be renovated and operational by spring 2025 but the extensive renewal project has been delayed, BC Housing confirmed late Friday via the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs.
“While we always strive to move our developments ahead as efficiently as possible, they can be impacted by any number of unanticipated factors including municipal approvals, site conditions, and increased development costs,” the Crown corporation said in an email.
BC Housing said it is currently working through designs, approvals and permitting processes with the City of Vancouver, and is aiming to start demolition, abatement and construction in 2026.
Evelyn Brill, who his currently homeless, said it doesn’t appear any work has started on the more than century-old building.
“I think they’re dragging their feet,” the 61-year old told Global News Friday.
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Brill said she’s been living in a shelter for more than a year while on a BC Housing wait list.
“I wonder who dropped the ball,” said former Downtown Eastside resident Jesse Anderson.
“Right over there,” he said, pointing to the Downtown Eastside, “there’s at least 100 needy people on the streets with ulcers on their legs from needing somewhere to stay right now.”
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In October 2023, the province announced BC Housing had purchased the 48-unit SRO building at 222 Keefer Street, which had been vacant since a September 2022 fire.
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The province would not reveal the purchase price but said it provided approximately $12 million through the Building BC: Affordable Rental Housing fund to buy and renovate the building – including window replacements and electrical and fire system upgrades.
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Close to 40 tenants of the Keefer Rooms were displaced on Sept. 9, 2022, when a kitchen fire – later deemed accidental – broke out in the former Gain Wah restaurant on the ground floor of the building.
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The province’s purchase of the property recently assessed at $4.3 million was intended to prevent much-needed affordable housing from being lost to the private market, but soon after, BC Housing said it discovered unexpected extensive work was required to ensure the Keefer Rooms would be habitable and safe for future residents.
“These additional updates included remediation of electrical, water supply and other systems, resulting in a longer-than-anticipated renovation timeline,” said BC Housing.
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“Look at what happened on Granville street with that one,” Richard Stanyer said, referring to the former Howard Johnson hotel, which will close by next June after being purchased by the province in June 2020 and transformed into supportive housing.
Stanyer said he’s a tenant in a BC Housing building and would like to see the provincial and federal governments bring back mental health hospitals so seniors like himself are not exposed to individuals in crisis with complex mental health challenges.
“They are moving mental health issue people in with the general population,” Stanyer said in an interview Friday. “Separate them.”
The Downtown Eastside Community Land Trust, a community-governed, non-profit organization that will be operating the low-income housing, confirmed the Keefer Rooms SRO is being stripped down and rebuilt but deferred questions on the timeline to BC Housing.
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BC Housing said more information will be made public, including renovation timelines, once it is available.
B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle was not available for an interview Friday.
“People will die waiting for housing,” Anderson told Global News. “So I’d like to see this place inhabited with good rooms, like, as soon as possible.”
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