Eric is the pseudonym the 70-year-old man prefers as he tells his story of “coming out of hell and being in heaven.”
Hell is being a senior citizen and living in a Downtown Eastside shelter where he suffered a heart attack.
Heaven is the building the former oil worker moved into in February.
“When I got in here, it was like going to heaven — it really was,” said Eric, standing outside the city’s first modular housing complex, which opened six months ago on city property at Main and Terminal.
The complex is home to Eric and 39 other low-income tenants, some of whom are challenged with mental health and addictions issues. Each tenant lives in a self-contained suite, pays $375 a month for rent and has access to laundry and a common room in the low-rise building.
The complex, which sits on the same property as an orchard, will remain open for the next three to five years until the land is redeveloped and the modular housing moved to another location.
Now the city proposes to take that housing concept and build another 600 modular suites across Vancouver to provide homes for people living on the street and in shelters. Six hundred new units would effectively erase Vancouver’s street homeless population, which was recorded at 537 people in a homeless count in March.
That calculation, however, does not factor in those people who will end up homeless for various reasons — job loss, evicted from a current home, aging out of foster care, drug addiction and mental health issues — as the city works toward opening 600 apartments before winter arrives.
The proposal, which the city’s housing staff announced Wednesday, hinges on acquiring millions of dollars in funding from the provincial government. City staff didn’t have a fully costed estimate on the proposal but noted it cost $75,000 per unit to build the 40-suite complex at Main and Terminal for a total cost of $3 million.
Using those figures, it would cost $45 million to build 600 units.
The complex at Main and Terminal was built with more than $1 million donated from the estate of Jimmy Chow and $1.5 million from the federal government. The city supplied the land and will offer up more property in working out an agreement with the provincial government to pay for the construction of the 600 units.
“It would be great if we could get all of the money for it [from government], but we’re just starting to have the conversations about what might be able to happen,” said Kathleen Llewellyn-Thomas, the city’s general manager of community services.
The new NDP government promised during the recent election campaign to work with local governments, the federal government and the private and non-profit sectors to begin to build 114,000 units of affordable market rental, non-profit, co-op, social and owner-purchase housing.
It’s unclear whether that commitment includes funding modular housing. The Courier requested an interview this week with Housing Minister Selina Robinson, who was not available. Her ministry sent an emailed statement that said:
“The province continues to work with the City of Vancouver on a variety of projects aimed at addressing the needs of the region’s most vulnerable individuals, including those experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. Modular housing is an option under discussion between BC Housing and City staff.”
Llewellyn-Thomas said the 600 units would likely be spread over several sites, with the maximum number of apartments in one building estimated at 40. There is a possibility two modular housing complexes could be built on one property, she added, noting the advantage of modular housing is that it can be built quickly and moved to another site.
If the city’s plan goes ahead, it would mean a surge in business for builders of modular housing. A company called Horizon North built the complex at Main and Terminal. The Courier left messages for the company’s project manager but he was not available before this story was posted.
The city also wants the provincial government to fund 315 year-round shelter beds to add to the 900 operating in Vancouver. The previous Liberal government would traditionally fund several hundred shelter beds for winter but cut off funding in the spring.
Eric, who didn’t want his real name published for privacy reasons, said he ended up in a shelter after leaving Dawson Creek, where rents skyrocketed because of the influx of well-paid oil workers employed in the region.
“I was too old to work and couldn’t afford the rents anymore,” he said, emphasizing he was treated well in the shelter but was desperate to find housing, especially after his heart attack.
Eric said he survives on a $1,600 monthly pension and hopes to one day find permanent housing. Meanwhile, he said, he has no complaints about his current accommodation or its tenants. His health is better, too, he added.
“It’s the answer,” he said of modular housing, “until they can get more permanent residences built.”
He said the $45-million cost to build another 600 units is “cheap,” considering what it costs to build one highrise in Vancouver; the Marguerite Ford Apartments, a 147-unit social housing building on West Second Avenue, cost $38 million to build in 2013.
“They should build a thousand of these, and build them for families, too.”
@Howellings
