Policy Updates
BCNPHA in the News

The Tyee: After Two Disastrous Decades, Vancouver Gets Serious about Protecting SROs

Jen St. Denis, The Tyee, November 13 (interview with BCNPHA CEO Jill Atkey)

Alycia Williams has lived in single-room occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside for the past three years. The first year, she lived in a building owned by a company called Living Balance and paid $930 a month for a room with a shared bathroom and no kitchen.

Today, that same room rents for $1,200, Williams said.

Williams now lives in another SRO building, the May Wah Hotel in Chinatown. The rent is much lower, for around the same quality.

“I’ve been at the May Wah Hotel for around a year, and the only notable difference between these two rooms is about $500,” Williams told Vancouver city council on Oct. 8.

Back to News