Operator defends former Howard Johnson hotel blamed for Granville Street disorder – BC

On the second floor of the Luugat SRO in the former Howard Johnson hotel on Vancouver’s Granville strip, a memorial wall honours the lives lost since the building became supportive housing.

“Those are most of my friends from Strathcona,” resident Douglas Ehret told Global News as he recited a handful of some of the two dozen names etched on the tribute.

Most of the individuals succumbed to toxic drugs said Ehret, while others had health issues.

Atira Women’s Resource Society, the non-profit which operates the BC Housing facility, said six deaths occurred at the Luugat in 2024 – half recorded as overdoses.

One of the people commemorated is resident Eric Buurman’s wife Andrea, who passed away a year ago.

“I got all of my wife’s stuff, I don’t know what to do you know, I mean, I still miss her so much,” said Buurman.

Ehret, who moved into the Luugat from the Strathcona Park encampment in 2021, said he knew everyone who died.

“Those are my friends,” he said. “I’m lonely, I miss them.”

Atira said 89 tenants are currently living at 1176 Granville Street, which the provincial government bought in June 2020 to house people from the Oppenheimer Park encampment.

“They slammed it in there,” said Cabana Nightclub owner Dave Kershaw.

Kershaw and other bar operators in the city’s entertainment district said the area immediately became a hub for open drug use and street disorder.

“It was a shocking moment you’d call it, for us,” Blueprint’s Bill Kerasiotis told Global News in an interview.

“It’s never been this bad,” added Paul Stoilen with The MRG Group. “It’s pretty dire.”

Donna-Lynn Rosa, the CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society, said it’s unfair to blame the operation of the Luugat for the disorder on Granville Street.

“I think it’s fairly shortsighted to say that’s the reason,” Rosa told Global News in an interview. “We see this across the city, we see it across the province. It’s not just in that district.”

When asked if it was a mistake to move people from encampments into a former hotel in the city’s entertainment district, Rosa said she was unsure but that at the time it was the agreed-upon option, given it was said to be untenable to have individuals stay in the park.

“Purpose-built (housing) is always going to be the better solution,” added Rosa.

Atira’s CEO said in the rush to get people inside during the COVID-19 pandemic, normal screening was not in place and as a result, individuals with complex needs were housed with limited preparation.

“We weren’t able to necessarily meet all the needs for the community and for the folks moving in there, we did the best we could in the time frame we had,” said Rosa.

According to data from Vancouver police, calls to 1176 Granville Street increased more than tenfold after the building was transformed into an emergency shelter and months later, supportive housing.

There were 65 police calls to the Howard Johnson in 2019 and 751 in 2020. That number spiked again in 2021 when the VPD attended 970 times before decreasing after the pandemic to 762 in 2022 and 628 in 2023.

Last year, police were called to the Luugat 649 times, or almost twice a day on average.

When asked how she would rate Atira’s performance as the operator of the Luugat, Rosa replied:

“If we were looking at coming at this work in a compassionate way and understanding people and understanding their needs, you’re not going to have a service provider who is able to do it with any more compassion or heart or understanding.”

In terms of the physical operation, Rosa said Atira has been doing this for 40 years and knows how to be in a space and operate a building.

Eighty per cent of the non-profit’s staff have lived experience and the Luugat has a higher staffing level – three staff per shift – including support workers to address mental health and addiction issues.

“When you’re supporting people in 100-year-old buildings, that’s always going to be a challenge I don’t care who you are,” Rosa told Global News. “In order to be successful, you have to have more than doors and walls, you have to have those wraparound services.”

Some of those services Rosa claimed, have been removed by the city’s mayor and council – including overdose prevention sites, washrooms, and Vancouver Coastal Health clinical tenant support team and primary outreach services.

“All of these things stripped away have left the space and have left the people way more vulnerable,” said Rosa.

In response to multiple flooding incidents at Aura, the nightclub below the Luugat supportive housing and false alarms caused by smoking, Atira said it has been working with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS), and has lowered the sensitivity of its smoke detectors.

The non-profit has also partnered with the VFRS’ Community Safety and Public Education division to provide training and information to residents, helping them understand the importance of fire bylaws.

“We’re working to make sure that our tenants there understand what being a good neighbour is about,” Rosa told Global News.

Post-COVID, Atira has re-established the regular BC Housing screening process or the vulnerability assessment tool (VAT) to prioritize vulnerable individuals including the elderly and people with mobility and health issues for spaces at the Luugat.

“We had the emergency, get everybody indoors, and now we’re looking to relocate folks to appropriate spaces,” said Rosa. “Ultimately, the challenges aren’t within this one building. The challenges are the support services that were removed.”

The future of supportive housing must address funding models and the ongoing need for wraparound services, said Atira’s CEO. The city of Vancouver, the mayor, and all levels of government must collaborate to restore and increase critical services, she added.

“We’re human beings you know, there’s really no difference between us and others,” said Ehret.

“(We) just need help with addictions.”