Pressure rises to shut down Granville Street SROs with emergency calls up 822%, HVA says

Vancouver’s hospitality industry continues to put pressure on the provincial government over the deteriorating situation on Granville Street after what it says was another 10 days of fires, violence and disorder.

At a news conference on Thursday, Hospitality Vancouver Association (HVA), along with Mayor Ken Sim and Police Chief Steve Rai, called on the province to immediately close three problematic single room occupancy (SROs) buildings on Granville Street.

“We want to draw attention to the ill-advised decision by BC Housing to locate nearly 300 vulnerable people with complex mental health and addiction needs directly within and above Vancouver’s entertainment district,” Laura Ballance, spokesperson for the HVA, said.

“In early 2020, we had been told that that decision to purchase a much-needed hotel and convert it to emergency housing for people living on the street was a temporary COVID response. But that SRO is still there, and combined with the other two SROs converted to emergency housing for homeless people, all within two blocks on Granville Street.”

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Ballance said that four months ago, they called for an inquiry into BC Housing on the financial and operating oversight of the SROs but have yet to hear back.

She said Granville Street is no longer safe.

“We give you a snapshot of the past 10 days on this street where we have had a daytime murder in the middle of a busy work week on the middle of our street,” Ballance said.

“We’ve had a major fire and resulting flood and other small floods and an escalation in street disorder.”

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Ballance said they gathered together open-source statistics and found that, since the three SROs were converted, calls to the three buildings are up 822 per cent.

Vancouver police workload is up 975 per cent.

Between 2020 and 2025, Ballance said Vancouver police have responded to calls at the former Howard Johnson Hotel, now the Luugat Hotel, 4,000 times — an average of 2.4 times a day.

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The Vancouver Fire Department has responded to the Luugat an additional 906 times.

Police have responded to calls at another SRO, St. Helen’s, 313 times and Vancouver fire has responded to calls there 1,297 times.

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Police have been called to the third SRO, the Granville Villa, another 597 times and Vancouver fire has been called an additional 425 times.

“All combined, between 2020 and 2025, the Vancouver police and the Vancouver fire have responded to emergency calls to these three SROs 6,641 times,” Ballance said.

1:58 Fatal stabbing sparks calls to immediately shut down Granville Street SROs

In November, the provincial government said the Luugat will close by June 2026, but did not give any indication where those residents will go or when the other two SROs might close.

In June, Vancouver’s mayor announced the province was planning to transition the supportive housing units in the three provincially-owned buildings out of the city’s entertainment district.

The city said it would support relocating residents to smaller purpose-built supportive housing with better wraparound services to address mental health and addictions.

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In July, Ken Sim said he had provided the province with a list of five city-owned sites to replace the three problematic Granville Street supportive housing facilities with five smaller-scale facilities, each with 55 to 65 units. The mayor declined to reveal the locations of the five potential sites.

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The province said it has been working on plans to replace the Granville SRO units over the longer term and is evaluating future options for the other two sites.

Sim said at the press conference on Thursday that the business owners on Granville Street have “gone through hell.”

He said the city has increased patrols in the area and put more officers on the streets.

“We have hit a 23-year low in violent crime in the City of Vancouver,” Sim said. “Unfortunately, mental health-related street order disorder remains.”

Sim said so many of the issues affecting people who live on Granville Street remain unaddressed.

“We have in Vancouver alone approximately 600 individuals with the most acute and severe mental health challenges. Individuals who are not only a danger to themselves, but pose a danger to others.”

2:36 B.C. government closing one of three Granville SROs

There are only about seven months until Vancouver welcomes fans and players for the FIFA 2026 World Cup.

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The HVA, the city, the Vancouver police and fire departments are all calling for support from the provincial government and health services.

“What we don’t want to see is people getting evicted onto the street,” B.C. Housing Minister Christine Boyle said.

“We know that makes the situation worse for those residents and for the community, so we need to find good alternative housing and that’s not easy to do immediately.”

Members of HVA make up a portion of the 250 liquor primary licences in Vancouver, which generate in excess of $725 million in annual economic impact, create 4,500 full-time jobs and 5,500 part-time jobs, and have a sustained monthly payroll of 5.3 million, according to the association.