Controversial Howe Street homeless shelter shut down

Vancouver's controversial Howe Street homeless shelter under the Granville Street Bridge will be shut down, the province has announced.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman said the emergency shelter will be closed on Aug. 7, and replaced with more cost-effective and stable housing in the 166-unit Dunsmuir House building, at the corner of Dunsmuir Street and Richards Street in the downtown core.

"We will be able to offer a significantly higher number of housing units with more supports at about a quarter of the cost," said Coleman in a statement released Thursday morning.

The estimated combined cost for leasing the building and providing services for the homeless at Dunsmuir House will be approximately $570 per person per month, compared to $2,000 at the Howe Street shelter, according to Coleman.

The shelter was one of five opened last winter by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, in conjunction with the province, to provide emergency shelter to the homeless during a cold snap.

But after provincial funding to keep the shelters open was extended into the spring and then the summer, residents on the north side of False Creek complained two located under the Granville Street Bridge were attracting drug dealers, prostitutes and petty criminals to the area. 

The second shelter, which was just across the alley, was closed earlier in the month as a result of the complaints. The three others located in the Downtown Eastside remain open.

The current residents of the Howe Street shelter will be offered temporary housing at another site while work on the Dunsmuir House facility is completed, said Coleman.