The last few residents of a supportive housing facility in the former Travelodge hotel on Gorge Road East were moving out Wednesday.
The majority of residents have moved to long-term supportive housing, while some have gone to treatment programs, found housing on their own or reconnected with family and moved elsewhere, said Don McTavish, director of housing and shelters at Cool Aid, which has operated the facility since November 2020.
It provided shelter for people who would otherwise have been sleeping on the street, as well as food, medical support and harm reduction, he said. “All of that, I think, provides someone a sense of value, a sense of the fact that people care whether you live or die,” McTavish said.
B.C. Housing opened the Travelodge in May 2020 to provide temporary housing for people who had been camping in Topaz Park and on Pandora Avenue at the start of the pandemic. Following a fire last year in the Capital City Center Hotel that damaged 90 units, B.C. Housing extended its lease of the Travelodge until Dec. 31, 2021. As each of the roughly 100 rooms has emptied, Cool Aid has cleaned up and removed hazards, McTavish said, but any serious remediation work will be up to B.C. Housing and the building’s owners.
Neighbours were happy to hear people have moved to other housing and the building has emptied. Elizabeth Cull, chair of the Burnside Gorge Community Association, said the association understands the need for supportive housing, but residents have felt for years that their neighbourhood has a disproportionate number of facilities. Some neighbours complained of people straying into their yards, breaking into cars and setting off bear bangers at night, she said.
“Generally speaking, people in our community were happy to see the tents out of the parks. They were happy to see that people were being housed better than they had been,” Cull said. For those living next door, however, it could be difficult to maintain that perspective.
She would like social housing to be distributed more evenly.
The Travelodge building will be turned over the owners on Jan. 1. It’s uncertain what will happen to the building then. An email to an owner was not answered.
The closing of the Travelodge as temporary housing is not an indication that there is adequate shelter in the region, McTavish said. People living there were prioritized for longer-term housing because of the imminent closure, “but that has been at the cost of not being able to house more people from our shelters,” which are still full, he said. “So the need is still quite great.”
B.C. Housing has extended its lease of Mount Tolmie Hospital until Dec. 31, 2022, because shelters are at capacity.
A lease for a former Howard Johnson hotel being used as temporary housing expires in March, and B.C. Housing said it’s working on a long-term solution for residents.
Other temporary housing facilities opened during the pandemic, such as Paul’s Motor Inn and the Capital City Center Hotel, were purchased by the province.
