Proposed Downtown Eastside policy changes enable more market rental housing and social housing up to 32 storeys

60-40: Vancouver City Council to debate Downtown Eastside's ratio of social and market housing

Vancouver City Council approves temporary pause on new supportive housing, including in the Downtown Eastside

Interview with Vancouver mayor on the "unsustainable" state of supportive housing, and the need for other cities to do more

Inside the Downtown Eastside's new largest social housing building

Proposed Army & Navy Vancouver redevelopment grows taller with more rental housing and new hotel uses

To catalyze more projects by governments, non-profit organizations, and the private sector, the City is now proposing amendments that change this ratio to 80 per cent secured purpose-built market rental housing and 20 per cent social housing, with the much larger proportion of market rental housing subsidizing the high cost of the social housing uses.

The policy changes would also enable private developers to replace SROs with below-market rental housing, with 10 per cent of the units at deeply discounted rates.

Additionally, the municipal government’s unique definition of social housing would be realigned with senior government funding programs by changing the required minimum of 33 per cent of units at shelter rate of income assistance to at least 30 per cent of units at or below Housing Income Limits, with at least 20 per cent of the shelter rate of income assistance.

New tower heights of up to 32 storeys, with more view cone changes

In addition to changing the mix of housing, the City would nearly triple the allowable building heights in some areas to enable much more density to improve the financial feasibility of these housing projects, while also generating much-needed affordable housing supply. This also helps to address escalating construction costs.

Currently, across the Downtown Eastside, existing policies enable new buildings up to eight to 12 storeys, with many existing buildings — a great number built about a century ago — being much shorter.

The City is proposing to enable new building heights of up to 32 storeys, which would support the financial viability of SRO replacement, private below-market rental housing, and inclusionary social housing developments.

The building height increase allowances would be permitted within the core of the Downtown Eastside (Downtown Eastside Oppenheimer District) — an area roughly framed by Heatley Avenue to the east, Alexander Street to the north, Columbia Street to the south, and the laneway south of Hastings Street to the south. Oppenheimer Park is in the middle of this core area.

The tallest permissible heights of 20 storeys to 32 storeys would be along the eastern perimeter, generally near Heatley Avenue, as well as a diagonal strip near Gore Avenue. Such towers can be built on lots with 150 ft. street frontages mid-block or 125 ft. street frontages on corner lots. But heights would be restricted for the lots immediately east, south, and west of Oppenheimer Park to reduce shadowing impacts on the green space.

For all other sites in the area, generally up to 19 storeys would be permitted on sites as small as a 50 ft. street frontage.

A secondary, smaller area where building height increases would be permitted is not within the Downtown Eastside, but immediately south of Chinatown and the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, and just west of the new St. Paul’s Hospital campus. This secondary area (Thornton Park) spans portions of Main Street, where there is also a concentration of existing old SROs. Most of the sites in this area would see new allowances of roughly 30 storeys.

In these new tower forms in both the Downtown Eastside and just south of Chinatown, there would be retail, restaurant, other commercial and/or community-serving spaces on the ground level, SRO replacement and social housing units would be located in the lower levels of the building above ground level, and market rental housing would be located within the upper levels.

The increased building heights are made possible by the accompanying proposal to make further changes to the protected mountain view cone policies, beyond the major changes approved by Vancouver City Council in July 2024.

The new additional changes would specifically impact the View Cone 3.2.4 emanating from the top of Queen Elizabeth Park, View H from the Olympic Plaza Stage at the Olympic Village, and View J2 from Creekside Park just north of Science World. According to City staff, such changes will not significantly impact the views of the mountains.

As well, the City will streamline its development processes for heritage buildings in these areas, while preserving important architectural features.

Improved tenancy protections

These changes are likely to trigger some concerns about the potential displacement of existing low-income residents. The City is also proposing to greatly enhance tenant rights and protections, including requiring landlords to pay for all moving expenses instead of the current flat rate, offering tenants the right to return to the new building at their existing rent or at a steep 50 per cent discount from Vancouver’s average city-wide market rents, whichever is lower, and providing extra support for low-income tenants or those facing housing challenges.

Additionally, the new policies would catalyze new housing projects, creating an overall net gain in affordable housing through the generation of new self-contained social housing units and below-market rental units to replace SROs.

Currently in Vancouver, there are roughly 7,800 SRO rooms across about 160 buildings, including approximately 3,100 rooms in about 67 buildings within the main Downtown Eastside core area and the secondary area just south of Chinatown along Main Street, where the policy changes are proposed.

Many of these SRO buildings are in extremely poor condition from very old age dating back to late 1800s or early 1900s, and the high wear-and-tear of the spaces from individuals experiencing homelessness, mental health, and addictions issues, which are further compounded by many cases of poor operations and maintenance by private landlords and some non-profit housing organizations. These structures are also a major fire and seismic risk.

A healthier Downtown Eastside community

The strategy serves to potentially expedite the modern replacement of these SROs, which was identified as a priority by the previous City Council in October 2020, and the current ABC-led City Council under Mayor Ken Sim.

However, a key difference is that the previous City Council called for a strategy that overwhelmingly depended on multibillion-dollar investments by the federal and provincial governments to buy up thousands of aging SRO units, and then renovate or build new social housing units. The new strategy does not step away from this public sector-led approach, but it also greatly improves the viability for the private sector to be a part of the solution through inclusionary social housing and below-market rental housing.

Furthermore, the new policies now being considered promote more mixed-income communities to help address growing concerns that the high concentration of SROs, supportive housing, and social services in the Downtown Eastside — reinforced by the Downtown Eastside Plan over the past decade — has contributed to challenges around public disorder, safety, health, and economic vitality of these areas. These issues have also deterred private sector-led investments in new market housing with a social housing component.

Some major policy changes in this area to unlock new housing projects have been planned since at least early 2022.

In 2023, the Urbanarium non-profit organization held a public debate that questioned the prevailing “60-40” social housing-market rental housing formula and whether the overall Downtown Eastside Area Plan needs to be redone.

Later that year, city councillor Rebecca Bligh introduced a member motion directing City staff to reconsider the 60-40 ratio.

“Projects have not been penciling out, even with unprecedented government funding from both provincial and federal partners,” Bligh told Daily Hive Urbanized in a previous interview.

“We need to look at the current constraints on being able to deliver the housing units due to rising construction costs and increasing interest rates and determine whether or not that 60-40 formula will work at all, recognizing that over the 10 years we’ve only built two buildings with just over 200 units.”

As of 2024, a decade after the Downtown Eastside Plan was approved, just 600 market rental homes have been completed — well below the 10-year target of 1,600 private sector-led secured purpose-built rental homes. About 60 rental homes are currently under construction.

For ownership housing, 1,200 units have been completed and 100 units are currently under construction — less than half of the 10-year target of 2,700 market ownership units.

Only social housing and supportive housing have exceeded their combined 10-year target, with 1,800 units achieved as of 2024, and another 700 units currently under construction.

Earlier in 2025, City Council also approved the Mayor’s strategy to enact a temporary city-wide moratorium on any net increases to supportive housing, in favour of a new approach that focuses on improving the quality of housing through SRO replacements, and urging other municipal governments in Metro Vancouver to achieve their fair share of such projects.

“The Downtown Eastside has seen decades of status quo that’s led to continued harm and suffering for some of our city’s most vulnerable residents — residents who, in some cases, live in uninhabitable conditions, who are separated from their families and communities, and who are struggling with mental health and substance use issues,” said Sim earlier this year.

“When we look at the situation we’re in… the definition of insanity is doing everything that you’ve done in the past, and expecting different results.”

Along the so-called “housing continuum,” individuals experiencing homelessness, mental health, and/or addiction issues move from being unhoused or in shelters to supportive housing or complex-care housing, and eventually to social housing or rental housing if and when they are capable of more independent living.

An online survey is now open through May 16, 2025, for the public consultation on the new 80-20 housing formula and tower heights of up to 32 storeys.

The gathered feedback will be used to potentially revise the draft regulations, with the policies presented to City Council in November 2025 for review and approval.

You might also like:
• 60-40: Vancouver City Council to debate Downtown Eastside's ratio of social and market housing
• Vancouver City Council approves temporary pause on new supportive housing, including in the Downtown Eastside
• Interview with Vancouver mayor on the "unsustainable" state of supportive housing, and the need for other cities to do more
• Inside the Downtown Eastside's new largest social housing building
• Proposed Army & Navy Vancouver redevelopment grows taller with more rental housing and new hotel uses