No vacancy for city's poor
Even worst rooms in Downtown Eastside fill up as low-income workers are forced into the area
Francis Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, July 06, 2007

VANCOUVER - Even the grottiest rooms in the Downtown Eastside are getting renters these days, as the working poor are driven to the area because of a shrinking pool of cheap apartments in the rest of the city.

At the same time, the city's homeless outreach workers are filling the residential hotels as they get homeless people on welfare and into rooms.

As a result, there's been a startling drop over the past two years in the area's vacancy rate, from 10 per cent to two, says a new report from the city housing centre on the state of low-cost housing in the downtown core.

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