Vancouver city council awards contract for construction of 600 modular homes
Vancouver city council has awarded a contract to build 600 modular homes by the end of this winter.
Council voted Wednesday evening to award the contract to Horizon North, which will design, supply and construct the 600 units of housing to be spread across 10 to 12 sites throughout Vancouver. The specific sites are still to be determined.
“Homelessness continues to be our top priority and we won’t back down until we have our most vulnerable in safe and secure housing,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson in a statement shared Thursday.
Last week, Premier John Horgan announced Vancouver would receive $66 million to build and operate the complexes. The housing announcement was part of a larger $461 million doled out across B.C. to pay for some 2,000 modular units.
According to a Vancouver staff report, each of the single-resident occupancy units will measure between 250 to 350-square-feet and the cost of constructing the units is estimated to be between $75,000 to $145,000 per unit. The units will be owned by the Province Rental Housing Corporation and operated by the city and B.C. Housing.
The city hopes to have the modular homes constructed by the end of this winter.
The contract follows the Metro Vancouver Homeless Count, which was released earlier this week. According to the city, the number of homeless residents in Vancouver increased by 291 in the last year, for a total of 2,138 people who remain homeless. Just over 1,601 are currently sheltered through emergency shelters, safe houses, transition homes and detox centres, as well as in hospitals and other institutions.