Mayor says he would like to see full expansion of seniors building

Four trees in city-owned space in Chinatown prompted rejection of initial proposal

Hui Xian Huang, an 83-year-old resident at Chau Luen Tower in Vancouver’s Chinatown, is watching other seniors take in a morning dance class set to lively music. She spots a friend, who lives one floor below her, at the front door and gets up to hit the buzzer so she can enter. A group will soon be heading for dim sum lunch at the Pink Pearl Chinese Restaurant on East Hastings, and there will be a singing session when they return in the afternoon.

“The things that are very important, I don’t know how to say it, but I know what they are,” Huang said in Cantonese. She shops in the nearby Chinese grocery stores and bakeries, and cooks for herself.

Huang lives on the top floor of the 12-storey building at Keefer and Gore streets, an independent living home to more than 100 low-income seniors. It was built in 1973. The society that owns and operates the facility is proposing a new infill building on the same site as part of planning for the future, which includes renovating or rebuilding the existing tower without displacing the seniors from the area and trying to add badly needed new units. But those plans have run up against an early hurdle after city staff said no to a preliminary proposal because of four trees that sit in a city-owned space just outside the property line.

“If we have to set (the new building) back further to avoid the tree roots, it will be too close to the (existing) building,” said Allen Huie, who is on the board of the Chau Luen Society, a non-profit organization that has been in Chinatown since 1943.

“That’s the main problem we are facing. We want to be able to serve more seniors. This building is more than 50 years old. A new one can help (with the transition).”

Upstairs, Huang opens the door to a spacious, one-bedroom apartment. She has dozens of plants in pots and plastic boxes on windowsills and shelves. She first moved into the building eight years ago because her husband, who loved playing mah-jong, wanted to be closer to like-minded friends who shopped, socialized and lived in Chinatown. He died three years later. The most striking thing about her space — and what hints at the real estate market pressure on critical housing such as the Chau Luen Tower for low-income seniors, who depend on the commercial and cultural amenities of Chinatown — is the view out of the windows, stretching from the False Creek Flats on one side to Canada Place on the other.

Asked Tuesday about Chau Luen’s request to buy or use a 30-footwide space owned by the city that is between its property and the sidewalk, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said: “I know that exact strip of land, actually, and I remember years ago asking, ‘Why isn’t this being combined to provide more housing for seniors in a critical area, and that would also help revitalize Chinatown?’

“So I think we can get through this. I’m grateful to the proponents for bringing this forward as a problem, and we’re looking into it.

“I’ve already discussed with the consultants that are working with (Chau Luen) on this, but I’m sure we can get through this.”