Metro is reporting that the average cost of a bathroom-less SRO apartment in the DTES is now $687/month.
Quote:
The average rent of the lowest-cost housing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood is now $687, leaving just $23 a month left over for people on welfare, say housing activists.
Single-room occupancy hotels, which are common in the low-income neighbourhood and are usually just one room with a shared bathroom, have provided Vancouver’s cheapest private housing for decades. But, the Carnegie Community Action Project warns in an annual report on SRO housing, rent rates for the rooms have been rapidly rising, while the total number of units is on the decline.
In 2009, privately-rented SRO rooms rented for $398, leaving $212 left over after paying rent, according to the report. Between 2016 and 2017, rents increased at the steepest rate — rising by $139 — since CCAP began compiling the report in 2008.
Factors behind the increase could include a recent welfare rate increase of $100, the general trend of steeply rising rents throughout Metro Vancouver, or landlords becoming aware that many low-income tenants are receiving rent supplements from social service agencies, according to the report authors.
CCAP’s report also lists what the group calls the “10 fastest gentrifying hotels,” with the Argyll Hotel on East Hastings Street and Abbott taking the top spot. The former SRO has been recently renovated and apartments now rent at $1,450 a month, according to the CCAP report.
http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2...athroom-rises-to-687-a-month-report.html
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I'm trying to put my head around this. In 2010 I was paying $433/month to share the top half of a "converted" older style home at 35th and Victoria with two other people. In 2012 I was sharing the top half of a Vancouver Special with three other people for $533/month at the corner of 45th and Boundary. By the time I left for the interior at the end of the year I was working 64 hours a week (four 12 hour shifts at one job and two 8 hour shifts at another) to make ends meet after taxes and insurance.
In 2016 I inquired at the Balmoral regarding room rates and it was $450/month unless you could show you were on welfare. $500 for a room without a bathroom is nuts. $685 on the high end I cannot comprehend. At that point it's cheaper to get a nasty old camper.