Ten Downtown Eastside Vancouver hotels bought by the province earlier this year will be turned over to non-profit agencies to run as of Dec. 1.

The province will fund renovations and upgrades to the single-room occupancy buildings and cover the cost of running the programs, Housing Minister Rich Coleman told CBC News on Monday.

B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman says the renovated buildings will be more secure for tenants and for staff.
(CBC)

Coleman said the buildings will be renovated to make them more secure for tenants and staff. The current tenants will be provided with another place to live, he said.

A number of different agencies with experience working with the homeless and low-income residents signed deals to manage the hotels, said Coleman, with the goal of giving people in the poor Downtown Eastside access to support services and more stable housing.

"We're very, very pleased with the quality of partners we've got on this particular proposal call and how they're going to run these buildings," Coleman said.

"Union Gospel Mission, I believe, has one of the buildings, and Lookout Shelters has another one that they're doing," said Coleman. "There's Altira, which is an organization that has programs for women in the Downtown Eastside. There's one that's directed by the First Nations organizations."

Janice Abbott, executive director of the Atira Women's Resource Society, which has been selected to operate the 43-unit Rice Block, says it's a new opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of people living in the Downtown Eastside.

In April, the B.C. government announced it had bought the 10 single-room occupancy hotels in Vancouver, along with one in Victoria, which was not included in today's announcement.