B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell says the acquired new facilities will ease the pressure on social services in Metro Vancouver. (CBC)

The B.C. government is spending $34 million to buy or lease 15 new properties across the province to alleviate homelessness.

Premier Gordon Campbell said the acquisitions will increase the total number of properties acquired by the province to house the homeless since 2001 to 45 and boost the total number of housing units to just over 2,000 from about 1,600.

The new properties will include six single-room-occupancy hotels in Vancouver's downtown, as well as facilities in Mission, Abbotsford, Osoyoos, Penticton, Prince George, Williams Lake, Kamloops, Logan Lake and Nanaimo.

Campbell said opening the new facilities across B.C. will ease the pressure on social services in Metro Vancouver.

"One of the things that happens is people see the services available in the Lower Mainland, so there is sort of a magnet here that brings them to begin with," said Campbell.

The facilities will include support services for drug and alcohol addiction and mental health problems, he said.

"What we're saying is we want the services there, so when we acquire a facility there in Prince George, it's not just the housing; it's the housing and integrated services they need there in Prince George," said Campbell.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said opening facilities outside the city would benefit Vancouver as well.

"We need to go upstream, so to speak, and make sure there are opportunities in those communities, so they don't end up having to be in Vancouver and on the streets here," said Robertson.

Some of the facilities are already being run by non-profit groups and have residents, but others are run down and require renovation, said Campbell.

The province will also be trying to tap into the billion-dollar social housing fund announced by the Conservatives earlier this week in the federal budget, said Campbell.