The former Bosman Hotel in Vancouver is now the site of an experimental program for homeless people. (CBC)

A hotel for the homeless has opened in downtown Vancouver as part of a national effort to reduce the number of people living on Canadian streets.

The Bosman Hotel on Howe Street had booked regular guests through the 2010 Vancouver Olympics five months ago, but as of Monday, it became home to 100 homeless people with mental and physical health problems.

It's part of a federally funded, three-year experiment being conducted in five cities across Canada. Similar projects are underway in Moncton, N.B., Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.

At the Vancouver hotel, new residents will have their own rooms, including bathrooms, and locking doors.

They also will receive treatment as needed from staff who include nurses and mental health workers. A pharmacy is on the first floor.

The study will try to determine whether it's more effective to provide subsidized housing alone or housing combined with treatment.

"We don't have a lot of empirical evidence to say that's a good thing to be doing," said Jayne Barker, vice-president of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. "Anecdotally, we know it's a whole lot better than having people on the street. But through this project, we will be able to actually measure outcomes for people."

One young resident at the hotel said she hoped this opportunity would help end a nightmare.

"It was just last November that I was actually sleeping on the street," said the teenager, who asked to be identified only as Nicola. "If somebody had told me at 14 [I'd] be living outside, I would have never believed them."

The Bosman experiment will benefit everyone living in the city, said Kerry Jang, a Vancouver city councillor.

"Just getting somebody a safe place to live and a meal, already drops crime rates in Vancouver quite considerably," Jang said. "This is taking it to the next step, provide them a home, provide them a meal and provide treatment, so they're off the street forever."

The Vancouver project will run until March 2013 and cost $7.2 million. The funding comes from a $110 million federal allocation to help find solutions for homeless people who have a mental illness.

With files from the CBC's Lisa Johnson