It appears that the B.C. provincial government paid more than half a million dollars over two months to keep two tenants in a Vancouver SRO hotel.
Two tenants were the last people staying in the 140-room Colonial Hotel after the B.C. government shut it down.
The province now says that Atira, which was managing the SRO, received $3.9 million from BC Housing during the fiscal year ending on March 31.
That breaks down to $325,000 a month, including in March when the occupancy had dwindled to just two tenants.
Atira also received an additional $222,000 in April to support a wind-down of operations with the same two residents remaining.
That equals $547,000 for two months to oversee two tenants.
“The problem with this is simply that those two tenants that are currently residing in this building, of course, need to have access to safe shelter, that’s not negotiable,” Claire Rattée, B.C.’s Mental Health, Addictions and Housing Support Critic, said.
“The problem is that I can’t wrap my head around is at what cost. This is an insane cost to shelter two people.”
One of the last two tenants has now moved to alternate housing and the other resident, who the government says is a pre-existing tenant of the original landlord, is refusing to move.
The B.C. government said it shut down the Colonial because the building’s owner was not maintaining it properly.
Global News has offered Atira an open invitation for an interview regarding its involvement with the Colonial Hotel, but has yet to hear back.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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