New health-care and supportive housing facility planned for Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

A new health-care and housing facility is being planned for Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood in hopes it can fill a much-needed gap in care for those living without a home.

The Lily Lee Health Centre, located at 58 West Hastings St., will act as an integrated health-care centrerun by Vancouver Coastal Health,and will include 230 housing units both desperately needed in the area.

Lily Lee, the centre's namesake, was born and raised in Alert Bay,a village on Cormorant Island, on northeast Vancouver Island.

Sheleft home at 16 to attend the University of British Columbia, where she studied to become a nurse,and ultimately became a public health nurse in the Downtown Eastside and its surrounding areas.

"Back then it was simpler," the 87-year-oldtold On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko.

She said there wasn't a toxic drug crisis at the time.

"It was relatively simple and fairly safe too."

Since then, the Downtown Eastside has become home to many who live with mentalillness and addiction, many of whom also live on the street.

Lee and her late husband, Robert, both prominent philanthropists in Vancouver, have another health centre named after them on East Broadway.

Lee donated $3.8 million toward the Lily Lee Health Centre through the Chinatown Foundation, a non-profit aimed at revitalizing Vancouver's Chinatown, which is next door to the Downtown Eastside.

"I would like to help anybody who needs a little help, especially in the health department," she said.

"So to be able to do this was a big thrill for me, because I thought what a wonderful way to help the community with a bit of money that I have."

Carol Lee, chair of the Chinatown Foundation and Lee's daughter, said her mother has always believed that those she worked with on the Downtown Eastside are "good people that need a little bit of help."

"I think that's a wonderful way to look at it," she said.

The centre, whose name is awaiting approval from the province and Vancouver Coastal Health,is expected to open in 2024.