Opinion: Vancouver faces both a humanitarian and existential crisis

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The jump in operating costs is extraordinary. In one building alone, costs have risen 3,200 per cent since 2016, according to an analysis by landlords with buildings in the Downtown Eastside. Yes, you read that right — a 33-fold increase.

The significance of 2016 is that it is the year that a public health emergency was declared because of the rising number of overdose deaths.

Since then, millions of dollars have been pumped into the neighbourhood for housing and harm reduction — everything from buying up single-room occupancy hotels to providing a safe supply of drugs to addicts during COVID to encourage social distancing.

Yet, overdose deaths this year are on track to reach an all-time high. In November alone, deaths were up 89 per cent from a year ago.

For building owners and tenants, the costs just keep rising.

The quadruple-digit increase is the worst case in the analysis. It went from having no security costs in 2015 to $216,534 in 2019.

Window replacement costs nearly doubled in five years. Repairs caused by graffiti, vandalism or needed for improved security more than quadrupled.

For tenants, that meant rents rose to $2.91 per square foot from 39 cents. For the smallest tenant, it added an extra $3,270 a year. For the largest, it meant $55,000.

Other buildings have also had substantial increases — 810 per cent in one building, for example, and 300 per cent at another — with tenants’ costs increasing from between $730 to $11,330 a year.