A $6.7-million renovation means the REACH Community Health Centre — a fixture in East Vancouver for almost 50 years — has to move off site while the work is being completed.
Executive director Madeline Boscoe said the building at 1145 Commercial Dr. requires a significant upgrade and was close to being a total tear-down. Leaks from the roof and old pipes were among the concerns.
“We are now undertaking a huge renewal of the building because it’s so old. Luckily some of the founding board members had the foresight to buy the property, so we can afford to stay in East Vancouver. We’re very lucky, but the renovations we need to do are so extensive, we have to move away for a year,” she said.
REACH, which marks its 50th anniversary in 2019, provides primary healthcare within a team setting, health education, counselling services, dental care, social work services, a pharmacy and a multicultural family centre.
The dental clinic and pharmacy are open to the public, while other programs have some admissions criteria or have a program focus. REACH is a registered charity and is governed by an elected board that consults with the community.
During the renovation, crews will dig three-and-a-half feet down to create a full medical clinic in the basement, an extra floor will be built off one of the additions and an elevator and new stairwells will be added.
“We’re extending out underneath and creating a big courtyard in the back area, which used to be a parking lot,” Boscoe added.
REACH operates through grants from Vancouver Coastal Health, the provincial and federal governments, numerous foundations, its social enterprises — the dental clinic and pharmacy — and community donations.
“We’ve spent the last few months and years getting ourselves in order for this new cost and believe we’ll be able to do this successfully and when we come back to the Drive we hope to contribute to the vibrancy of the Drive again,” Boscoe said.
She said in some ways it’s a relief to be out of the failing building. The group couldn’t find a large enough space in East Vancouver to fit all of REACH’s services, so it had to move to two different sites and its services are now located on several floors of those buildings. The moves occurred in mid-December.
“Given the work that we do, we felt it important that we didn’t go too far away and that we stay on a bus route because most of our clients either walk or bus to us,” Boscoe explained. “It’s not exactly like being dandelion seeds, but we’re definitely in different parts of East Vancouver right now for the year we’re going to be out.”
The medical clinic, pharmacy, counselling department and administration have moved to Hastings and Slocan, while the dental clinic and multi-cultural family program are on East 10th between Commercial and Victoria.
Boscoe anticipates REACH will be back in the renovated building at the end of January 2017.
Further information can be found on its website at reachcentre.bc.ca and two open houses for the temporary locations are being planned for January to let the community see what the services look like in the new locations.
@naoibh
