A new Vancouver integrated community health centre located at 58 West Hastings will be named after one of the city’s most community-minded and generous philanthropists, Lily Lee.
Once complete, the Lily Lee Community Health Centre will be a 50,000-square-foot integrated health centre operated by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH). It will provide critical resources and accessible health care to support the unique needs of the Chinatown and DTES residents, including access to specialized mental health and addiction care. The new centre will be purpose-built with culturally safe facilities and services to support all neighbourhood residents.
“After my graduation from the School of Nursing at UBC, my early days of working as a public health nurse in Strathcona created my passion for community health care. I believe this new health centre will have a tremendous impact in these unique neighbourhoods, and I am so happy to put my support behind it,” said Lee.
Neighbouring Vancouver’s Chinatown, 58 West Hastings is a 10-storey community-oriented social housing and health centre led by the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation. The innovative project will provide 230 new units and brings together multiple levels of government support, including BC Housing and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and $30 million from the Chinatown Foundation.
“This centre will provide much needed community-centred health care in the Downtown Eastside,” says Angela Chapman, president & CEO, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. “The Lee family has championed many community-focused initiatives that impact lives in Vancouver every day. Our Foundation is proud to be associated with the 58 West Hastings project and hopeful for the impact this facility will have on the neighbourhood.”
Lee and her late husband, Robert Lee, are prominent Vancouver philanthropists who feel strongly about championing building healthy communities and important causes in the city that means so much to them. “Once open, the proposed Lily Lee Community Health Centre Hastings will immediately have its impacts felt across these diverse neighbourhoods,” said Carol Lee, chair of the Chinatown Foundation. “With the generosity of my mother, Lily, and in combination with support from multiple levels of government, this is an important moment for the Chinatown Foundation as we work to revitalize these neighbourhoods. And that starts with the health of the residents of these communities.”
