VANCOUVER -- A few blocks down Hastings Street from where Vancouver’s library system was born, a huge hole marks the city’s newest civic ambition, a combined new Strathcona branch library and YWCA housing for single mothers and their children.

Sandwiched between dilapidated storefronts, there is nothing to indicate that from the former home of the Cigar Emporium and Union Auto Glass shops will rise the first new full-service city library branch in two decades. The last time Vancouver funded an all-new branch was in 1995 when it built the Renfrew Branch, now one of the city’s busiest.

On Monday, an excavator sat in the middle of the construction site at 720-730 East Hastings St. Graffiti artists had already tagged the exposed walls of the adjacent buildings. Hundreds of dignitaries and well-wishers showed up for the official start of construction.

Nearly four years ago, the city and the YWCA announced a $25-million partnership to build the complex, which will include 11,000 square feet of library space and 21 units of two, three and four-bedrooms for low-income single mothers and their children. It is the second collaboration between the city and the YWCA and reflects council’s desire to build value-added affordable housing opportunities into civic amenity projects.

The library will cost $15 million, including $2.6 million in land, all of it funded by the city’s taxpayers. The YWCA is putting up the rest through a combination of federal and provincial government partners and private and non-profit funders. The residential portion will be called YWCA Cause We Care House, named after the Cause We Care Foundation, which raised $1.5 million in donations for it over the past two years.

The province contributed $2 million, and the federal government $1.2 million of the YMCA’s $10 million commitment. YWCA Metro Vancouver CEO Janet Austin said it is only $1 million shy of its commitment. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson told reporters the city could consider chipping in the remaining amount but is waiting to see how the YWCA fundraising program goes.

Construction is expected to be finished within 18 months to two years.

Austen said the city’s decision to share the site with the YWCA “will have profound and positive benefits for this community for years to come.” She credited city manager Penny Ballem with the original concept and thanked her for “picking up the phone and calling me.”The housing portion of the project is also being financially supported by the Cause We Care Foundation, Streetohome Foundation and the Ismaili Council for B.C.

Sandra Singh, Vancouver’s chief librarian, said the Strathcona, Chinatown and Downtown Eastside communities have long been without a full-service library.

In the neighbourhood there is only a well-used reading room at the Carnegie Centre — the city’s first official library, which was built in 1902 and which sprang from two small privately-funded reading rooms built in 1869 and 1887. The VPL also has a small limited-hours shared library at Strathcona Elementary School, portions of which will be folded into the new library once it is finished.