VANCOUVER -- In the first project of its kind in Canada, 12 recycled shipping containers will become social housing for women in the Downtown Eastside by next spring.

More like careful stacking than construction, development began Friday at 502 Alexander St., on land owned by the Atira Women’s Resource Society, as a crane lowered the rust-red, blue and grey containers onto the site. With financial backing from the City of Vancouver and several non-profit organizations, the million-dollar project’s tentative move-in date is next April.

Six of the 12 units will be set aside for women over the age of 55 living in the Downtown Eastside, who will pay about $375 per month in rent, said Atira executive director Janice Abbott.

“It’ll be amazing. They’ll get brand-new, innovative, self-contained units,” she said, speaking under a tarp on the build site as an empty container swung overhead.

Those women will ideally provide mentorship for women living in the six other subsidized units, as well as women who live next door at Imouto, a year-old transitional housing project for women 16 to 24. Many of the new tenants will arrive from shelters, single-room occupancy hotels or the street.

“We’re hoping to facilitate inter-generational relationships between the older women and younger women,” Abbott said.

Two of the container units came from a BC Hydro demonstration on display during the 2010 Olympics, two were donated by modular housing company McQuarters, and the society bought the other eight for $3,000 each.

Once complete, the containers will remain much cheaper than traditional social housing at just less than $100,000 each, Abbott said.

After the containers are stacked — in two blocks, three containers high and two across — work will go into finishing the units. Each 320-square foot apartment will come with its own bathroom, kitchen and laundry, and will be fully insulated and drywalled, so that inside they will look and feel like regular apartments. The containers’ front and back will become windows to let in natural light.

The City of Vancouver gave $92,000 to the project in the form of a capital grant. Other funding came from Canada Mortgage and Housing’s Shelter Enhancement Program, the Street to Home Foundation, Central City Foundation and the B.C. Real Estate Foundation.

zmcknight@vancouversun.com