The Dance Centre will showcase online performances in the lead up to International Dance Day on April 29. But the Army and Navy chain of stores across western Canada couldn’t survive the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Gastown location has been sitting empty since June 2020. Homelessness also increased across B.C. during the pandemic, and in February the province announced the building on West Hastings would open as a shelter for unhoused people. It’s part of a strategy to secure enough units of housing to close down a large tent city at Strathcona Park. Renovations are now underway, and the building will open by mid-May at the latest, although operator PHS Community Services Society hopes the shelter will be open by April 30. That’s also the deadline the park board has given for the tent city at Strathcona Park to leave.