Sun
Some promised housing projects are on track, but others are lagging. Photograph by : Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun files
Many promises were made in the runup to Vancouver’s bid to host the 2010 Winter Games, a good many of them related to housing and homelessness in Vancouver.
Skeptics thought from the beginning those promises were made to be broken, and some will be saying “I told you so” this week as they read a report that pulls together the measures needed to keep the promises, and the progress made so far.
The report, by a committee representing the federal and provincial governments, the city of Vancouver and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Games, is being presented to Vancouver city council this week.
The joint committee held that the legacy of the Games should be the elimination of homelessness. But the first thing that jumps out from the pages of its report is that a number of promises will not be kept, at least not by 2010, and that we will not be done with homelessness in 2 1/2 years.
One goal was to build 800 units of supportive and affordable housing per year for 10 years, including the four years leading up to the Olympics.
It is “questionable” whether the 3,200 units in the first four years of the plan will be built, the report says, citing provincial funding constraints.
As well:
– The Olympic Village on southeast False Creek was to include 250 non-market housing units. But the capital cost of the Village isn’t known yet, and it isn’t clear whether the units will really be affordable.
– Two hundred to 250 units of housing for Games workers to take pressure off existing housing stock won’t be built in time. Land would have had to be bought by now.
– The provincial government has not made social assistance accessible enough, nor raised the rates enough to keep pace with rising rents, let alone make inroads on homelessness.
However, some promised projects are on track, and at least some progress has been made on all of them. What’s generally lacking is commitment of enough money by the provincial and federal governments, and the time to finish what has been started.
So while the news is disappointing, this is no time for the Olympic partners to walk away from promises made. Many of the housing commitments were key to gaining community support for the Games, and they must be honoured.
If it can’t be done by 2010, then let’s get it done by 2011 or 2012.