Study says commitment to protect people from social impact may be too costly
Frances Bula
Sun
It’s highly unlikely that the housing promises made during bidding for the 2010 Olympics will be kept, according to the first-ever progress report from city, provincial and federal governments, and Vanoc.
The Olympics are the first ever Games to have made a commitment to protect people from the social impacts of such a mega-event. A Vanoc housing committee made 25 recommendations in February on the specific requirements to protect existing inner-city housing and create more.
But the draft response from the four bodies and a separate city report going to Vancouver council on Thursday say it’s “questionable” whether the province can find the money to build 3,200 units of social housing by 2010.
It is also too late to build 200-250 units of temporary-worker housing that were meant to ensure low-income people weren’t displaced by incoming Olympics workers.
And rising construction costs at the Olympic village mean that it’s not clear whether any more than 10 per cent of the 250 units of social housing at the site can be reserved for the very poor.
The one commitment the B.C. government will meet is the purchase of 800 units of rental housing. The province bought 915 residential hotel rooms this year.
The report points out that the province has committed, with partners, to build 1,100 new units of social housing since 2003, and has committed to creating 2,300 units of housing with social staff support throughout B.C.
The city has also moved to meet the Olympic promises by putting a temporary moratorium on the demolition of older three-storey apartment buildings and increasing the penalty for converting residential hotel rooms to other uses.
But overall, say critics, the response is disappointing.
“There’s no clear commitment from the provincial or the federal governments to fund the housing that’s needed,” said David Eby of Pivot Legal Society, a a major advocate for improved housing in advance of the Olympics. Eby said it’s encouraging that all levels of government actually accepted the recommendations. But, he said, they are mostly playing with numbers to make it look as though they’ve done more than they have. Many of the 2,300 supported-housing units are simply units that are being removed from existing social housing and dedicated to people with mental-health and addiction problems, he said.
“It’s this shell game. But the people in the Downtown Eastside know that nothing is being done. Things are not getting better.”
The bid book from the three levels of government promised to create an affordable housing legacy, protect rental stock and ensure people did not face homelessness, unreasonable rent increases, eviction or displacement as a result of the Games.
In order to meet those broad and somewhat vague goals, Vanoc set up a housing committee that issued a report last February with recommendations on the exact number of housing units needed, along with new policies required.
There were 25 recommendations in all, saying the governments needed to:
– build 3,200 units of new housing by 2010;
– buy 800 units of existing rental housing;
– increase the number of units in the Olympic village that would go to the very poor;
– build 200-250 units of temporary-worker housing that would become social housing after the Games;
– increase welfare rates;
– make welfare easier to get;
– change a number of policies that would help protect low-income tenants.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007