Vancouver Drops Olympics Housing Pledge

Promise was 'non-binding' NPA votes.

By Monte Paulsen, 29 Jun 2007, TheTyee.ca

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Mayor Sam Sullivan and the Non-Partisan Association have rejected pleas for more new social housing by 2010. Critics warn that Thursday night's decision by Vancouver City Council assures that homeless Canadians will outnumber athletes at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

"Homelessness is going to get a lot worse in this city, and the NPA is fully responsible," said City Councillor David Cadman, who represents the opposing Council of Progressive Electors (COPE).

In a series of 6-5 votes, the NPA strong-armed Vancouver City Council into approving a misleading report drafted in the office of Housing Minister Rich Coleman and approved by the organizers of the 2010 games (VANOC). The report, awkwardly titled the Joint Partner Response to the Inner-City Inclusive Commitments (ICI) Housing Table Report, asserts that the housing recommendations developed for VANOC are "not binding."

NPA councillors Suzanne Anton, Elizabeth Ball, Kim Capri, Peter Ladner and B.C. Lee also voted in lock-step with Mayor Sam Sullivan to defeat motions introduced by Vision Vancouver and COPE requesting an emergency meeting with federal and provincial housing ministers.

'Huge things'

"We don't need this motion," Sullivan said. "We are working on a lot of things ... Huge things." The mayor did not provide details.

"Sullivan hasn't delivered anything," responded Councillor Cadman. "He claims credit for social housing at Woodward's in spite of the fact that he voted against it. He claims credit for social housing at Southeast False Creek in spite of the fact that his first action as mayor was to slash social housing at that site. He claims credit for the SRO rooms purchased by the province, even though Minister Coleman has plainly said the city had nothing to do with that purchase."

The Non-Partisan Alliance's party-line votes came after a half-day of passionate public testimony, in which Vancouver citizens implored council to reject VANOC's draft report and invite senior governments to a sit-down. Mayor Sullivan rolled out of council chambers during the second speaker, and remained missing-in-action for the remaining four hours of public testimony.

One of the many presentations that Sullivan refused to hear was a plan presented by Pivot Legal Society under which new homeless housing could be paid for out of existing provincial, city and VANOC funds. Pivot and 2010 Watch released documents on Thursday that they say show the city will earn $64.5 million from development of the Olympic Village, which is now under construction at Southeast False Creek.

'No time to walk away'

Sullivan and his obedient NPA vote also defied an editorial in The Vancouver Sun, which stated, "2010 housing promises must be honoured."

The June 26 editorial was uncharacteristically blunt: "...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."

Vision Vancouver and COPE councillors warned that since it takes a minimum of two years to develop social housing, Thursday night's vote was probably the last chance this council would get to address Olympic homelessness.

"In all likelihood there will be a strike," Cadman said. "That will place a hiatus on everything. And that hiatus will effectively delay action on housing until the fall. At that point, it will simply be too late to develop, permit and build new social housing in time for the 2010 Olympics."

"I don't want to give up hope until the day before the opening ceremonies," said David Eby, a housing activist and staff lawyer at Pivot Legal Society. "But I'm getting a sinking feeling that the streets of Vancouver are going to look a lot worse when the Olympics arrive."

UN's harsh view of Vancouver

Any doubt that the world is watching was erased by a top-of-page-one headline in Thursday's The Vancouver Sun, which declared "Vancouver a scarred paradise." The Sun report described Vancouver as "a city with staggering wealth and soul-crushing poverty." The article cited a report by the United Nations Population Fund stating that the Downtown Eastside "is home to a hepatitis C (HCV) rate of just below 70 per cent and an HIV prevalence rate of an estimated 30 per cent -- the same as Botswana's."

Another high-profile report issued this week seemed to predict the NPA's failure to act. Shelter: Homelessness in a Growth Economy was written by Gordon Laird and published by the Alberta-based Sheldon Chumir Foundation. The report estimated that as many as 300,000 Canadians are already homeless, at a cost to taxpayers of between $4.5 and $6 billion every year.

"Canadian governments," Laird wrote, "have focused more on short-term crisis management over long-term strategic investment. Their response to homelessness over the last decade has sometimes bordered on outright neglect. In practical terms, absenteeism on housing and homelessness has exacerbated efforts to reduce poverty in Canada."

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Monte Paulsen is a contributing editor at The Tyee. He welcomes your feedback via e-mail (mailto:monte@thetyee.ca), and invites you to participate in the online discussion below.

9 Comments:

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  • crash

    4 years ago

    Is this not actionable?

    I just finished a course in civil law and specifically contract law, and is this not actionable?

    If city council secured the yes vote for the 2010 olympics on a promise that they would improve housing, then does that not have all the elements of a contract, ie: promise, consideration, capacity to contract, etc.? You can't just unilaterally vote yourself out of an obligation. Although I suppose offer and acceptance might be a bit more difficult to prove.

    Just the same, there is everything wrong with this situation.

    ash...

  • DJT

    4 years ago

    Admirable sentiment Crash,

    Admirable sentiment Crash, but don't forget we're in BC where contracts, promises, etc. mean absolutely nothing to the powers that be.

  • Gary

    4 years ago

    Gee, what a surprise

    Living in a province where contracts and promises don't mean dick to the government, a key promise to the IOC is broken. And all this just a couple of weeks after the spin doctors have the politicians saying they might be better off moving the homeless out of sight out of mind to places like Riverview (Essondale), or the old CFB base in Prince George. And of course they now see the dollar signs in the hotels they bought. How about they just move a few up here to the Cariboo, oh, say, to the ice caves at Bridge Lake.
    This action has just confirmed 100% my own suspicions that the government and big business are the ONLY ones to benefit from the olympics. As a life long Skiier and one time racer I had made plans to volunteer at the olymic runs in Whistler.
    Those plans have now been cancelled.

  • Working Memory

    4 years ago

    Think Local Act Global

    The only way to force change is to cultivate a global conversation describing how BC politicians abuse its citizens. 50% of this city is probably one paycheck away from disaster.

    Politicians and local news media purposely complicate the homeless issue. It is a well-known tactic used to keep you off-balance. The longer they stall you, the closer 2010 approaches. When time runs out it runs out for you, not VANOC.

    Gentrification happens in all Olympic regions and is the #1 complaint. Vancouver is not "special" in this respect, but local news media and politicians would like you to think so because they can then claim they didn't see this coming, which implies it's not their fault. The Vancouver Sun and sister company Global TV are making noise about this now, but where were they three years ago when the community really needed them?

    Since 2004 my company has published a well-read blog, plus we published a book in early 2006 that predicted everything we are currently experiencing regarding 2010. We made sure local news media and politicians knew these two information devices existed.

    We also sent complimentary copies of our book to every mayor in our region.

    The results; not one mayor responded, even though we described in detail how the homeless issue would play out. Instead of asking us about our research, (we invested three years and a six-figure budget studying full-time how the Olympics affects a community), they ignored us. The solutions we offered evidently didn't fit their corporate plan.

    The twist is that the people who read our blog and bought our book are entrepreneurs trying to figure out how to leverage the Games profitably. Unfortunately many of them are doing it at the expense of the community. We didn't do all this work to help the rich get richer. It's not for Rennie the Olympic-frenzied Condo King. We did it to help average people understand what was about to happen to their community.

    Unfortunately, three years ago everyone here was so excited about their house value increasing, and they were so proud that we "won" the Bid, that they refused to consider the downside. Many still don't understand that homelessness costs everyone. When people are forced out of their homes they soon end up on welfare, which is paid for by taxes.

    We recommended the following solution three years ago, and we still think it is the best solution today. It is a strategy Olympic organizations do not want you to consider.

    Tell the world what is happening here and do it right now. Go online and tell everyone you can what you see in your backyard. Start by sending the world a link to this article in The Tyee. Don't be embarrassed that you were conned by Olympic organizations. It happens to the best of communities. It even happened in Sydney, Australia, which is often touted by Olympic organizations as the "Best Games Ever." Report the crime.

    If you do this it will shift the balance of power from Olympic organizations to the masses.

  • Working Memory

    4 years ago

    Right on Gary

    Every time someone in the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Olympic region says they changed their mind and that they will not volunteer, John Furlong gets another grey hair.

    It is exactly the message we have to send VANOC.

    If Olympic organizations, partners and sponsors refuse to treat our "entire" community with respect, we will refuse to come to your party.

    If you want to drive the point home with even more impact tell everyone you know that you are not volunteering.

    2010 cannot possibly work without the full cooperation of our community.

    I love the sporting aspect of the Games, but the business model is out of date and woefully flawed.

  • crash

    4 years ago

    BC is not exempt from the law

    Just because BC politicians show disdain for the law, does not make them exempt from it. My question was an attempt to start a proactive conversation about whether or not a legal case could be made against City Council.

    DJT: Your comment neither supported nor undermined my position.

    Does anyone out there have any real-world experience with contract law? Could a group like Pivot start a class action against City Council on the basis of breach of contract? How might one argue that City Council, in holding a referendum on the 2010 Olympics, made an offer to the public which was accepted by way of a 2/3 yes vote on the basis of promises that were made by the City and the Province?

  • DJT

    4 years ago

    Crash

    It was just a comment- pardon me for livin'.

  • DPL

    4 years ago

    Any thinking person should

    Any thinking person should have know the poor would get screwed when the NPA, Socred.Liberal farm team took over. The previous city council had told us that nobody would lose out. That city council was voted out as some movers and shakers were mad at Larry Campbell, and COPE started self destructing. All this talk will get us nowhere. The deals by Coleman to buy up slum hotels simply had the owners of those dumps make more money. The IOC arn't the least bit concerned either so the sooner we all get our heads out of the sand the better. But it's all sound and fury, indicating nothing. Same thing happened on the last big show called Expo 86, folks lost their place to sleep and this time it will be worse. And of course VANOC will be getting very large performance bonuses. It makes one sort of ill, at least those folks who actually care about the poor. Bottom line, business makes more money so can keep right on supporting the right wing agenda

  • Step easy

    4 years ago

    It's really unbelievable to

    It's really unbelievable to me that our politicians can become so corrupt, short-sighted, and filled with blindness when it comes to actually being a part of humanity.

    although every ounce of me is against even having these games here, i have to add one thing, 45000 people are moving to greater Vancouver every year. And they're not all going to the Olympics. Homelessness is an enormous problem that no one seems to be taking responsibility for. I have to ask, do the people who bought homes say five or more years ago (and who are now arguably part of the elite) give one stinking iota for those on the street and those frustrated renters who are one or two paycheques away from the streets themselves? If i find myself keeping company with asphalt one of these days, i sure as hell won't be sleeping in the DTES. I'll be snuggling under a big tree somewhere in Shaughnessy or the westside.

    I think they should be just as much a part of the solution as VANOC and old Sam and his council.

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