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O-Village deal helps employ the homeless; advocate thinks it’s not enough

An agreement between Vancouver and Millennium Development awards contracts to inner-city businesses and employs homeless people to build the Olympic Village. But a Downtown Eastside advocate called the measures a “drop in the bucket.”

In 2007, Millennium pledged to give $15 million in contracts to inner-city companies as part of a three way partnership with the city and the Building Opportunities with Business Inner-City Society (BOB).

The Athlete’s Village developer also promised to create 100 construction jobs for inner-city residents and put $750,000 towards a job skills program tailored to the area’s unique needs.

Today, Millennium announced it has awarded $25 million in contracts and helped employ 112 people as part of the deal.

Companies such as home furnishers and caterers are happy to be involved in the Olympic Village project, which is providing essential stimulus to the local economy, BOB CEO Shirley Chan said.

“We’re trying to retain businesses within the inner-city,” Chan said. “If businesses pull out then the financial institutions pull out then the people who live here don’t have services.”

The BOB has used Millennium’s $750,000 contribution to provide safety and skills training to over a hundred people. The program also offers meals, housing outreach and essential construction equipment, in recognition that many participants lack homes and money.

Of the 112 people hired through Millennium, 86 are employed at the Olympic Village while 26 work off-site. Chan said the jobs give hope and resources to people trying to eke out a living on the streets.

“It’s an ongoing legacy – people who would otherwise be unemployed and on public assistance become contributing community members,” she said.

Kim Kerr, executive director of the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association, said the Olympic Village initiative will undoubtedly boost the fortunes of some local dwellers, but will do little to fix the fundamental problems facing the area.

“There’s something obscene about Millennium suggesting somehow the Olympics are a good thing because we got some short-term employment out of it,” he said. “It is a drop in the bucket and it’s a drop that’s going to fall out of the bucket pretty quickly.”

With an estimated 3,000 homeless people in downtown Vancouver, the most pressing need is permanent affordable housing, Kerr said.

Geoff Dembicki is a staff reporter for The Hook.

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