Olympic Housing News

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Vancouver 2010 Olympic organizers setting up low-cost hostels

Vancouver Olympic organizers will set up one or more temporary low-cost hostels in Metro Vancouver to accommodate up to 400 youth travelers and people seeking employment during the 2010 Games.

The hostels will operate from Nov. 15, 2009 to March 15, 2010 and charge a "modest fee," Vanoc announced today.

Vanoc has posted a request for expressions of interest from organizations with expertise in running hostels and will provide $250,000 for the creation and operation of the facilities.

The hostels are to be located in Vancouver or surrounding municipalities, provided the location is within walking distance to direct public transit to the downtown core.

Vanoc said the hostels will be needed to minimize any pressure on existing homeless shelters or low-income housing. It based the projected demand on experiences at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

"We know from the experience at past Games that as the Games approach, many people, especially young adults, come to the Host City to look for temporary work or to enjoy the atmosphere and fun, and won't have arranged a place to stay," said Vanoc executive vice-president Donna Wilson.

The Vancouver Central Hostel on Granville Street, which charges $31.50 a night for a dormitory bed this summer, will charge $40 a night during the Games. About 50 per cent of the 136 beds are already booked for the Games period.

At the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, one hostel boosted its rate from $12 a night to $200 a night.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010w...+setting+cost+hostels/1620912/story.html

Vancouver homeowners not jumping at city's Olympic rental program

VANCOUVER -- For the last week Vancouver city has been been accepting applications from homeowners who want to rent out their homes during the 2010 Olympics. No one yet has applied.

On the other hand, at least a dozen long-term tenants who worry their landlords may try to evict them to take advantage of high Olympic market rates have registered for special protection.

And a renters advocacy group says it is hearing of a new demand from "mom-and-pop" landlords and private condo owners: sign a short-term rental contract ending in January or give us higher rents during the Olympics.

"People, when they find a new place to rent, are being asked to sign fixed-term five-month rental agreements," said Martha Lewis, the executive director of TRAC Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre. "It is concern for everyone."

With the vacancy rate in the Lower Mainland over the winter hovering under one per cent and stories abounding about the lack of Olympic-period accommodations, it's been a landlord's market.

But in Vancouver, that may be about to change.

On June 1 a deadline passes in Vancouver after which renters can't be evicted for the Olympic period in order for landlords to capitalize on higher rents.

In early April city council agreed to charge homeowners a $106 temporary accommodation license if they want to rent during the Olympic period.

At the same time, it set a deadline of June 1, after which no landlord could obtain a temporary accommodation permit for a unit previously occupied. The rule ends March 31, 2010.

The city also set up a "temporary accommodation tenant registry", where renters can list their names and addresses. City staff will check the list against Olympic-rental applications and won't issue licenses for addresses on the registry.

On Tuesday the city said it quietly opened both the application process and the tenant registry last week. It doesn't expect a lot of attention until next week, when the June 1 deadline for rental eviction notices expires.

Lewis said the changes are good news for renters who already have a home. But they won't help people who sign the fixed-term agreements.

"We tell people not to sign them and to simply look for another place," she said.

Most of the complaints TRAC has received are for units in Vancouver and Burnaby. Lewis said Burnaby has not made any effort to protect renters.

Leslie Boldt, a Vancouver spokeswoman, said the city is also working with the Building Owners and Managers Association to get the message out that renters are protected from Olympic-period evictions.

Vancouver council has also asked the province to change its Residential Tenancy Act to prohibit Olympic-period evictions, and to open a full-time advocacy office downtown or along Broadway for the 12 months around the Games.

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http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2010w...lympic+rental+program/1632756/story.html

maybe people plan to do it under the table?