Olympic Games Homelessness & Civil Rights

Elite Athletics Intermixed With Homeless Poverty

Nov 12, 2009 Bev Yaworski

Olympic Games carry a history of celebration along with displacement of local residents in the rush to create new developments. Civil rights may also be challenged.

During the Atlanta Olympics, homeless people were put into temporary housing to keep them off the streets and 30,000 residents were displaced by the effects of construction work in advance of the 1996 Games. 1,500,000 Beijing residents were displaced or evicted to make way for building work with over 300,000 houses in Beijing demolished to make way for Olympic related construction, as reported by the Chinatown Connection magazine, July 6, 2007 edition. Precise homeless statistics can be difficult to track down.

Housing & the Olympics

Hosting the 2010 Vancouver Olympics – in a city with the lowest Canadian minimum wage of $8 per hour, combined with the highest housing prices in the country – further highlights Vancouver’s growing homeless problem. Some slum landlords have allowed Vancouver hotels to become run-down, in anticipation of the Olympics, thereby rationalizing evictions and redevelopment to higher end tourist accommodation.

“Since Vancouver was awarded the Games in 2003, over 1,100 units of low income housing have been lost in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside,” reports Laura Track, lawyer with Pivot Legal Society (a BC public interest advocacy group). “The legacy of affordable housing promised in the Olympic bid is nowhere to be found: social housing at Athlete’s Village was slashed and is looking ever less likely; evictions continue apace, and 14 City-owned sites on which the provincial government has promised to build social housing sit empty and idle.”

With the international eyes of the world on Canada, yes there have been promises by Olympic organizers to create “official legacy social/affordable housing.” The promises have ranged from 156 affordable housing units to 3,200 new units. In reality, Metro Vancouver has seen a 22% increase in the number of homeless from 2005 to 2008, which in 2008 was about 2,660, according to a Homeless study by the Social Planning & Research Council of BC.

Olympic Games Security

Olympic cities generally try to present a positive public relations image to the international media, which often means bringing in extra security to shepherd along the homeless and hide inner-city poverty from potentially embarrassing eyes of the world. Most times cities also bring in extra laws hidden under the guise of protection of the public good. “There is going to be an unprecedented level of police and security presence during the Games, and people in areas like the Vancouver Downtown Eastside are definitely concerned about how that’s going to affect their daily lives,” says Laura Track.

What will increased security mean for people’s civil rights? “The City of Vancouver has passed new Olympic bylaws that make it illegal to do the basic activities of protesting – carry signs or shout slogans that could disturb people’s experience of the Games – over a forty block area of the City,” says David Eby, lawyer with B.C. Civil Liberties Association. “If you want to carry a sign in areas near Olympic venues, the new bylaws define ‘celebratory signs’ which are permitted. Other signs don’t make the cut. Celebratory signs are signs that increase awareness of and positive feelings about the Olympic Games.”

As a consequence, a BC coalition of Olympics watchdog groups called, Impact on Community Coalition, has already filed two human-rights complaints with the United Nations against the governments of Canada and B.C. and the Olympic organizing committee. The complaints involve tenancy evictions and violation of civil liberties restricting assembly and free speech.

Help for the Homeless

Vancouver area shelters are stretched to the limit in trying to serve the homeless and are inviting donations in anticipation of the coming 2010 winter stress. Here are some suggestions from the Metro Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness.

Support projects that provide homes for people in need.
Write a letter to elected officials in your area.
Be respectful and courteous to homeless people.
Volunteer your time and skills to organizations.
Donate funds and goods to homeless groups that are making a difference.

Olympic Games also struggle to present a green environmental face to the world.

In addition, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics torch relay has become a target for animal rights groups.

The copyright of the article Olympic Games Homelessness & Civil Rights in Poverty/World Development is owned by Bev Yaworski. Permission to republish Olympic Games Homelessness & Civil Rights in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.