Temporary Hostels Planned for 2010

If you're stuck in the early morning Vancouver rain, a long way from home, with an aching in your heart and your pockets full of sand during the 2010 Winter Olympics, VANOC will have a place for you.

Olympic organizers aim to set up one or more temporary hostels to accommodate several hundred young people expected to show up before, during and after the Games with little more than an unfocused desire to be in Vancouver for all the excitement and maybe find a way to make a buck or two.

A call for hostel proposals was posted Friday on the provincial government's official bid website.

Donna Wilson, VANOC executive vice-president for people and sustainability, said the hostels will exist as an accommodation safety net to ensure that existing low-income housing and shelters for the homeless are not affected by a Games-time influx of visitors without an arranged place to stay.

Ms. Wilson said VANOC wants to avoid what happened in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Olympics when Games planners, unprepared for hundreds of young people who flocked to the city, wound up housing them in an abandoned mattress factory.

"Our expectation is that there will be kids who come here with a bit of money in their jeans to have a good time, or to find work, and haven't thought about where they're going to stay," she said. "Salt Lake City didn't plan for this kind of thing and we want to make sure we do."

Asked why anyone would make the trek to Vancouver without a plan or assured accommodation, Ms. Wilson laughed and replied: "Do you have an 18-year old? The Salt Lake experience showed there are a lot of people, generally from 18 to 25, looking for a great time at this great event. They want to be part of it."

She said VANOC is seeking bare-bones facilities that will provide little more than a bed and a bathroom for a nominal daily fee. They are to remain open from Nov. 15 to March 15, with the ability to take in as many as 400 people during February, when the Olympics take place.

There have been concerns that shelters trying to cope with Vancouver's severe homeless problem would be even more hard-pressed during the Olympics, but Ms. Wilson said VANOC made a commitment long ago to do everything possible to mitigate that potential pressure.

"The world will be watching, and we want to make sure the Olympics are as positive an experience for everyone as we can make it," she said.

VANOC wants a single operator or consortium to be responsible for the temporary accommodation, likely to be run on a non-profit basis. The organizing committee has set aside $250,000 to help pay the cost of upgrading and necessary renovations for the hostels. There is no intention for existing backpacking hostels in the city to make room for the young, temporary visitors, Ms. Wilson said.

She said VANOC envisions local church or other community organizations might want to take on the responsibility as a way of contributing to the Olympics.

VANOC does not intend to advertise that there will be low-cost, basic accommodation available during the Olympics. "If nobody shows up, that's fine, that's great," Ms. Wilson said. "But we'd rather be prepared in case they do show up."

The plan, she added, is to have operators of existing shelters for the homeless refer visitors looking for an overnight crash to the one or more temporary Olympic hostels.

 

SOURCE: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/