Olympic Tent Village up at 58 West Hastings

Members of Streams of Justice, the Downtown Eastside Women Centre Power of Women Group, and hundreds of others successfully set up an Olympic Homeless Tent Village yesterday Monday Feb 15th at 58 West Hastings. Currently vacant, 58 West Hastings is a lot owned by the condo
developer Concord Pacific and currently used as a VANOC parking lot.

The Olympic Homeless Tent Village is an autonomous DTES-resident based tent city, not affiliated with the Red Tent Campaign, though it is endorsed by almost 100 organizations. Hundreds of DTES residents and supporters attended a rally for homes to coincide with the Tent City, while Vancouver's Poet Laureate Brad Cran lent his support by doing a poetry reading on-site, along with other poets from the community.

The 2010 Winter Olympics has escalated the homelessness crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and the Greater Vancouver area. Since the Olympic bid, homelessness has nearly tripled in the Greater Vancouver Regional Distrct, while real estate and condominium development in the Downtown Eastside is outpacing social housing by a rate of 3:1. Meanwhile, a heightened police presence has further criminalized those living in extreme material poverty in the poorest postal code in Canada.

Instead of empty lots and empty promises, the Olympic Tent Village calls for:

1. Real action to end homelessness now
2. End condo development and displacement in the Downtown Eastside
3. End discriminatory ticketing, police harassment, and all forms of criminalization of poverty.
   

http://olympictentvillage.wordpress.com/