Social housing conundrum Vision Vancouver's biggest test yet

If subsidized, the Athletes' Village would be arguably the most expensive social housing anywhere in the world
Gary Mason
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Mar. 05, 2010

lympians in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games loved staying in the Athletes' Village. Big surprise.

Their rooms will soon be retrofitted, and, in some cases, sold for millions of dollars. Another Athletes' Village as nice as the one Vancouver built is unlikely in the next 100 years. But as soon as the Paralympics conclude later this month, attention will once again focus on the economics of the development and how much of the nearly $1-billion that Vancouver taxpayers spent to bail out the project they are likely to get back.

One of the more contentious aspects of that discussion is certain to involve the status and future of the 252 units of social housing to which the city had committed itself. It is a promise now likely to be broken.

The final decision will have wide-ranging political implications for the governing Vision Vancouver party and its leader, Mayor Gregor Robertson.

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