- Covenant House expansion aided by VANOC funding
- 2010 Legacy Sport Court
- Temporary hostel at El Dorado Hotel funded by VANOC
Covenant House expansion aided by VANOC funding
Young people fleeing physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse or those who have been forced from their homes often end up in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Once there, they can expect to be vulnerable to violence and disease as well as sexual predators. They will likely end up living rough with no roof over their heads and tempted to use drugs, some of which are extremely addictive and life threatening.
In the past 10 years, Covenant House has helped 10,000 youth at risk in the Downtown Eastside who have come to the site looking for shelter, food, clothing, and counselling. The sad truth is there are more young people living rough in the Downtown Eastside than Covenant House has space for. However, capacity at the site was greatly increased recently thanks to funding from several partners including the federal and provincial governments and VANOC. The newly renovated and expanded development now provides 32 transitional housing beds with support services for homeless and at-risk youth ages 16 to 22.
As part of its Olympics Legacies program, VANOC contributed $250,000 towards renovations at Covenant House. The funding was part of VANOC’s bid commitment to create 250 social housing units and to maximize the benefits of the Games to British Columbians.
An estimated 65 per cent of the homeless youth who receive support from Covenant House go on to live independent lives. "The addition of these 32 transitional housing beds allows us to offer support to more young people, helping them overcome the barriers that are preventing their independence and significantly reducing the number of youth previously turned away due to lack of space," said Krista Thompson, executive director, Covenant House.
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Stamps Place, a BC Housing site in Vancouver’s inner-city Strathcona neighbourhood, will soon have a Sport Court thanks to a partnership between Coca-Cola Canada, 2010 Legacies Now, Ray Cam Community Cooperative Centre, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, and BC Housing.
Coca-Cola is providing the funds to build the Sport Court and BC Housing is providing the land. Coca Cola will use funds received from collecting empty plastic containers (under one litre) of its products sold and distributed at Olympic and Paralympic venues between January 15 and March 21, 2010. The Sport Court will be primarily a basketball/ball hockey court providing a place for young people, families and the young at heart to participate in active, healthy play. Ray Cam Community Cooperative Centre will provide youth programming for young people during the summer months.
Construction on the Sport Court will begin this summer and is expected to be complete by the fall.
Temporary hostel at El Dorado Hotel funded by VANOC
VANOC is using the former Eldorado Hotel at Kingsway and Nanaimo as the site of a temporary hostel for people who come to Vancouver because of the Games but without accommodations in hand. (Salt Lake City organizers found that approximately 250 people a night were in the city without having made arrangements for a room. Many of these people arrived in town in hopes of getting some temporary work or to share the Olympic host city experience.)
In order to avoid visitors putting strains on shelters in Vancouver, VANOC is funding the hostel which opened in early December 2009. The hostel can accommodate a maximum of 318 people.
After the Games, VANOC and Eldorado Operations will collaborate on the donation of furniture and equipment purchased for the hostel to various overnight camps serving children and families in need in the Lower Mainland.