Arab Times

Five years after London Oly, Games’ legacy is off-track for locals

Promises to deliver ‘homes for all’ have not been met

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LONDON, July 27, (RTRS): Five years ago, Sharon O’Callaghan-Evans watched with pride as her son took the stage in the opening ceremony of London’s Olympics, waving a flag to welcome the athletes to the East End neighbourh­ood where four generation­s of her family had lived.

A month later she followed suit, dancing with a group of women who, like her, suffer from impaired vision, in the opening show of the Paralympic Games.

Little did mother and son know then, they would soon be living in apartments built for the games’ sporting stars — or that an Olympic legacy of massive inflation in local rents would later force them out of their home city altogether.

The medical researcher, working on treatments for diabetes and heart disease, was among a set of locals including nurses and teachers, chosen after the games for reducedcos­t housing schemes to help “key workers” afford London’s lofty rents.

O’Callaghan- Evans said the two-bed apartment in the athletes’ village, amid the landscaped hills of the Olympic Park, was a dream — but one that would be short-lived, as the mushroomin­g costs of the so-called affordable homes became apparent.

After a year, she was forced to give up her flat after her rents were hiked by nearly a quarter — from £15,000 ($19,500) a year to more than £18,500 ($24,000).

“It wasn’t what they told us it would be — it was a lie,” said O’Callaghan-Evans, 53, who now lives more than a 100 miles from London, near the town of Yeovil in rural Somerset.

She said the stress of hiked rents contribute­d to the worsening of her heart condition for which she was repeatedly hospitalis­ed in early 2015 as she attempted to fight eviction, and which has now left her legally blind.

O’Callaghan-Evans is one of many who joined post-Olympics “affordable” housing schemes who have faced rising rents and insecure housing contracts, with little support from the publicly funded developers who were their landlords, she said.

Speaking in a cafe across the road from her old home in the athletes’ village, now renamed East Village, O’Callaghan-Evans told the Thomson Reuters Foundation: “I have been absolutely impoverish­ed by a process that was supposed to help me.”

Johnson

London’s Olympic organisers justified the games’ £9 billion ($11.7 billion) price tag with promises to deliver not only a sporting extravagan­za but an ‘Olympic legacy’ of prosperity for the poor East London boroughs where the games were held.

But five years on from the opening ceremony, promises to deliver “homes for all” and narrow the gulf in living standards between the host area and the rest of London have not been met, said residents, academics and some local leaders.

The six host boroughs have seen a spike in homelessne­ss and numbers in emergency temporary accommodat­ion, with both measures up more than 60 percent since the year before the games, according to the UK Department for Communitie­s.

While local leaders have blamed national government policies to limit housing benefit payments, the host boroughs have also fallen further behind the rest of London in key measures, according to their own research.

Their most recent report for 2015-16 showed widening gaps in average wages and overcrowdi­ng, as families and renters attempt to fit more people into scarce homes.

Stephen Timms, opposition member of parliament for East Ham said genuinely affordable housebuild­ing had fallen offtrack, with “nothing like enough” built so far.

“We require very significan­t investment in affordable housing to manage the increase in population without these problems — homelessne­ss, the worst of them, but also inadequate homes that are much too small, cramped, overcrowde­d,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Stratford, the host neighbourh­ood, has transforme­d from a post-industrial landscape to hive of sports venues, mega-malls, and luxury tower blocks, but locals are left asking if they will be able to afford to remain and enjoy the new opportunit­ies.

When the athletes’ village was sold off in 2011 around half, or nearly 1,500 apartments, was sold to QDD, a joint venture between Qatari Diar, a property arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, and British property developer Delancey, to be sold or rented on the private market.

The remaining apartments were sold to Triathlon Homes, a joint venture between a developer and two non-profit housing providers, to become the “affordable” housing quota, funded by nearly 50 million pounds from the government’s Homes and Communitie­s Agency.

In a book evaluating the games’ legacy set to be published next month, Paul Watt, lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London, argues the games highlighte­d failures by former city mayor Boris Johnson to provide for low income Londoners.

From 2010, Johnson embraced a new definition of “affordable” which included anything up to 80 percent of market rates, allowing limitless increases as the market rate soared, Watt told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

As luxury apartment blocks have risen up and the area has achieved its aim of becoming a in-demand neighbourh­ood, homes intended for low-earners have become out of reach, said Watt.

Today, “affordable” homes, including two-bed flats in O’Callaghan-Evans’ old building advertised for about £1,500 ($1,900) per month, exclude Londoners on average salaries, never mind low wages, he said.

Watt writes that many Londoners now see the term affordable housing as “increasing­ly Orwellian” — making a promise that blatantly contradict­s reality — and that this is especially true in the East Village.

The solution, they say, is social housing — low-cost homes where rents are linked to local incomes rather than market rate, which have traditiona­lly provided a safety net for Londoners.

But on this measure, the games’ legacy is stagnant.

The government-owned London Legacy Developmen­t Corporatio­n (LLDC), the organisati­on launched to manage the regenerati­on of the Olympic Park and surroundin­g area, acknowledg­ed that it has not yet built enough homes on the park to replace the almost 800 social housing units demolished to clear the site for the games.

However other flats are being built in the surroundin­g areas, said LLDC director of strategy Ben Fletcher told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We are five years into a long journey,” said Fletcher. “It’s not always what everyone wants to hear but some of this will take 10, 15, 20 years to come to full fruition. But we’re very, very proud of what we’ve achieved.”

Watt said the failure to build genuinely affordable homes reflects a conflict at the heart of the LLDC’s mandate.

The corporatio­n is charged with recouping as much of the games’ cost as possible through land sales on the Olympic Park — but also briefed to pursue public good through legacy commitment­s such as low-cost housing.

Its previous chairman, David Edmonds, resigned in November 2016, four months after telling reporters that the corporatio­n had not found a way to achieve both these goals.

London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, elected last year to succeed Johnson, is due to appoint a new chairman who he says will pursue new priorities including redefining affordable rent targets by linking them to wages.

In May, Khan launched his London Living Rent scheme, set in each borough at a third of average household incomes, which would see the rent for a two-bed flat drop below £1,000 a month in the Olympic host boroughs.

O’Callaghan-Evans said the games organisers’ failure to anticipate the ruinous effects of leaps in rents have cost her dearly and have exiled her from the city where her grandfathe­r laid railway tracks.

“I lost my community, my family, my extended family. My whole history is in that geography,” she said.

Suffering from failing sight and unwilling to commit to a year-long lease she knew she couldn’t afford, O’Callaghan-Evans was issued with an eviction notice in early 2015.

Joining her sister in a far-flung Somerset village, she left behind her mental map of London, that allowed her — despite weakening eyesight - to catch familiar buses and trains and navigate the city with no need for help.

“When you lose your sight ... you use your sense of place — all your memories, all your history — it’s mapped in your head, it’s ingrained in your being,” she said.

“And one day you’re secure and you get one letter, and it’s taken from you — it’s all gone.”

Salameda carried Tropang Mangaf on his back scoring 17 points. Three other Mangaf players scored in double figures: Tao-on (13 points), Reviera (11 points), and Alinsungay (10 points). Jebunan and De Rosas also made it to the scoreboard with 7 points and 6 points, respective­ly. West and De Vera added 4 points apiece, while Madrona made 2 points.

The first two quarters were a battle, with either team determined to get ahead of the other to bag the championsh­ip. However, the second quarter saw Adorador exploding for 12 of his 22 points to help Pablik close the first half up by 5 points.

Tropang Mangaf put up a fight in the third quarter outscoring Pablik, 26-18, on the strength of their reserves and starting players combined. Seven Tropang Mangaf players made it to the scoreboard in this quarter which gave them the upper hand heading into the fourth quarter, 58-55.

With Tropang Mangaf threatenin­g to take over the game, Pablik 2 Bros gave the rivals a taste of their own medicine also showing strength in numbers. Seven Pablik players made big shots in this quarter — including a big 3 from Don Dela Cruz in the waning minutes — which altered the course of the game. With Pab-

5’8” Division Cabalen

5’8” Division Season’s MVP Jeffrey

Salamida 5’8” Division Mythical Five Donisio Bradecena, Jeffrey Salamida, Dondon Dela Cruz, Nash Tamo, Gary De Guzman.

5’8” Division Champion Pablik 2 Bros

lik being seconds from victory, Mangaf players resorted to giving up fouls in an attempt to stop the clock, but Pablik made good on their free throws to stretch the lead and went on to record a convincing championsh­ip win at 80-74.

Allen Adorador was named the Finals MVP, while Salameda was given the Season’s MVP award. Coach Richmond Roldan also took

5’8” Division 2nd Runner Up Furuya

5’8” Division Finals MVP Allen Adorador

5’8” Division 1st Runner Up Tropang Mangaf

home the Best Coach Award, while “Ate Linda” was honored as the Best Manager. Division B leaders Furuya and Cabalen were also awarded the 2nd and 3rd runner up trophies.

Five players from were also honored as the Division’s Mythical Five: Donisio Bradecena, Jeffrey Salameda, Dondon dela Cruz, Nash Tamo, and Gary de Guzman.

In other games, the 5’8” NonLeaguer­s

He said the IOC are making the later date “financiall­y so attractive, we’d be stupid not to take 2028”.

LA is planning to announce their final intentions next week, Garcetti told the US-based online news site.

“If we are going to go for 2028 or 2024, Paris will get the other,” he declared.

“The bid is all but done, we have won.”

The double award at the IOC session in Peru is conditiona­l on a prior agreement between the two cities and the IOC. If no agreement is reached, then the session will vote on 2024 only.

Throughout the bidding process Paris has insisted that it is a candidate to host the 2024 Olympics only, while Los Angeles has indicated that it could be open to hosting the Games in 2028.

Both cities have staged the Games twice before, with Paris the hosts in 1900 and 1924, and LA in 1932 and 1984.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Mark Cavendish hopes to extend his career for a “few more years” as he targets Eddy Merckx’s Tour de France stage wins record and the madison gold medal at Division saw Genesis outlast Boodai in a close game, 59-58.

Meanwhile, in the Inter-company Division, two teams nabbed a win each: Fil-Aseak (vs Papazaj, 72-69) and Amco (vs Heisco, 65-63), to wrap up Friday’s games.

The PBLK 7th Season continues every Friday at the Hawally Disabled Sports Club. For more informatio­n, please contact Alan Compuesto at 96681557.

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