Of the 20 or so delegations speaking at the June 28 planning and environment committee meeting, the majority vehemently opposed the city staff report responding to housing concerns ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The report was a response to a set of recommendations from the Inner-City Inclusive Housing Table, which featured a number of agencies trying to eradicate homelessness.

"This is a boring, conservative document," Am Johal, founder of the Impact on Community Coalition, told council of the staff report.

The ICI Housing Table completed its report in March, listing 25 actions that needed to be taken in 14 key areas, such as providing an affordable-housing legacy, protecting rental stock, providing alternative forms of temporary accommodation, and ensuring homelessness does not increase as a result of the 2010 Games.

In the end, councillors voted 6–5 in favour of the latest City of Vancouver Housing Centre's staff report and its most contentious recommendation: that council "generally support" the ICI document "subject to the commentary set out in this report". This caveat means that rather than demanding 3,200 units of social housing be built "starting as soon as possible" and over four years–as recommended by the ICI Housing Table–city staff go on record to conclude that "provincial funding constraints make it questionable whether or not this goal can be achieved in the short term". Mayor Sam Sullivan and NPA councillors were in favour, with Vision councillors and COPE councillor David Cadman in opposition.

Vision Vancouver councillor Tim Stevenson said there is a housing "crisis" and claimed that the housing-centre report offers no targeted funding in response. Vision Vancouver announced on June 29 that the party would host its own emergency meeting on "Olympic housing commitments" that involved all levels of government and included "community stakeholders", according to a June 29 Vision media release.

"If the NPA is not willing to do it, it is incumbent on us to try to organize something and bring people together," Stevenson told the Georgia Straight. "I am particularly concerned because I am one of the ones who went out and campaigned in favour of an Olympic referendum, saying that we would be meeting all these promises. Now it looks like I am standing at a juncture where that may fall through."

Rider Cooey of the Citywide Housing Coalition told the Straight he agreed with Johal.

"The idea of endorsing such a thing, of course, is not a very useful response, when actually acting on the recommendations is what is required," he said. "And if they [city staff] want to alter the [ICI] recommendations or interpret them in some way or another, that's fine, but endorsing 'with qualifications' wasn't regarded by us or anybody as a useful response."

Added Stevenson: "We are concerned that we will just look like yes men, and the provincial government will then point to us and say, 'You see. The City endorses it.' Therefore we will be used as pawns in this game."

However, NPA councillor Kim Capri maintains the NPA is "getting stuff done".

"I would think they would be reluctant to talk about the issue of housing because in partnership with the province, we had a number of very promising announcements, and there have been statements about more to come," Capri told the Straight. "So, overall, I think we are doing just fine. Should we or could we be doing more? I don't know. I actually think that, as a city, I think we have been at the plate and at the table saying, 'We are here. Here is our hand. Take it.' We're so grateful that the province has reached out and taken it. This whole idea that we should take a stronger advocacy role, we should. I don't know what it is they are calling for; didn't work for them too well in the last term."