No Place to Sleep

During the runup to Expo 86 and after it opened, rents skyrocketed throughout the lower mainland. Low income renters found themselves scrambling for new accommodation after being evicted so visitors could pay the exorbitant rents and the bottom enders, those who lived in SROs (single room occupancy), found themselves homeless and pushed out of sight. The world wanted to come see Expo '86, Vancouver was for sale and the stampede was on. We are still living with the aftereffects: leaky condos thrown up in the gold rush of relaxed, repealed or ignored building codes, union-busting. and rampant homelessness.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana came to visit and the city swooned. They had no trouble finding accommodation.
I've included the whole editorial. It's worth a read if only to further understand the paving stones of our current out of control sell-out.