Olympic housing crunch: London landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists.

:An aerial view of houses in Leyton, east
London, in the borough of Waltham
Forest, one of the five so-called Olympic
Boroughs.:
LONDON -- Landlords in Britain's capital are
evicting tenants so they can cash in on this
summer's Olympic Games by charging
tourists many times the usual rent.
Homes in the east London boroughs where
many events are to be held are fetching
between five and 15 times their typical rates
as properties are rebranded as short-term
"Olympic lets." Some landlords are also
enforcing expensive "penalty" clauses for
tenants who want to remain during the
gathering of the world's top athletes.
Rent controls are almost non-existent in
Britain and some Londoners told msnbc.com
that the looming increase in housing costs
will leave them with no choice but to leave
the city for the summer.
While the Olympic Village will house some
22,000 athletes along with 6,000 coaches
and officials, countless tourists, athletes'
families, journalists and sponsors will be left
to jostle with 7.8 million residents for places
to sleep. The accommodation crunch is
expected to be so severe that some
residents are planning to rent out their
backyards to campers during the Games –
which begin July 27.
"We're [seeing] landlords beginning to evict
?,their tenants," Antonia Bance, head of
campaigns for housing charity Shelter, said. "Lots of letting agents are
writing clauses into contracts being signed
saying you can live here with the exception
of this period [during the Olympics]."