VANCOUVER - As predicted, efforts to deal with Vancouver's homeless problem have stepped up ahead of the Winter Games.

But contrary to the gravest fears of advocates, new shelters have been opened and concerns that officials would provide one-way tickets out of town or force homeless people off the streets of the Olympic city appear to be urban myth.

"It seems to be a common theme, all of the misfortunes are due to the Olympics,'' said Terry Butcher, director of operations at the New Life Mission in Kamloops. "I haven't heard of a single case where they said that welfare or social services said here's a bus ticket ... but I hear that talk a lot.''

That said, homeless advocates aren't about to let their guard down, especially after Expo 86 in Vancouver when tenants were evicted from low-rent hotels to make room for tourists paying much higher rates.

"The suspicion is that somehow people are going to be displaced,'' said Derek Weiss, a spokesman for the Union Gospel Mission, a shelter located in the heart of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"We have not seen that happen, and we are hoping that it doesn't happen.''

Yet advocates say provincial legislation giving police the power to take people to shelters against their will could yet pose a threat to those who have nowhere else to go.

Weiss is concerned about the legislation that gives police power to forcibly move homeless people to shelters during extreme weather.

The government said the law - known as the Assistance to Shelter Act but nicknamed the "Olympic Kidnapping Act'' by opponents - will not force people to stay in the shelters once they're there.

They also deny it has anything to do with the Olympics, saying the law is in response to the case of a homeless woman who died in a fire she lit to keep warm in Vancouver last winter. She had refused to be taken to a shelter.

Laura Track of the non-profit advocacy group Pivot Legal Society believes the legislation is linked to the Olympics and isn't surprised by the timing, just months before the Games begin.

"What we have been worried would happen for years has happened,'' Track said. "It's such a common thing that host cities do.''

Maj. Brian Venables, a spokesman for The Salvation Army in B.C., which has about a dozen shelters in the Vancouver area, said he isn't aware of an effort to move the homeless away from Olympic venues.

"Our mandate is not changing during the Olympics,'' Venables said.

In fact, he doesn't believe the government would try to shuffle people out of Vancouver during the Games given the millions it has invested in beefing up shelters around the city and province in recent years.

For instance, Venables said many Salvation Army shelters have been converted into 24-hour facilities in the past couple of years as a result of government funding.

The government has also provided funding towards new shelters, two of which are opening in the coming days in the Downtown Eastside and the Vancouver suburb of Langley.

"That indicates to me that the government is preparing to help as many people as they can, whether the Olympics is happening or not,'' said Venables, who supports the Games, in part because it has brought attention to issues such as homelessness.

As for the legislation giving police power to force the homeless into shelters, Venables said it's only during extreme weather conditions.

"It's also for their protection and safety,'' Venables said. "It's not designed to be a clean up so the Olympic officials don't see it. They've already been here, they've already seen it.''

Robert Thomas, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said while more money for homeless shelters is a good thing, the funding should have come years ago.

"Now they are doing some things, but are they the right things? Are they sufficient? ... And are they aimed at trying to get homeless people out of the eyesight of the Olympic guests?'' Thomas said.