The city and province have set up an information kiosk about the Downtown Eastside to try to explain the neighbourhood during the Olympics. (CBC)

A new Olympic information centre for international journalists opened on Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside on Monday, designed to help the visiting media understand life on the streets just a few blocks away from the main Games venues.

The project is a joint effort by the city, the province, and dozens of charities and other organizations that provide services to the hundreds of homeless people and drug addicts who call the neighbourhood home.

Called Connect, the one-stop information centre in the atrium of the new Woodwards condomium complex will have information boards, statistics, and something called a "living library" where Downtown Eastside residents and workers will be available for half-hour sessions to talk about their stories and their lives.

The groups involved in the Connect project include the Salvation Army, the YWCA, Vancouver Native Housing, Covenant House and the Vancouver Police Department.

Mark Smith, who is the executive director of RainCity Housing, a shelter and support organization that will have a booth in the centre, said it serves a couple of purposes.

"It just seemed like a very cool way for us to say, 'OK, here we are. This is what we do. This is why we do it. This is why we think it works,' and not have to field a million requests for interviews day in and day out," he said.

Some not supporting project

But not everyone is in favour of the message it is trying to send.

Wendy Pederson of the Carnegie Community Action Project, called the centre a propaganda kiosk that's only telling half the story, and said her group plans to protest the opening.

"The province sees homelessness as a problem of addiction and mental illness and that's not how we view it… It's about housing supply and welfare rates," said Pederson.