VPSN Civil City Housing & Homelessness Workshop: Follow-up

Thank you to everyone who came out to our November 13 forum Civil City, Housing & Homelessness. The event saw a capacity audience gather to hear about some of the sticking points that are preventing more action from taking place on housing issues. A big thank you to Maureen Bader (Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation), Dave Eby (Pivot Legal), Matthew Nugent (Urban Development Institute), Greg Richmond (Triage Emergency Care Services Society), and Jean Swanson (Carnegie Community Action Project) for lending us their insight and expertise, to Monte Paulsen for moderating the evening’s event, and to the many volunteers who helped with the proceedings.

The event has also been recorded by VPSN member Lenore and will be on our website over the next couple of days.

In the course of the evening, a set of 15 brainstorming scrums took place, and we invited community members to give their thoughts on how to deal with the sticking points. Materials from these sessions is being used to develop a brief report and presentation – a portion of which will be presented to City Council on December 12. This is the date of Council’s “Special” session dealing with the recent announcement around Supported Housing. This meeting seeks to gather public input on the Memorandum of Understanding between the City and Province about the creation of new social and supported housing….

More information on the Report and how you can be involved:

Check out our Civil City webpage: www.civilcity.ca.

Not only is this an opportunity for the public to provide much needed support for the initiative, but it is also an opportunity to provide encouragement for a more proactive approach to housing issues.

Anyone can make a presentation at this event. For those of you who also wish to make a deputation please contact the City Clerk’s Office at 604-873-7276. Tell them that you want to be added to the speakers list for the session in question. It’s best to do this sooner rather than later.

When making a presentation of this sort, it helps to ground your comments in the immediate issue at hand, namely the MOU. You can view this document, and other relevant reports and background materials at the BC Housing website.

They’re also available on our www.civilcity.ca webpage, in the “Housing Backgrounder.”