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CHOICE Housing Committee is formed
Community Membership Includes:
Spring 2013
- YACRO
- Four Corner's Co-op
- SHYFT
- Black Employment Center
- Juniper House
- People First
- Split Rock
- Property Owners
- Municipality of Argyle
- Municipality of the District of Yarmouth
- Town of Yarmouth
- HOPE Dial-a-Ride
- Senior Safety
- Tri-County Women's Centre
- Public Health
- Restorative Justice
- EcolePlus
- Parent's Place
- Adult Protection
- Western Regional Housing Authority
Champions for safe, affordable and accessible housing across our Yarmouth County communities.
February 2014
Stakeholder Gathering
Summer 2014 - Spring 2015
CHOICE - OUR PATH 2013-2015
Priority Planning and Goal Setting
April 2015
Logic Model Outcomes
Funding Proposal Discussions
There are better solutions -
Here's what CHOICE is proposing
for our communities...
And how we got there!
Defining
Homelessness
across the housing continuum.
Although it is generally accepted that while some dynamics are similar in both rural and urban areas (mental health, addiction, domestic violence, etc); homelessness looks different in rural communities. Often those in need rely on informal networks to couch surf or double up, they sleep rough in unsafe dwellings, seasonal "cottages" and recreational trailers during all seasons.
CHOICE Logic Model
....
.....
February 2014
Stakeholder Gathering
A community blueprint for addressing our affordable housing challenges!
- Issues and
- Possible Solutions
Spring 2013
Housing Reports
Starting Points:
INFORMATION
COLLABORATION
Summaries of the available information, predominately from Statistics Canada, on indicators of the housing situation across Yarmouth County. Fall 2013.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Actioning Logic Model Outcomes - A Collaborative Approach
REGULATIONS
- In Search of Safe and Affordable Housing: Yarmouth County Statistics - Fall 2013
- Housing in Our Communities: A Quick Look at the Numbers
- The State of Housing in Yarmouth County - InfoGraphic 2014
- Affordable Housing Infrastructure: Using our community assets to increase the number of affordable units.
- Housing Distribution: Increasing affordable options across the county to stop displacement into Town.
- Supportive Housing: Keeping vulnerable populations successfully housed - before it becomes a crisis.
- Street Revitalization: Preserving affordable housing units that are deteriorating, further contributing to displacement..
- Community meeting held with regional representatives from NS Housing and the Western Regional Housing Authority.
- Community Networks broadened
Establishing Partnerships
Fall 2013
Priority Planning and Goal Setting
Our Path
Spring 2013 to 2015
INFORMATION:
To create awareness and understanding of housing issues in our Yarmouth County communities.
INFRASTRUCTURE:
Identify and apply best practices to address housing needs and services in our Yarmouth County communities.
Emergency
Sheltered
Accessing emergency shelter services: overnight shelters, transition houses, youth shelters, etc.
December 2013
Establishing Partnerships
Met with Housing NS & Regional Housing Reps
Expanded community network
INFORMATION
INFRASTRUCTURE
COLLABORATION
RULES & REGULATIONS
Experiencing severe affordability problems: income is not sufficient to cover basic shelter and non-shelter costs.
Precariously
Housed
RULES & REGULATIONS:
Explore and advocate for rules and regulations that create safe, affordable and accessible housing in our Yarmouth County communities.
Temporary - no prospect of being permanent: rentals like motels, hostels, rooming houses. Also jails, hospitals, treatment programs, etc.
Provisionally
Accomodated
Some of
What we heard
Rules and Regulations
Standards
Many buildings are not suitable and people are paying too much rent for them. There are no basic housing standards to help protect people. Everyone should have to maintain the same standard.
We can't afford to move again. We're stuck here in this house that keeps making us sick. We've asked the property owner to fix it, but he says there's nothing he can do. The tenancy board isn't any help either, it takes too long and there are fees. Why was he allowed to rent this apartment out in the first place? Since moving in we've found out that several other tenants have complained about the same issue.
I can't maintain low-rental properties at market rent and it's impossible to get grants to fix things up. There's very little economic incentive to build low income housing. I can't charge more. Income assistance rates are too low for what it actually costs to have a basic standard of living.
Enforcement
Living Income
Infrastructure:
Information:
Collaboration:
Heat or
Eat?
Community-Based
Services
Help?
Red Tape
I just got a full time job and was hoping to find a better place to live. There just aren't enough affordable housing units available. We keep struggling between having enough food and keeping warm.
There's too much red tape ... I can't access the grants I need. It's just too complicated.
I don’t have transportation, the unit is not wheelchair accessible, and there is no supportive housing for people who are in between “doing well & in crisis”.
Options
Standards?
We lack services and supports in the community where people are. We have issues with availability and access.
We lack supportive and transitional housing options to keep vulnerable people housed. We need to reduce stigma and distribute affordable housing across our neighborhoods.
We need easy to access supports that help individuals and families get housing and keep and maintain the housing they are in – a federal housing strategy!
The system is just too difficult to navigate. You can't get a real person on the phone. There's too much jargon. There's no one to help fill out forms. There are a lot of forms!
If you complain you risk getting evicted - and then what? Problems are left for the tenant to sort out. There's no neutral agency to set or enforce health and safety standards.
As a property owner you can only repair the same thing so many times. Tenants need access to supports and skills on maintaining a home, keeping it clean and respecting property.
A Strategy!
GAPS
Supports?
COLLABORATION
Identify and engage all interested stakeholders to address housing issues across Yarmouth County communities.
Insecurely
Housed
Housings lacks security or stability. A single event, expense, or crisis is all it may take to lose housing.
Living in places not designed for human habitation: sidewalks, parks, forests, vacant buildings, cars, shacks, tents, etc.
Unsheltered
Impacting an estimated
4,900
people
or 2,280 households