A new housing start with national strategy

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This article was published 02/01/2018 (2846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

All new housing deserves a celebratory slice of cake, and a recent event at the Crossways in Common offices at the Young United Church provided that very necessary element.

A place to live is one of the most basic requirements for building a stable society, but for many years, the federal government left it up to the provinces and municipalities to provide homes.

However, with a new federal housing strategy coming into effect, members of various community organizations met with the Right to Housing Coalition at Crossways in Common on Tues., Dec. 19 to discuss and celebrate the long-awaited announcement.

The inner city neighbourhood of West Broadway was a good place to hold the meeting, as low-income residents had the chance to participate and to find out more about policies that could have a profound effect on them. The afternoon began with Christina Maes-Nino of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives giving an overview of the elements included in the housing strategy, detailing the amounts of funding designated for new housing units, repairs to existing ones, research, and other projects.

“Right now we have this opportunity. Let’s not let it slip away,” she said.

Josh Brandon of Make Poverty History, Sally Nelson of New Journey Housing, and Lisa Spring of the West Central Women’s Resource Centre made similar points as they discussed the opportunity to deal with a problem that has plagued cities like Winnipeg for many years.

“Now let’s work together” with “everybody at the table,” Brandon said. The housing strategy is a “down payment on what we need to do,” he said, but it is a necessary first step in solving a problem that is especially acute in winter.

Traditional solutions to the problem have fallen short of meeting people’s needs, as the panelists noted. Lisa Spring said that shelters are generally not safe places for women, while for Sally Nelson, a major problem with the current system is the high cost of rent due to low vacancy rates in Winnipeg, which leaves many people vulnerable, especially singles and large families.

One of the major sources of hope for the participants is that now the government has declared housing to be a human right, which could spur greater action on the issue. The panelists and participants at Crossways celebrated what they hope will be a new beginning for housing in Canada.

Susan Huebert is a community correspondent for West Broadway.