Housing Central Letter Re: Make Housing Central

November 1, 2018

Mayor and Council Town of View Royal 45 View Royal Avenue Victoria, BC V9B 1A6

Dear Mayor and Councillors,

Congratulations on your election to serve your community as mayor and members of municipal council.

We are writing to you on behalf of the affordable housing providers across the province, both non-profit organizations and co-operatives, to ask that you make housing a central focus during your term in office.

As you likely heard on the doorsteps during the campaign, housing affordability and homelessness were by far the top issues for voters everywhere. Because housing affordability is an issue that impacts nearly every household in some way, and will take more than one term in office to solve, we believe there is an opportunity for partnership between all levels of government and the community housing sector. We want to actively support local government in making the most of this opportunity.

We hope that you had a chance during the campaign to review our Make Housing Central resources, launched in September to help candidates better understand the housing affordability landscape in their municipalities, and how municipalities can take a strong leadership role in addressing those issues. Our campaign, in its entirety, can be reviewed at www.housingcentral.ca

During the campaign we asked candidates to show their support for affordable housing by pledging, once elected, to implement actions to support affordable housing in their communities including: the contribution of public lands, protection of existing affordable housing, zoning for rental-only development, streamlining of permitting processes, and pursuit of partnerships to create new affordable housing developments. Candidates from across the province took the pledge. You can see the list at www.housingcentral.ca

As an ongoing initiative to support local government leaders in their efforts to deliver affordable housing in their communities, we are developing a series of free educational opportunities for your participation:

• A webinar introducing the community housing sector and a discussion of the tools available to municipalities to support affordable housing in their communities (available December)
• A half-day interactive forum for elected officials, non-profits and co-ops to exchange learnings about how to work collaboratively to create new affordable housing (four workshops to be held throughout the province beginning spring 2019)

Additionally, we are providing your municipal council with two complimentary registrations to our Housing Central Conference, the largest affordable housing event in the country, with up to 1,500 delegates. This conference is being held from Sunday, November 18th to Tuesday, November 20th at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre. To claim your registrations, please contact our Government Relations Manager, Diana Dilworth at diana@bcnpha.ca or at 778-945-2170, who will assist in securing those registrations. Details of the conference can be found at www.housingcentral.ca

Congratulations again, and best wishes. We look forward to working with you on the issues of housing affordability and homelessness, and hope that we will see you in attendance at our events. We will remain in touch throughout your term in office and hope that with your support, we can ensure that every resident in BC has access to safe, affordable and stable housing.

Sincerely,

Jill Atkey, Chief Executive Officer BC Non-Profit Housing Association www.bcnpha.ca

Thom Armstrong, Executive Director Co-operative Housing Federation of BC www.chf.bc.ca

About Housing Central

Housing Central brings together the BC Non-Profit Housing Association (BCNPHA), Co-op Housing Federation of BC (CHF BC) Co-op Housing Federation of Canada (CHF Canada), Encasa Financial, Community Land Trust and COHO Management Services Society. Housing Central collaborates on cross-sector partnerships that help impact public, policy, media awareness and deliver world-class education and events to support its vision of a safe, affordable home for everyone. www.housingcentral.ca

About BCNPHA

Formed 25 years ago, BC Non-Profit Housing Association (BCNPHA) is the provincial umbrella organization for the non-profit housing sector comprised of nearly 600 members, including non-profit housing societies, businesses, individuals, partners and stakeholders. Together non-profit housing societies manage more than 100,000 units of long-term, affordable housing in over 2500+ buildings across the province.

About CHFBC

The Co-operative Housing Federation of BC (CHF BC) is the voice of housing co-ops in British Columbia. Made up of member housing co-ops and related stakeholders, the organization focuses on meeting the needs and supporting the opportunities for those living in co-op housing. The 250 co-op housing members in our province provide housing for approximately 15,000 families.