Who is PHC?
People for a Healthy Community (PHC) is for everyone on Gabriola. We believe that all of us are needed to help fulfil our aim of an inclusive, strong, prosperous community that is responsive, caring and sustainable. By building local capacity and connections we strengthen the social networks that make Gabriola a safe and healthy place to live. PHC works to support the health and well being of our community including children, families and individuals by offering a food bank, soup socials, employment counselling, housing support, citizen advocate consulting and community gardens.
Gabriola Guardian Project: The Issue
Since January 2009 we have seen the need for appropriate and affordable housing amplified by the economic downturn. Gabriola Island is suffering with businesses closing, reduced tourism and lower retail sales. At PHC we hear more often about people living in garden sheds, shacks with no running water or bathroom facilities, or worse: people sleeping in the woods in make shift homes. Our Official Community Plan (OCP) and subsequent land use bylaws do not allow for multifamily residential, secondary suites or emergency housing. The Islands Trust is in the midst of a targeted review and rewrite of the OCP and have identified affordable housing, food security and economic sustainability as key areas of focus.
Our experience indicates the need for healthy, affordable, long-term housing is increasing on a daily basis. This, coupled with the lack of reliable employment at a living wage, is causing young families to move off the island and we are seeing youth and young adults moving to the city because they can’t get adequate employment or affordable housing here; in short, they see no future for themselves here. Single parents and people on disability and social assistance are fearful of having their utilities shut off for lack of payment, they have little or no firewood in the cold winter months, they may not have access to potable water and too often children will not have their basic needs met because of the high cost of rent on the island. Many of PHC’s clients face multiple barriers (such as mental illness, addictions, physical disabilities, etc.) and the lack of safe and healthy housing exacerbates these problems, where a warm bode may be just the medicine needed.
On top of this, local businesses are often struggling to keep employees because there is no housing. In some cases employers have had to purchase or rent accommodations in order to keep their staff.
How do we solve these problems? The Gabriola Guardian Project: Everyone Deserves a Home
In the fall of 2009 PHC began working with a Housing Task Force, an adhoc group of concerned citizens that was borne out of a community workshop on affordable housing. This task force is focusing on:
- Developing a Housing Organization
- Researching and finding solutions for:
- Seniors’ housing including ways to assist ageing in place
- Supported living for those with special needs
- Supporting homeless, at risk of homeless and those with persistent multiple barriers
- Shared land/housing
- Educating the community on current about current housing issues and possible solutions
- Providing input to Islands Trust for the Official Community Plan review
In February PHC developed a program concept, The Gabriola Guardian Project: Everyone Deserves a Home in response to the high cost and low availability of appropriate and affordable housing on the island. We have developed a multifaceted collaborative program to help solve this systemic issue. Components of the program include:
- The development of a comprehensive and confidential database linking landlords and potential tenants with a special focus on those who are hard to house;
- A homelessness study: with the help of Service Canada Summer Student grant we have developed a survey and have begun gathering information about the number of people who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or in need of affordable housing on the island. The summer student is supported by and advisory group that includes professionals as well as clients of PHC. We are hoping to secure further funding so that our study reflects the nature of homelessness on Gabriola throughout the year. The information gathered will be invaluable to the development of an affordable housing strategy which PHC hopes to complete in collaboration with the community of Gabriola and the Islands Trust;
- The Circle of Care Program. The concept for the Circle of Care Program came from meetings with community volunteers (a retired mental health worker, university professors, alternative health care professionals, a community nurse practitioner, a retired community front line worker, PHC board members and staff). Together we identified that those who are chronically hard to house are often those with persistent multiple barriers. This group of people often find it difficult to cope with life skills such as housekeeping, cooking, financial management and other chores. These people become unpopular tenants because they can’t properly care for their housing, they mismanage their finances and/or they behave inappropriately which causes problems with neighbours. Our hope is to provide a program manager who will work directly with these clients and rally the volunteer resources as needed. We currently have a range of ready willing and able volunteers who can offer services and diverse as housekeeping, addictions counselling and acupuncture.
Another component of the Circle of Care Program is an emergency fund that will help clients with utility payments, the cost of firewood, potable water and damage deposits. Money from this fund will be payed directly to the supplier and we hope to amass at least $2,500 for the use of many. Two anonymous donors have already kicked in with generous donations of $500 and $1,000. This fund has already been used to prevent the disruption of electrical service to two families as well as to provide emergency housing for a pregnant mom and her two year old child.
- A community Forum: Given the timeliness of the re-write of our OCP and some of the fear and resistance from some Gabriolans, it would be valuable to host a Community Forum on the topic of Affordable Housing. This will be an opportunity to bring together service providers (such as RCMP, medical professionals, fire department, etc.) with local employers, elected officials and those in need of appropriate affordable housing. A key component of the forum would be to educate the community in the issues homelessness and the dire need for affordable housing on Gabriola. The forum will include key note speakers who have dealt with homelessness and affordable housing in similarly rural areas and will also include a full day of workshops designed to involve the community in the process of coming up with workable solutions to these crises.
- An Affordable Housing Strategy: The ultimate goals of our project is to develop an affordable housing strategy. We believe this will be a living document, but in order to fully influence the OCP and land use bylaws a realistic, well thought out strategy is required. The basis of our work in this area is formed by the Gabriola Island Affordable Housing Needs Assessment that was completed in 2009 and the more recent Affordable Housing Toolkit which was completed by contract for the Islands Trust. We have confidence that the engagement of an experienced consultant and the input of Housing Task Force will ensure a credible, realistic and fulsome document.
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