The Chair provided an update on the City of St. John’s Affordable Housing Strategy 2019-2028 and main areas of work.
Growing Capacity
Affordable housing was pleased to partner with Choices for Youth to welcome two National colleagues to St. John’s; Dominika Krzeminska the Director of Strategic Initiatives with CHRA and Stéphan Corriveau, the Executive Director of the newly formed Community Housing Transformation Centre.
The week’s agenda included:
- Individual meetings with community housing providers/ support organizations
- Meetings with City of St. John’s and NLHC government officials to discuss regional strategic directions and opportunities for collaboration
- ‘Growing Capacity in Community Housing’ public forum. This event sought to raise awareness on the two organizations, their programs and capacities. It allowed attendees to engage with these National Organizations and discuss our together discuss our local context within their National mandates and strategic priorities.
- Choices for Youth and Happy City co-hosted a panel discussion on Affordability in St. John’s. Dominika took part in this event as the panelist on housing affordability.
Following discussion, the below was noted:
- Ayon Shahed invited the Panel to have further conversation with CHRA and CHTC.
- There is a need to speak further about urban indigenous issues.
- First Light is planning an event for September and there will be a relevant FCM Conference in the Fall.
- The Urban Indigenous Coalition is developing the terms of reference and are getting ready to set up working groups with four priority areas, one of which is specific to housing and homelessness. Updates will be brought to a future meeting.
Successful Tenancies
The Your Rights and Responsibilities as a Tenant document developed by the City and our affordable housing partners, has been updated to reflect the Residential Tenancies Act changes that came into effect in 2019. The document has recently been translated into French and Arabic and has been uploaded to the City of St. John’s website City of St. John’s> publications> housing.
Housing Catalyst Fund
A Housing Catalyst Grant selection committee was established to review submissions. It included the CMHC Affordable Housing Specialist, NLHC Manager of Affordable Housing programs and the following internal staff: Chief Municipal Planner, Supervisor– Tourism & Events, Manager- Housing and the Affordable Housing and Development Facilitator. Due to remaining funds from 2019, the selection committee was able to recommend seven applications for funding, 5 at $10,000 and an additional 2 at $5,000 each. Recommendations were approved by Committee of the Whole on February 12th and adopted at the Regular Council Meeting on February 24, 2020.The Housing Catalyst Fund release was posted February 24, 2020.
Property Standards
Affordable Housing continue to reach out to Eastern Health to see if they would be interested in the ‘Safe and Healthy Housing’ Presentation. The next scheduled presentation will be held for Stella’s Circle staff on March 5th.
Land
Habitat for Humanity will be applying for rezoning on the City owned Eric Street parcel of land. Internal consultations continue to be held to investigate any concerns raised with the proposed development to date. Habitat for Humanity are preparing a potential design and until this design is submitted to the Planning Department, community concerns can’t fully be investigated as they relate to the project (ex. impact on trees or traffic flow). In the interim, there was an engagement meeting with the West End Community Alliance to outline concerns and ensure that the project process and current phase are understood. This was an informal meeting outside of the formal public consultations that are part of the rezoning process. A summary will be sent to Deputy Mayor O'Leary.
Once the potential design has been submitted, an engagement meeting will be held with the community gardeners and Habitat for Humanity to discuss possibilities for revitalization of the garden.
An engage page has been set up that outlines the project background, FAQs and the project lifecycle https://www.engagestjohns.ca/eric-street
It was noted that there will be a full debrief of this project.
NIMBY
The Affordable Housing Working Group determined there was value in updating the NIMBY toolkit to include new case studies, an updated contact list and revised CSJ Planning Process. The update is now complete. The new revised document has been uploaded on the Canadian Home Builders of Newfoundland and Labrador website and is linked on the City of St. John’s Website under publications> housing. A workshop and relaunch event are being planned for May 2020.
Social Marketing Strategy
A social marketing campaign has been created to tackle the fears associated with affordable housing through increased information (awareness campaigns, success stories, etc.) and focusing on the benefits of affordable housing. Three videos are complete and a revitalized website to accompany these videos is now being created. The goal is to launch this social marketing strategy in tandem with the NIMBY workshop. The Chair will send the link to members.