Mayor Lisa Helps: Victoria’s approach to affordable housing, council values
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps still remembers the headlines that questioned whether she was “off her rocker” when it came to plans for addressing chronic homelessness across the southern tip of Vancouver Island.
Just over a year later – and with progress being made toward just that – Helps said she is proud of what has been accomplished through the Regional Housing First Program. Helps discussed the program with Municipal World CEO Susan Gardner at the 2019 Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference.
Collaborative Approach to Addressing Homelessness
“We have taken a really innovative approach to housing as a region. It’s going to take some time. We’re behind in terms of 30 years of disinvestment from higher levels of government,” Helps said. “Fast forward one year and we’re abut 1,100 units into the program. We’re moving really quickly; it’s exciting. They’re not all built yet, but that’s what we’ve committed to so far.”
Back in May 2018, the focus was put on building a mix of affordable housing options. This initiative was supported by the region, province, and feds each equally contributing to a $90 million fund. The program’s approach, Helps explained, is that every new building will see 20 percent of units dedicated for people who are homeless, about 30 percent of units being rent-geared-to-income, and 50 percent of units being made available at just below market prices.
At first, Helps said, some members of the public questioned the new affordable housing approach. However, once the public started seeing projects come forward – along with the potential the program had for allowing people to live where they work and, in some cases, where they grew up – local support for the program began to grow.
Council Commitment to Collective Shared Values
This collaborative approach is one Helps champions in the video, not just around housing, but in how politicians work together. After coming through what she describes as a “very contentious election campaign last October,” Helps said she insisted of development of a declaration of principles and values that would outline how council would work together.
Council’s process for developing the declaration was “quite inspiring,” Helps said. So too, she added, was the fact it was adopted unanimously.
“It talks about how we work with each other, how we work with staff, and how we work with the public,” she said. “Our responsibility is to check in on it once a quarter. It is a good tool to hold us accountable to ourselves.” MW
✯ Municipal World Insider and Executive Members: You might also be interested in the article: Tackling housing affordability: Considering a new approach for Ontario. Note that you can now access the complete collection of past articles (and more) from your membership dashboard.
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