Evidence of meeting #44 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was city.
Executive Director, Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia
No.
Liberal
Executive Director, Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia
No.
Executive Director, Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia
I think the great thing about it is that it's not one and done, right? The problem I have with all the old subsidy models is that you spend the dollar, but you never get the dollar back. In this model, the money is recycled. It's not a grant. It's not a subsidy. It's an investment. That money comes back over time. The capital has to be patient in order for it to work, and then it gets recycled into the next affordable housing project. To me, that's the magic in the equation.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
How could the federal government help you in this land trust? What role could we play here?
Executive Director, Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia
CMHC's $2-billion annual subsidy or operating expenditure is going to sharply decline as those 35-year operating agreements expire. My advice to the federal government and to CMHC would be, don't spend more than you've already been spending. Take that money and create a short- and long-term equity fund and a financing fund that could be made available to community-based groups who've shown they have the capacity and shown that they can actually deliver on the ground, and use it to de-risk the housing proposition for private equity partners who can come in early and stay late. It would be a game-changer in Canadian housing policy to have those kinds of equity funds available to us.
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Excellent. That's outstanding.
You heard testimony from Christian and Teesha on the challenges that our youth face here. Can you play a role in that? Is there something that you can do with your land trust here?
Executive Director, Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia
Absolutely. I was so touched by some of those stories. That's what we're doing now in the Vancouver development. One of the four sites is going to be operated by Sanford Housing Society. They have a long track record of providing housing to people challenged by mental illness. On its own, that project in the 1700 block of Kingsway would not be viable, but in a land trust portfolio, backed by the other assets in the land trust, we can accept a lower operating revenue from that building on Kingsway because we can generate a bit more operating revenue from the project that's going to be right along the river, on Kent.
A traditional co-op or non-profit housing project is really a one-off development. It stands or falls on the viability of its individual pro forma, but if you can aggregate assets in a portfolio and take a portfolio approach, not only to developing the housing but to managing it, stewarding that asset over the long term, you can create a level of deep and continuing affordability across sites, across demographics, and across user groups that you can't possibly achieve project by project on the old funding model.
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank all of the witnesses for being here with us today. I also want to extend special thanks to Ms. Sharma, since her journey requires a lot of courage.
My question is for Ms. Williams.
I would like you to share the process and approach that led to putting in place all of the initiatives you outlined for us. Were there public consultations and partnership and cooperation with the organizations? How have all of these initiatives worked out concretely speaking?
Councillor, City of New Westminster
We set up our own task force on homelessness. I can't remember all the people, but faith-based organizations, churches, social organizations, everybody who had anything to do with poverty was invited to the table, including, of course, councillors. Through public consultation, many of the initiatives were brought out, and we have staff go out and have open houses on certain issues. Otherwise, I can say that our council is made up of like-minded individuals. We have hired a senior social planner, who's sent from heaven, I think, and he has guided our city into a very caring position.
I think that's how we were able to do it, especially the living wage, because people thought this was going to be doom and gloom. What's going to happen to everybody? The living wage is $20.64 at the moment. That means basic needs are met by a family, including even ballet lessons for your child or something like that. People have accepted these things. We're quite lucky.
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
That's very interesting. I will certainly look for more information on this.
Yesterday, we met with some people from one community who told us that in order to obtain results they had to think outside the box. I worked in the community sector and I know the usual way of thinking, which is that when there is a subsidy program, the organizations fight to obtain money.
Yesterday, the people from that community told us that there is now a new paradigm. They sit down together in order to see how best to use the available sums of money. Sometimes an organization will even say that it has money it won't be using, and then the various organizations together examine how another one of them could best use those subsidies.
Based on your experience working with various organizations, do you think that we have to rethink how we establish programs in communities, and design a mechanism to ask them how they want to get organized to meet their needs and find their own solutions?
Councillor, City of New Westminster
Yes, we have an ongoing homelessness coalition, for instance, and it is funded by the city. We provide the secretarial support, and everybody sits around the table like this and we actually decide, if there is money and if there are grants, where they are best spent. Sometimes it's seniors. Sometimes it's whatever. I would say that in our city we have co-operation among almost all our organizations, and they look now to the city for guidance. We're very lucky that way.
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
I was struck by something yesterday.
When we see innovative ways of doing things, we tend to think that we would like to see them brought in everywhere in Canada. However, we know that the realities and living conditions are very different from one community to another. In addition, various levels of government have to work together. You will have heard the previous witnesses speak about that challenge.
In light of your experience, what can we put in place to ensure that the municipal, provincial and federal governments work better together in order to obtain results for the citizens they represent?
Councillor, City of New Westminster
You know, we were very pleased, for instance, when the idea of a rent bank came up. We brought this idea to our MLA, and she ran with it and did the work for us and got it all set up with the credit unions and then announced it in the legislature. This was the co-operation, I think, that was necessary in our city. Our homelessness coalition, for instance—I always go back to that because I'm a member on this particular one—includes everybody, and I think also our member of Parliament is very accessible and available to come to any of our meetings and share.
Also, one thing is for sure; as you said, not every municipality or every area or every problem is the same. I'm willing to borrow any suggestion from anybody if it helps. This is why I brought all this. I'm willing to share. I don't believe in reinventing the wheel.
Liberal
Liberal
Anju Dhillon Liberal Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC
I will be sharing my time with MP Ruimy.
I have only one question. It's for Teesha Sharma. Can you please tell us how you overcame the adversity that you faced in your life and how you are where you are today?
Youth Services Director, Community Education on Environment and Development Centre Society
After being cycled through youth shelters and being homeless and all of that, I was put in an apartment on the ministry's agreement. I had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. I spent six years in complete social isolation because I was out of physical harm, but I was.... You know, the things that my parents and their friends did were extensive.
It was six years, multiple suicide attempts, a lot of self-harm, and then I got to this one moment where I was pretty much ready to end it for the final time. What I learned is that it's actually harder to do. Physically, it's harder to kill yourself than the media may portray. I had three methods lined up, and I was about to do it. I got to this moment, and I just realized that if I did, my parents wouldn't have just taken away those years that I had lived, but they would have taken away all the years to come.
The next day I left my apartment for the first time in I can't say how long, and looked into ways to go to school to change the way that we work with youth. I did that. I graduated as valedictorian and then literally went to every organization. I wanted long-term housing for youth. I basically knocked on everybody's door and told them my story and what I wanted to do, and then I met Christian. He was the first one who said, “I don't know how I am going to help you, but I will find a way to do that.” It was finding that support .
It was also knowing that right now there are still 16 youth on the streets in Maple Ridge who are feeling the same way. I guess, to be honest, I just wanted to find a way so that no other kid had to feel every single day like they were worthless.
When we lost Iron Horse, that was really hard. Iron Horse was the only youth shelter in B.C. that allowed you to stay for a month, 30 days. It was the only time that I actually really slept. In all the other ones, I couldn't do it because I didn't feel safe. It took a couple of weeks to start to build up trust with somebody else, but it was that long-term...and having a youth worker kind of advocate.
It's so hard now to do this job knowing how all those kids feel. I think what makes it worth it for me, though, is just having to believe beyond anything else that there is a better way to do this. We have to step up and share our stories and share the actual hard truth, even though it's hard for people to hear. I think that's the only way that things are going to change.
I think that's kind of what got me to where I am now.
Executive Director, Community Education on Environment and Development Centre Society
If I may, with regard to the 16 youth who are there, we can't get them out of their situation because there's nowhere to take them. We need a safe house and a long-term shelter.
Liberal
Anju Dhillon Liberal Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC
I want to thank you, Teesha, wholeheartedly, and on behalf of the entire committee. Thank you for showing the courage and helping others in the community, and helping those who are going through what you went through.
I'll let Dan....
Liberal
Dan Ruimy Liberal Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC
Sure, leave the last bit to me and on that note.
I don't have a lot of time, but I want to make some comments here.
I've heard time and time again that there's no money, or, “If you spend money here, we have to raise taxes.” I don't buy that. That, to me, is an excuse. The reality is that we spend more money trying to clean up the messes we have.
What I don't understand is why governments can't figure this part out. You invest in youth mental health, you invest in the people who are not privileged, because that's what it comes down to. We have people who do well and they are part of a privileged class. They can go to a good school. They can have what they want. There are way more people out there who are not part of that privileged class and we seem to be okay with ignoring them. That's not acceptable to me.
I don't have a lot of time left. Christian, we've talked a lot about Iron Horse being shut down. Quickly, summarize the challenges of trying to get another youth shelter open.
Executive Director, Community Education on Environment and Development Centre Society
A youth shelter is licensed to house only five youth at a time, with one emergency bed. It costs about $300,000 a year to run a youth shelter like that. To suit the population that we know is here on the streets, we need three shelters. One of them needs to be a safe house; that is, the address is unknown to the public.
