235 search results for
Housing and homelessness
Recommendation 5:
Create more scattered site program units for youth with rental subsidies and funding support positions in organizations who can partner with property management companies and provide case management. Additionally, organizations should network with other agencies that have access to housing to ensure youth are prioritized.
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Recommendation 2:
Create cross-sector collaboration to ensure adequate data collection related to women experiencing homelessness and the ability for knowledge sharing.
- Women are more likely to be a part of the invisible population of those who experience homelessness, which has resulted in an inaccurate estimation of how many women experience homelessness in our province.
- Cross-sector organization will promote more accurate data collection as a result of increased awareness through knowledge sharing.
- Connections between sectors can use the strengths of each sector to help limit barriers to housing by creating more efficient systems.
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Recommendation 3:
Create a workforce development plan to address the recruitment and retention challenges in assisted living, and ensure that clear training standards are developed for all staff working in front-line and health-care supervisory positions in both private-pay and publicly subsidized assisted living residences.
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Recommendation 50:
Continue to build a continuum of social housing that offers a flexible range of supports that respects the choice and autonomy of citizens to transition into safe, permanent housing.
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Recommendation 8:
Conduct research and complete environmental scans of current services and promising practices.
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Recommendation 90:
Comprehensive federal, provincial, and municipal Indigenous Housing policy framework to specifically address Indigenous homelessness.
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Recommendation 1:
CMHC and BC Housing should clarify that the National Occupancy Standards are simply guidelines and are not legally mandated. These organizations should publish definitive statements on their website to make this information publicly accessible.
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Recommendation 17:
Chinatown Economic Revitalization Plan and Chinatown Neighbourhood Plan
In the Memorandum issued on June 22, 2018 from General Manager of Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability, Gil Kelley, to Mayor and Council, an update was provided as to the status of implementation of the Economic Revitalization Strategy Actions in the Chinatown Neighbourhood Plan and Economic Revitalization Strategy (2012). While it was recognized that “many actions were completed or are underway,” there are key actions that have yet to be implemented that would support and alleviate some of the challenges identified within our research.
Specifically for Chinatown’s food retail environment, we recommend refinement of several of the strategic actions:
In the Memorandum issued on June 22, 2018 from General Manager of Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability, Gil Kelley, to Mayor and Council, an update was provided as to the status of implementation of the Economic Revitalization Strategy Actions in the Chinatown Neighbourhood Plan and Economic Revitalization Strategy (2012). While it was recognized that “many actions were completed or are underway,” there are key actions that have yet to be implemented that would support and alleviate some of the challenges identified within our research.
Specifically for Chinatown’s food retail environment, we recommend refinement of several of the strategic actions:
- “Tenant recruitment strategy” could benefit from selective recruitment of businesses that would contribute to the Chinatown character that many of our business interviewees and consumers have identified as ideal additions to the neighbourhood. These were often described as “Chinese businesses” but further work would need to be completed to assess neighbourhood fit in regards to socio-economics and accessibility of these business.
- “Tenant retention strategy.” As with the experience of the BIA, the “lack of succession planning makes retention challenging.” Due to the contributions that traditional businesses make to the neighbourhood character, through intangible values with the social and cultural connections they hold, we recommend that a working group be formed to come up with options that the City, other levels of government, as well as other stakeholders can implement to assist with succession planning of these businesses. Namely, to explore how traditional businesses can succeed in becoming community- and membership- owned entities. Applying cooperative values can serve the community/membership as well as democratizing ownership and economics of the business.
- “Tourism and Marketing Strategy.” More specifically for Chinatown’s Marketing Strategy, we recommend actions including measures to build social and cultural relationships between traditional and non-traditional businesses. As our research has shown, there are missed intra-neighbourhood economic opportunities due to parallel and segregated economic and social systems. Marketing opportunities within the neighbourhood to businesses across cultural lines would contribute to neighbourhood connectivity. The external aspects of the Tourism and Marketing Strategy would also benefit from a more socially cohesive business environment in Chinatown.
- From our findings, there is also a desire from business operators for further “clean-up of public spaces with local business”. Current actions are not satisfactory based on our interview findings. This ongoing challenge can be attributed to larger systemic issues. We stress that ‘clean-up’ does not mean increasing police presence in the neighbourhood.
- Include a Community Economic Development strategy that is based entirely from a culturally and community specific lens. This recommendation includes legitimizing and uplifting the survival economy, informal economy, and other systems that have been pushed to the margins, with measures to increase opportunities for more equitable and inclusive employment.
While housing was not specifically researched for this report, housing has significant impacts on neighbourhood food retail and social environment. Market-based development in Chinatown and its surrounding areas have created and reinforced actors in parallel systems, economically and socially, for both businesses and consumers. These systems draw out the social distance between community members and limits the potential of socially cohesive communities to thrive. It is recommended that housing be addressed with culturally specific needs in mind, including culturally specific seniors housing. Development guidelines such as frontage, use, size of retail units, and other zoning and permitting should be explored as ways to direct the types of businesses and ownership that will end up occupying retail spaces in the neighbourhood.
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- Accessibility ,
- Accessible services and technology ,
- Alternative solutions ,
- Classism ,
- Discrimination and hate ,
- Economic inequality ,
- Food insecurity ,
- Housing and homelessness ,
- Policing and the criminal justice system ,
- Poverty and economic inequality ,
- Public services ,
- Racism ,
- Tenancy rights ,
- Workers’ rights
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Recommendation 25:
Children in temporary care must be kept within an accessible distance to the parent with due consideration to the parents’ circumstances (financial etc). Where a child needs to be close to their home nation, parents must be given financial supports to ensure that there is adequate access to maintain family connection.
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Recommendation 13:
Change the City’s definition of social housing so that low income people are not excluded from any social housing.
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