The document was circulated to all local governments on the Sunshine Coast for endorsement following an emergency housing meeting held March 1, organized by the District of Sechelt.
The call to action identifies the housing crisis as “the single greatest threat to equitable and sustainable communities as well as economic development on the Sunshine Coast” and calls for “a new approach” to the issue.
At a March 17 council meeting where it was discussed, Coun. Matt McLean said endorsement of the call to action “is the first step in kicking off a collaborative process where we can learn from others, work together and start coming up with solutions.”
Coun. Alton Toth said he would vote in favour of endorsement but was concerned about the call to action points “in that they’re not directly actionable items.”
“They’re very high level,” he said. “I think it’s going to be hard for us to track any sort of meaningful progress,” adding he was concerned about staff capacity .
He also raised concern about a lack of involvement from the construction community.
McLean said the Housing Needs Implementation Framework, included as part of a review of housing on the Sunshine Coast that was published last October, could be a source of concrete action, and a commitment to implementing it was included in the call to action.
Coun. Tom Lamb said while he supported the initiative, he shared Toth’s concerns. “It’s great to have the community and all these organizations get together and say yes we have to move forward, but most of these organizations don’t have the ability to put a shovel in the ground or put a building up, and that’s what we need,” he said.
Coun. Brenda Rowe said the call to action is intentionally high level. “There’s lots of people who have committed to this and I’m not getting lost in the minutia of it. It’s very high level like most call to actions are.”
Mayor Darnelda Siegers said she fully supported the call to action, also, because it provides a “common lens” to help organizations in their day-to-day decisions.
McLean said he said he wants to engage developers, but “there is so much more we can be doing to keep our residents here, and that’s what I think this commitment really entails.”
Siegers said connecting with the building community should be a part of the conversation, but that discussion is “longer term.”
Coun. Janice Kuester also supported the call to action and said it will motivate governments and organizations to take “small incremental steps.”
The organizations that participated in the housing meeting, including not-for-profits such as Habitat for Humanity, Lions Club Housing Society, local governments on the Sunshine Coast, and others, have also been asked to endorse the call to action.
At the same meeting, councillors chose not to act on a letter sent by Sunshine Coast Homelessness Advisory Committee chair Silas White to defer any bylaw enforcement that would require residential rental evictions until 2022, except in the case of significant health or fire safety risks.
District of Sechelt staff said they observe and are aware of bylaw infractions and look at “communication and public solving options prior to strict enforcement.
Complaints are more likely to come from tenants living in poor situations rather than neighbours attempting to kick out tenants from suites,” said staff.
McLean said he wasn’t aware of any specific issues, but that Sechelt’s zoning bylaw has “challenging provisions” that could prevent people from renting secondary suites.
Toth noted there are “a number of compounding issues that make it harder and harder to facilitate renting secondary suites,” and suggested advocacy might be a way forward.
The Town of Gibsons has endorsed the call to action and created a motion to facilitate bylaw enforcement deferrals.
The SCRD has also endorsed the call to action, and the letter from the homelessness committee will be included in an upcoming housing workshop for SCRD board directors.
