Category Archives: Housing

Housing, Politics, Poverty, Seniors

Blaney: Seniors living below the poverty line, GST rebates & carbon pricing

More than a third of the ‘housing insecure’ respondents to the survey on Quadra Island and 15% on Cortes Island were seniors. The percentage was lower throughout the Strathcona Regional District, but a significant number of residents are paying more for rent or mortgages than they can afford.  In the second half of an interview with North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney, she talks about ways the government can help seniors living below the poverty line.

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Housing, Politics, Poverty

Rachel Blaney: Canada needs a ‘Bar of Dignity’

According to data from the 2016 census, 20% of Quadra Island residents and 27% of Cortes Island residents are paying more for their homes in rent or mortgages than they can afford. More recent studies suggest that a significant number of families throughout the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) are so financially stretched that they are at risk of becoming homeless. 75% of the ‘housing insecure’ respondents to the ‘Collecting Stories of Where We Live’ survey on Cortes Island, and 33% on Quadra Island, are working. These are some of the people North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney is referring to, when she talks about the need for a bar of dignity.

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Housing, Politics

Becoming Cortes Island’s Regional Director, first steps 

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, Mark Vonesch is not yet the Regional Director for Cortes Island. That will happen on November 9, when he and the other Directors are all sworn in at the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) building in Campbell River. In today’s interview Vonesch talks about some of the preparations, the first things he hopes to accomplish as our Director and his new Alternate Director.

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Housing, Poverty

Solutions for the ‘Unsheltered’ and ‘at Risk’ crisis on Cortes and Quadra Islands

According to Linda Bernicki, Director of Rural Health and Wellness at the  Rural Development Network, “Housing is a human right and just not housing, safe and stable housing is a human right. So if I’m in housing that doesn’t have any heat or running water, then I’m denied a basic human right, and it takes all levels of government and all levels of society to work together to start to develop responses that is going to limit and homelessness.” 

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Housing

Tiny home resolution endorsed at UBCM

By Rachelle Stein-Wotten, Gabriola Sounder, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Union of BC Municipalities’ membership endorsed a resolution calling for changes to the BC Building Code to allow for tiny homes as permanent dwellings.

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