On The Way Home

This week we are joined by Ray Sullivan the Executive Director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, and Katie Maslechko, the CEO of Rental Protection Fund in BC. They along with two other partners, have come together to form a coalition called the “Canadian Housing Acquisition Fund”, or “Canadian Housing AF”. We talk about the need for acquiring affordable housing and not just building new, how in BC they’ve done a provincial version of this already with great success, and how the ask of $2.5 billion hopes to create 10,000 new affordable housing units over the next 2 years. It’s one pod you don’t want to miss!

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Over the last 6 years, BC Housing has built more housing than any other government agency in Canada. Sara Goldvine, the Vice President of Equity and Corporate Affairs at BC Housing joins us to talk about this work, the challenges they face and how they overcome them (ie. NIMBYISM), and what the future looks like for the organization.

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This week we are joined by housing experts Steffan Jones and Jolene Livingston, two of the leads in the newly formed Partners for Affordable Housing a long-term framework that works with non-profit providers, private, public and philanthropic partners seeking solutions to one of Canada’s most pressing social crises to secure more funding, innovate and ideate, increase awareness, offer expertise, and help to share the risk in developing affordable housing.

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This week we are thrilled to be joined by Andrea Reimer and Khulud Baig to talk about the Intersectional Feminist Housing Agenda. We chat about how it came about, why it’s so important to have a gender lens on housing and homelessness, what their hopes are for the agenda, who their partners are and how others can get involved.

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Housing and Homelessness consultant and researcher Nick Falvo joins us once again on the podcast to talk about his incredible open access text book covering all things housing and homelessness. We talk about how his early years in front line work inspired the text book, why it was important for it to be free and accessible to anyone interested, what’s covered in the text, and much, much more. It’s a conversation you won’t want to miss!

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This week I’m joined by Dr. Melanie Doucet to talk about her work leading the the Equitable Transitions to Adulthood and a Just Pandemic Recovery for Youth in Care project alongside the National Council of Youth in Care Advocates. We talk about how Dr. Doucet’s lived experience has shaped her work and leadership, what she’s learned so far with the project, and her hopes for policy reform in Child Welfare moving forward.

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This week we talk with Joe Deschanes Smith, one of the founders of Trillium Housing, who has been working for over 10 years on a mortgage model that brings affordability and access to people wanting to own a home. We talk about Joe’s journey through politics into the world of affordable housing, how he started up Trillium, what’s happened so far, and his hopes for the future.

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On this week’s podcast, we are joined by Jen Taylor of Blue Sea Philanthropy and Dr.Darlene Sparks Washington from Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless to talk about the Coldest Night of the Year Event that is happening across North America on February 24th, 2024. We talk about the origins of the event, it’s growth over the years and now into the U.S, how it’s impacted Dr. Washington’s charity, and the hopes for the future of CNOY

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To create clarity, transparency and efficiency in the work of social service agencies and the police do together through their interactions in the community, the York Regional Police and social service organizations in York Region came together to create a memorandum of understanding that is shared with both staff and officers, ultimately resulting in better serving their most vulnerable across the Region. This week, we are joined by Detective, Tom Muir from the YRP and Alex Cheng, a Director at Blue Door, two of the leaders responsible for coordinating this effort. We chat about how the MOU came about, what the challenges were in putting it together, what their hopes are for it, the next steps, and how other organizations and police forces can reach out to do something similar in their communities.

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Frequent On The Way Home guest John Fox, the Managing Partner at Robins Appleby joins us to discuss four new bills related to housing in Ontario that have passed in the last year and a half. We talk about the bills, both the positive and the challenges, and what suggestions John has moved forward that might create a larger impact around ending our housing crisis. As always, John is brilliant, fun and creative in his approach, and it’s a conversation that you won’t want to miss!

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