Terms for Housing Committee to be examined at Monday's Council meeting

Councillor Joy Thorkelson has completed her homework and delivered  to City Hall a report on her twin proposals for a new approach towards Housing issues in Prince Rupert.

The Councillor's report, which will be considered at Monday's Council session, provides some background on the long running issue of housing in the community.

It has been a topic that has been part of the discussion at Council meetings for a few years now, a concern that has for the most part, featured more talk than work thus far.

Ms. Thorkelson's current review offers up a short synopsis of some of the main talking points of recent months, as well as some of the preparation work that is in place regarding the initiative.

She then concludes the report with an outline for the Terms of Reference that she has in mind for the two Committees that Council will consider on Monday.

Her report expands on her surprise suggestion of February 12th, that the City set up two small and effective housing committees to consider housing issues.

The overview provides for a short timeline of work, with the Committee tasked to report back to  Council by April 15th.

You can review the Terms of Reference for the two Committees below:

A. Housing Prioritization Committee
Terms of Reference

1. To engage with all sectors of the community to identify the extent of:

a) Critical housing needs (how many people don't have housing)

b) Urgent or looming housing needs (how many people are in danger of losing their housing)

c) Necessary, but not urgent, housing needs (how many people require different housing than present housing)

d) Future housing desires

2. To collect a list of suggestions from the community on how some of these needs maybe met.


B. Housing Identification Committee
Terms of Reference

1. To engage with the City Planning department, Social Services, Salvation Army and the public to identify rental units, temporary housing units and multiple-family housing units

2. To engage with CMHC, B.C. Housing, and M'akola to determine present, immediate future and medium term housing needs and supply

3. To meet with local realtors, apartment owners and others to determine present rental availabilities and predicted growth in the private sector.

You can review her full report to Council from the Agenda package for Monday's Council session, Councillor Thorkelson's recommendations and the background for them can be found on pages 11 to 13.

Further review of housing issues in the community can be found on our Housing Archive page.

For more items related to City Council developments see our Council archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review