GVAT Blog & Newsletters
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July Newsletter from Greater Victoria Acting Together - Save the date for Oct 2nd Housing Assembly!
Highlights:
● SAVE THE DATE! SUNDAY OCTOBER 2, 7:00 - 8:30 PM GVAT HOUSING AFFORDABILITY ASSEMBLY
● Write to support Gorge View affordable housing proposal today! (Public hearing Thursday July 28!)
● Win! Oak Bay allows secondary suites and boarders, without additional parking
● Profiles: Yvonne Hsieh & Camosun College Students’ Society
Win! Oak Bay allows secondary suites and boarders, without additional parking
Greater Victoria Acting Together members have been campaigning to get Oak Bay to improve their secondary suite and roomers / boarders policies for years. And now Oak Bay has directed staff to create a better policy that some other area municipalities!
June 2022 Newsletter from Greater Victoria Acting Together
Greater Victoria Acting Together’s unions, faith, service, environmental and student organisations representing tens of thousands of people have had a busy year and many successes! We have supported decision makers to take steps to protect us from a changing climate, address affordable housing and find community first ways to address opioid overdose deaths.
Win! Victoria’s new Peer Assisted Crisis Team to start work this summer: Feds decriminalize opioids
Members of the Mental Health and Addiction Research Team met with a team in Eugene, Oregon to learn about its success in developing community support for a successful alternative for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. They also studied some Canadian examples.
Win! Victoria takes another small step to make transportation, and housing, affordable and sustainable.
At the urging of Greater Victoria Acting Together (GVAT), Councillor Jeremy Loveday made a motion to allign “the City of Victoria’s vehicle kilometres travelled targets with the targets within the Clean BC plan.” On June 9th Council voted unanimously in favor. This is an important step as the BC government’s CleanBC target is much stronger than Victoria’s present target for replacing automobile traffic with public transit, walking, rolling, and cycling.
Combating the stigma of homelessness - GVAT and the Existence Project
In 2020-2021 GVAT member groups invited their members to the virtual town halls organized by the Project bringing stories of people in the region with lived experience of being unhoused to various community associations and allied groups in Victoria.
Letter to editor by GVAT Climate Team: Province must protect old-growth forests before it’s too late
By shifting from raw log exportation to value-added industries we could employ up to 32 times as many people per cubic metre of timber, allowing reduced harvest, expanded economic benefit and greater employment.
‘A Roof for All’ Workshop helps shape GVAT’s housing campaign
While Saanich has had affordable housing policies for almost 15 years and participates in regional housing programs, the municipality still faces a severe deficit of affordable rental housing. The recent Saanich Housing Strategy considers current and future needs and identifies a dozen high-priority actions to diversify and expand the affordable housing stock.