February 2018

On January 30th, two members of the housing groups Imagining Home and Intentionally Built Communities (IBC) had an audience with Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor, Elizabeth Dowdeswell! The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell is a newly appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. She has been meeting Ontarians at Round Tables for the past few months while she thinks about a theme for her tenure in this role. Families and residents of Durham Region were keen to discuss the topic of affordable housing.

Mayor Adrian Foster of Clarington was asked to convene a Round Table in his area on any topic he thought important to his community. He chose affordable housing and invited a small group of ten citizens to share their ideas and experiences on housing. Because of recent conversation with Wanda Huntington, a member of both Imagining Home and IBC, along with the excellent representation of the two groups at the Budget meeting last November, the mayor thought of giving us two of the presentations for our Lieutenant Governor. Wanda was out of town, so Marilyn Lo Turco and Janet Klees, in the end, were able to speak.

Our Key Messages

We, of course, told stories and spoke our key messages: portable rent subsidies, renovation loans, more affordable rental builds and the possibility of intentional community. Marilyn’s presentation, which can be read here, brings a family perspective. The presentation read by Janet, which can be read here, tells from the perspective of neighbour. Next housing meeting for Imagining Home is Wednesday, February 14th, 6:30 pm. We will get updates on this, exciting new possibilities across the Region, and hear Eleanor Werner’s presentation which she gave to the Ontario Municipality conference last December.

To read more about the meeting, check out Jennifer O’Meara’s article for Clarington This Week.