vancouver

Options housing strategy good for Vancouver?

/ Craig / Leave a comment

I really enjoyed an article in the Tyee series A Home for All, on affordable housing.  Toronto developer, Michael Labbe, declares

“Housing is the one area of social need that creates wealth,” he explained. “All the housing solutions we have created to date have tended to bury that wealth. This system makes that wealth available to many, because every purchaser helps expand a permanent solution to housing,” he said.

“I’m absolutely convinced that, either quickly or slowly, we are going to eliminate housing as a problem in Canada.”

I believe the Tyee article, Homes that Cost Less than Rental is a great contribution to the conversation on the home ownership in Vancouver.  What do you think about this concept?

trying to buy a house in Vancouver?

/ Craig / Leave a comment

In case you were still wondering why you are struggling to purchase a house in Vancouver…or if you were wondering why your rent is so high…The Vancouver Sun alerts us that we are one of the five least affordable cities in the world.  Recent conversations with people in the Cityview community have expressed hope that the downward trend in housing prices would prove helpful for them.  However, our friends on fixed incomes and below the poverty line are experiencing more challenges in finding places to live as rents move into the $1500 range for a two-bedroom.  I am currently concerned for some who are looking for new places because of redevelopment plans and in particular for one family that has gotten behind on rent because of less employment in the construction domain.

creating an environment where dyslexics THRIVE

/ Craig / Leave a comment

Jennifer Steffenhagen has an informative article on the THRIVE program in ONE Vancouver public school.  THRIVE, under the leadership of teacher, Tyson Schoeber, seeks to create a learning environment helpful to those children with a languaged based learning difficulty.  

Steffenhagen’s follow-up post in the Vancouver Sun is full of comments calling on the VSB and other school boards in BC to take an aggresive stance on the implementation of the Orten-Gillingham learning system.

a vancouver housing tragedy

/ Craig / Leave a comment

The Tyee has a story by Sean Condon on the life and death of Paul “Duncan” Giesbrecht.  His body was recovered in Stanley Park, September 15, one week from his move-in date for housing.  His story illustrates the need for a multi-layered strategy in Vancouver to building community and care with our neighbours who are most vulnerable to distress and death.

There is still time to register for the Church & Affordable Housing Conference.

The Church & Affordable Housing Conference 2008
starts this Friday evening at 7:30 PM. Doors open at 6:30.
Online registration closes Thursday at 4 PM.
Registration is available at the door, but lunch on Saturday is not guaranteed.

Venue: Broadway Church, 2700 E Broadway (at Slocan) in Vancouver, 2 blocks north and 2 blocks west of Renfrew Skytrain Station.

There is also a Free Public Keynote Address 
Saturday, 7:30 PM, Oct 18th from Michael Brown.  I have pasted the information Jonathen Bryd regarding the free lecture below.

The Faith-based Roots of the Community Land Trust Movement

Michael Brown, Burlington Associates

Community land trusts seek to balance the legitimate property rights of individuals with those of the broader community. The dual view of land found in the Judeo-Christian tradition informed both the origin of the community land trust model and the evolution of the community land trust movement over time. We’ll spend some time considering what a community land trust (CLT) is and how it operates and why CLTs are becoming a preferred approach to community development and affordable housing in many of our communities. We’ll also examine the faith-based roots of the community land trust movement and reflect on how individuals and congregations of faith can most effectively be involved in supporting this dynamic and successful approach to permanently affordable housing and sustainable communities.

Michael Brown helped found one of the first community land trusts (CLTs) in the United States in eastern Tennessee in the early 1980’s and has been involved with CLTs ever since. In the past ten years, Michael’s primary clients have included some four dozen community land trusts, as well as municipalities, county governments state agencies, land developers, state wide housing intermediaries and community-based interfaith organizations.

Burlington Associates in Community Development , LLC is the premier provider of technical assistance to community land trusts In the United States. Several partners have been involved with the CLT Movement since the early 1980s. They have helped with the start-up of over 80 CLTs, while assisting many others with organizational development and long-term planning for the stewardship of their portfolios and the sustainability of their operations. The “CLT Resource Center” which Burlington Associates added to its website in 2005 has become the first place to which many practitioners turn when seeking training guides, legal documents, program evaluations, policy research, and other technical information about CLTs. Most of these materials can be downloaded free of charge.

Burlington Associates has worked in a diverse array of inner-city neighborhoods, suburban towns, and rural communities, assisting non-profit developers of affordable housing, municipal governments, state agencies, and community development financial institutions in 39 different states.