BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
Let’s get real about affordable housing, with the Jane’s Walk on Friday, May 5 in Barrie.
Sometimes it’s all too easy to focus on the negative aspects of our neighbourhoods, towns and cities. Whether that’s an increasing fear of violence, inadequate social services or housing costs growing out of control. But there are many positive actions happening too, where people come together to celebrate what is right and put forward ideas and actions for fixing what is wrong.
One of those is happening right here in Barrie and you’re invited to join.
All across the world, at the beginning of May, ordinary people organize Jane’s Walks to encourage conversations about what kind of neighbourhoods we want to live in.
Here in Barrie, the Canadian Federation of University Women has sponsored a Jane’s Walk since 2015. We’ll be gathering together again, this time outside the Dorian Parker Centre at Sunnidale Park on May 5 at 10 a.m., so please join us.
Named after Canadian urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs, these are free, community-led and -organized walking conversations meant to put people in touch with their cities. And that’s what we hope to spark on May 5 – a walking conversation about the practical possibilities in our city for more affordable housing.
Did you know, for example, that there is a 10-Year Affordable Housing and Homelessness Prevention Strategy just wrapping up here in Simcoe County? With targets set back in 2014, and a results based report every year, we will hear directly from a county official about what worked, what needs to change and how to have input into the next plan.
And then we’ll carry on with our walking conversation.
As we stroll a few blocks through the neighbourhood, we’ll discuss what can be done in terms of seniors housing and the growing number of elderly struggling on fixed incomes. Older Canadians represent the fastest growing demographic in our country today.
We’ll then conclude in front of the Three Links Housing Co-operative to consider some very practical alternatives to market based housing. Co-operative housing has not been funded in this province for around 30 years, even though examples across the country show just how self-sustaining and inclusive co-ops can be in the face of skyrocketing housing costs.
The 2022 federal budget set aside monies to jump start this alternative again, although details have yet to be announced.
We’re inviting you to join us and be part of our Jane’s Walk on Affordable Housing and as Jane Jacobs herself wisely said: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody."
Carol Phillips
Barrie
