Housing has been very much in the news this week, and Happy City and our partners Streets are For People (SAFP) have been in the thick of it as we prepare a formal response to the City of St Johns’ proposed housing regulation changes.

• We attended the two public information/engagement sessions that took place this week, but if like us you still have views to share, you can follow the link above, see the related documents and email cityclerk@stjohns.ca with your own response at any time up to 9:45am on May 28th.
• These submissions will be summarized to council and in June or July council will again meet to debate the housing regulation changes – possibly further changed by staff due to public feedback.
• Both David Brake, Happy City’s Vice Chair and Myles Russell of SAFP have been on the media touting the early findings of our joint report
  • David Brake was on Open Line on Tuesday and…
  • Myles Russell was on Open Line on Wednesday
  • CBC’s The Signal on Wednesday did an hour-long show on housing across NL featuring the head of the Homebuilder’s Association of NL, and Happy City was invited to comment specifically about the housing regulation changes.
• On Thursday, the latest edition of Vital Signs from the Community Foundation of NL and Memorial University’s Harris Centre was released. The well-regarded annual collection of statistics on the well-being of the province featured several pages this year on housing issues.

You’ll find a link to our first submission to the city on this site on the 28th, but we hope this will only be the start of a wider discussion about housing policy in the coming months and we hope as well to produce a more detailed report later which will contain more of the research and analysis that we have been conducting – plus, we hope, an opportunity to respond to the city’s revised proposals and your own reactions. Stay tuned!

The recent developments at Tent City on the grounds of the Colonial Building are of great concern to Happy City St. John’s. We call on the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the City of St John’s and the RNC to uphold the rights of those living there and treat them with dignity and respect.

As in other cities across the country, Tent City’s residents and volunteers have highlighted the need to address the housing crises our community faces. There continues to be a shortage of affordable housing. In particular, the media and Tent City residents have shone a spotlight on an ongoing lack of safe and adequate shelter with appropriate supports for those with complex needs.

We call on all levels of government to work collaboratively, transparently and quickly with local organizations and those with lived experience to address the pressing needs of those in Tent City and the many others who are precariously housed across the province. These members of our community have been promised appropriate accommodation and supports – all must work together to ensure this is the case.