The community impact is direct at BC Housing
Credit to Author: Joshua Walters| Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2020 20:35:10 +0000
Responding to an increasing number of homeless people living rough on the sidewalk of 135th Street in Surrey, Carmen Hall and her colleagues from BC Housing (BCH) coordinated with the City of Surrey and the local health authority to provide 161 units of modular housing, moving people off the street and into small, self-contained studio apartments.
It was one of an ongoing series of initiatives that BCH has taken to provide affordable housing for vulnerable and at-risk populations in the province, and it reminded Hall of the reason why she joined the organization six years ago.
“I’d been doing outreach work in Surrey, connecting with BC Housing on behalf of my clients,” she says. “I saw the huge impact that they have on the community. They do good work, and I wanted to be part of it.”
Founded as a provincial Crown agency in 1967, BCH develops, manages and administers a wide range of subsidized housing options across the province, working with about 800 non-profit housing providers and helping more than 116,000 households in over 200 communities across British Columbia.
Specifically, the organization serves people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, as well as people with disabilities, Indigenous individuals and families, low-income seniors, people with mental illnesses and addictions, women and children at risk of violence, low-income families, and others who face challenges in finding affordable housing, as well as buyers of new homes.
“Creating safe, affordable and quality housing is core to BCH’s purpose,” says Stacey Lee, vice- president, human resources.
The B.C. government has allocated $7 billion over the next 10 years to deliver housing solutions to the province. “Our focus for the next few years is to make life more affordable and create more homes for people who live and work in our communities,” she says.
Hall joined BCH in 2013 as a tenant support worker. She became one of the organization’s coordinated access and assessment managers in 2018 after earning a social work degree through online studies.
“We give people the support they need to do the job,” says Lee. “They’re addressing some of the most challenging issues in our province, and they can see the positive impact on individuals and communities.”
Hall now works with non-profits, municipalities and health authorities to develop a range of housing options to accommodate the growing homeless population around Vancouver and municipalities east of the city.
“Housing is such an important issue,” she says. “You can make a difference here.”
This story was produced by Mediacorp in partnership with Postmedia, on behalf of BC Housing.