(Photo by Brandon Griggs on Unsplash)

Highlights:
● SAVE THE DATE! SUNDAY OCTOBER 2, 7:00 - 8:30 PM GVAT HOUSING AFFORDABILITY ASSEMBLY
● Write to support Gorge View affordable housing proposal today! (Public hearing Thursday July 28!)
● Win! Oak Bay allows secondary suites and boarders, without additional parking
● Profiles: Yvonne Hsieh & Camosun College Students’ Society

Greater Victoria Acting Together members have been campaigning to get Oak Bay to improve their secondary suite and roomers / boarders policies for years. And now Oak Bay has directed staff to create a better policy that some other area municipalities!

Greater Victoria Acting Together’s unions, faith, service, environmental and student organisations representing tens of thousands of people have had a busy year and many successes! We have supported decision makers to take steps to protect us from a changing climate, address affordable housing and find community first ways to address opioid overdose deaths.

At the urging of Greater Victoria Acting Together (GVAT), Councillor Jeremy Loveday made a motion to allign “the City of Victoria’s vehicle kilometres travelled targets with the targets within the Clean BC plan.” On June 9th Council voted unanimously in favor. This is an important step as the BC government’s CleanBC target is much stronger than Victoria’s present target for replacing automobile traffic with public transit, walking, rolling, and cycling.

In 2020-2021 GVAT member groups invited their members to the virtual town halls organized by the Project bringing stories of people in the region with lived experience of being unhoused to various community associations and allied groups in Victoria.

While Saanich has had affordable housing policies for almost 15 years and participates in regional housing programs, the municipality still faces a severe deficit of affordable rental housing. The recent Saanich Housing Strategy considers current and future needs and identifies a dozen high-priority actions to diversify and expand the affordable housing stock.