She provided some anecdotal information from her work at the Fisherman's Hall, outlining some of the concerns she has received when it comes to gaining access to social housing in the community, particularly in the form of emergency shelter through the Salvation Army's work at Raffles Inn.
She touched on the recent story of a wheel chair bound Prince Rupert resident and his struggles to find accommodation in the community, though Councillor Kinney also offered up some background on that issue to provide some balance for the discussion on that theme.
Councillor Thorkelson review some points from the recent session with BC Housing held in Council Chambers (see North Coast Review March 29 ) and reinforced her concerns over the number of housing units that BC Housing had taken down over the last few years, units which have not been replaced with new housing units.
As part of her review of the situation, Councillor Thorkelson impressed upon Council the need to become more engaged in the issue, suggesting that Council provide a sternly worded letter expressing the need for supportive and low cost housing in the community. Providing copies not only for BC Housing officials, but for Provincial officials and those at Canada Mortgage and Housing.
She offered that up as a motion for Council to consider, on that theme both Councillors Cunningham and Ashley provided further points of concern that Council should express as part of their motion.
The full review of the discussion points on Social Housing can be found from the City's Video Archive for May 12th, the topic comes up for review at the 31 minute mark.
For More on Housing issues on the North Coast see our Housing archive page.
We have more items of note from the sessions of Prince Rupert council available on our archive page.
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