Libraries play an important role in community development, including supporting people experiencing homelessness. This week we are joined by Sarah Tarcea from the North Vancouver Library, to talk about the work they are doing to create access and support for Vancouver’s most vulnerable.

This week we talk to Tyler Meredith, a policy expert who helped to craft the 2019 and 2021 election platforms for the Liberal party. We talk about his journey into policy work, some of the work he is most proud of in his time in government, what needs to be done to move us forward out of this housing crisis, and a unique policy solution both he and Alan Broadbent put together that would be both cost effective and impactful in creating new deeply affordable housing.

Listen in this week on the podcast, as we are joined by the brilliant Keir MacDonald, CEO of Coast Mental Health. He helps us to de-bunk some of the stigmas around mental health, why it’s so important to have supportive and affordable housing options for people exiting healthcare and treatment, and what has to change in order for us to make serious progress in ending homelessness moving forward.

Housing veteran Keith Gowans, CEO of Aloft Housing joins us on the pod to chat about the innovative housing solutions him and his team at Aloft have come up with, that provide an affordable, convenient, and speedy way to create the housing Canadians desperately need.

In May 2023, researcher Nick Flavo and Marky Clarke, General Manager of the Canadian Chartered Institute of Housing, organized a study tour of Housing professionals and individuals from policing in New York City, to explore programs and work being done around housing and preventing and ending homelessness. They join us to talk about the tour and the learnings from their time in NYC, as well as where future study tours might take place.

This week on the podcast, lived expert, Al Wiebe, shares his story of going from earning a six figure salary to living on the streets, the lessons he learned, and how he’s since taken that experience forward to change things for the better through his radio show, training police officers and healthcare professionals, and through many conversations with politicians and housing professionals.

We need tangible solutions to end the homelessness and housing crisis in Canada, and the recently released National Housing Accord is just that. Today I’m joined by Tim Richter, CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness and Michael Moffat Chief Executive at REALPAC to talk about how the accord came together, what it’s all about, their hopes for the future and how we all can support the accord moving forward.

This week on the pod, Frank Berube from CMHC joins to chat about the new Housing Accelerator Fund. We’ll discuss how it came fruition, how it can help address the national housing crisis, what the hopes are for the fund moving forward. Listen in on this timely conversation.

Migrant farmers play a huge role in feeding the country, yet when it comes to providing them with housing, decency and dignity are nowhere to be found. Advocate and lived expert, Gabriel Allahdua, joins us on this week’s pod, to share his experience and to chat with us about why he’s working hard to make sure migrant farmers can realize their right to dignified and acceptable housing and care.

The 2SLGBTQ+ community continues to be overrepresented in point in time counts across the nation that examine who might be experiencing homelessness. Although great strides have been made in creating awareness and recognizing the rights of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, recent events across Canada and the world have shown us, we still have far to go. This week on the podcast we are joined by Brian Middleton and Carl McLuhan, two retired teachers who have been together for almost 50 years. As we look back at their journey from coming out, to meeting and keeping their relationship a secret for fear of losing their jobs. We’ll then hear about why they’ve made a decision to make a gift to Blue Door’s 2SLGBTQ+ program, “Innclusion” in their will. Disclaimer: this episode could be triggering for some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.