Housing session for service providers and stakeholders

Session to take place March 21 in Mariners Centre community room

A housing session for service providers and stakeholders will be held Wednesday, March 21, in the community room at the Mariners Centre in Yarmouth.

Part of a project that has been looking at the region’s housing situation, the session is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to noon.

Organizers hope to hear from service providers, municipal councillors and municipal staff, builders, property owners and landlords, realtors, community volunteers and other interested stakeholders.

The session is another piece of a project that was launched last fall, an examination of the housing picture in an area covering Shelburne, Yarmouth, Digby, Annapolis and Kings counties and West Hants.

An initiative involving housing coalitions and other groups in partnership with Public Health, the project included a public survey, which about 4,700 people took.

“We’re really pleased with the response we received,” said Denise Vacon, health promoter with Public Health Services. “It took a lot of partners and a lot of collaborators to make it happen and we’ve been overwhelmed with the responses.”

Aside from getting input from the community at large through their public survey, those involved in the project also have tried to learn more about the housing challenges faced by different segments of the population.

“We know that particular groups are more vulnerable to housing insecurity and housing issues than others,” Vacon said.

Contacted March 9, Vacon said they were getting ready to release an interim report on precarious housing and homelessness.

The March 21 session is part of a project that was launched last fall, an examination of the housing picture in an area covering Shelburne, Yarmouth, Digby, Annapolis and Kings counties and West Hants.