Rural housing forum to be held in Cornwallis
Sept. 18 event will touch on various issues, including rural homelessness, and include discussion on possible solutions
“We have folks living in situations (where they) might have, technically, a roof over their head, but it’s neither adequate, affordable or suitable and, in some cases, ultimately (could be) dangerous.”
An upcoming forum on rural housing will feature various sessions and give participants a chance to consider housing from a number of different angles, a spokesperson for the event says.
The forum will take place Sept. 18 at the Annapolis Basin Conference Centre in Cornwallis.
Organizers are looking to get participation from people in the social sector and not-for-profit groups, as well as municipal leaders, government officials and people who work in economic development.
There will be “quite a diverse range of topics that can accommodate a lot of different perspectives,” said Denis Vacon, health promoter with Public Health Services and one of those involved in planning the event. “That was the hope with the forum because, really, housing is everybody’s issue.”
Vacon was involved in a major project that examined housing in western Nova Scotia, an effort that was launched in the fall of 2017 and included a public survey.
An initiative involving housing coalitions and other groups in conjunction with Public Health, the survey found housing insecurity and the risk of homelessness are prevalent across the region. Housing insecurity was found to be more common than many people perhaps thought.
Thirty-seven per cent of respondents said they likely couldn’t keep living where they were, “which really is an indicator that they’re at risk for homelessness,” Vacon said. “Thirty-seven per cent is a lot.”
Vacon will conduct a session at the Cornwallis forum on rural homelessness.
The session will help participants get a picture of the problem of homelessness in a rural community.
“Rural homelessness isn’t always seen as homelessness because we don’t necessarily have the visibility of folks walking the streets,” Vacon said. “We have folks living in situations (where they) might have, technically, a roof over their head, but it’s neither adequate, affordable or suitable and, in some cases, ultimately (could be) dangerous.”
Aside from finding there was a high level of housing insecurity in western Nova Scotia, the 2017-18 survey also found housing insecurity affects many people across different income levels.
“It’s often linked to poverty, but our housing situation isn’t exclusively linked to poverty,” Vacon said. “You could be having sufficient income and you want to move out of your house that’s too big and there’s still nowhere else to go.”
For more on the housing picture in western Nova Scotia, or to register for the Sept. 18 forum, visit www.daashgroup.com
Denise Vacon