Representatives from the community met this morning to discuss what the housing board should look like in our community. The Kamloops Housing Board will be utilized to help establish and communicate the affordable housing needs of the community by bringing together information and expertise from the City of Kamloops, non-profit organizations, service providers, businesses and citizens at large. The membership will include all sectors of the community that have direct interests in housing and housing related matters. The Local Housing Board will be built on models from other Canadian communities and tailored to suit the specific challenges faced in Kamloops.
The primary purpose of the Local Housing Board will be to collect, analyze and distribute housing information to the membership to facilitate informed decision making. Together with the support of the City of Kamloops and the Social Planning Council, the Local Housing Board will become an avenue to discuss recent trends, to evaluate supply and demand, to establish community priorities in an open forum and to discuss legislative reform where deemed necessary. Some additional items that may be addressed by the Local Housing Board include, but are by no means limited to:
o Inform interested parties on housing matters
o Create & maintain a housing registry
o Establish community based methods to protect and enhance local housing stock
o Recommend changes to the RTA & other legislation &/or policy.
The Local Housing Board is anticipated to comprise a diverse group able to provide intimate knowledge of changes occurring in the social and affordable housing landscape of our community. This group will form a single source of information that will allow all participants to obtain the data and facts needed to develop successful systems and policies. The data will be made available to the board, and other groups, with the goal of improving the provision of housing and housing resources in Kamloops.
