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British Columbia is in the grips of a housing affordability crisis decades in the making. The Province has an ambitious plan to tackle the crisis through the largest investment in housing affordability in B.C.’s history. Tasked with building tens of thousands of homes in hundreds of communities is BC Housing, the agency responsible for developing, managing, and administering a wide range of subsidized housing and homelessness services across the province. BC Housing doesn’t do this alone, they work with hundreds of partners. In this podcast, you’ll hear from those tackling the crisis head on.
Hello and welcome to Let's Talk
Housing.
I'm your host, Sara Goldvine.
On today's episode, we talk about
building resilience in community housing.
With increasing impacts
of climate change, fires
and extreme heat,
how can housing providers
support tenants with building
the relationships and support systems
that communities need to thrive?
We're joined for this conversation
by Stacy Barter, Executive
Director of Building Resilient
Neighbourhoods and by BC Housing’s own
Alex Johnston, Manager,
Tenant Engagement.
They'll discuss an innovative pilot
project to foster belonging in BC
Housing directly managed buildings
as part of the Sustainability
and Resiliency Strategy.
Before we get underway,
I'd like to acknowledge
that we are recording
today's session on the territories
of the Musqueam, Squamish,
and Tsleil-Waututh and the
Halkomelem speaking peoples.
I express my gratitude
to their peoples, past and present.
Also for transparency,
we are recording this episode
in November of 2024
and the conversation
reflects the priorities of that time.
Stacy,
Alex, welcome to Let's Talk Housing.
Thanks for having us. Hi,
Sarah. Thanks so Much.
Yeah, so...
So maybe, Stacy, we can,
we can start with you.
Can you tell us a little bit
about your organization
and the work that you do
to build resilience in community?
Yeah, sure.
Thanks so much for having me today.
So I'm the Executive Director
of Building Resilient Neighbourhoods.
We're a nonprofit organization
based in BC, and our name
kind of says it all.
Really what we focus on
is trying to build more resilient
communities and neighbourhoods.
And more recently,
we've been focusing a lot on
multi-unit housing as communities
where we can foster
and increase resilience.
Thank you for that.
And, Alex, of course, your team is
doing a lot of work with Stacy.
And our audience
will know about BC
Housing, but I think they
probably don't know a lot about what
what your...
What your team does here.
Can you tell us a little bit about
the work that your team leads
at BC Housing?
Yeah.
So I'm
the Manager of Tenant Engagement
or one of three with our Housing
and Health Services team here.
And just in the past
year, we have a brand new team
within health services
called Tenant Engagement Workers.
So they're really doing
a lot of this work.
And, at the forefront of programing
and tenant engagement and helping
to create these resilient communities
within our buildings.
Yeah.
So, so for folks who don't know,
you mentioned within our buildings,
can you tell us a little bit
about BC Housing’s
directly managed buildings.
And what that looks like here
in British Columbia?
Yeah. So we own and operate,
I don't know the exact number, but,
probably in the Lower
Mainland, roughly 35 to 4000 units
of directly managed housing.
And then also elsewhere
in the province.
So these are buildings
that we have our own staff at.
So we are the landlords essentially,
but we also with our Housing and Health
Services team,
have supports onsite for tenants,
and that can look like Tenant
Support Workers or Housing and Health
Services Nurses or Coordinators.
So they're really focused on
folks’ health and also helping
with those day to day,
things that they may need, such
as filling out paperwork or pest
control or other situations
that can come up for our tenants.
But we really saw a need,
especially with the
extreme heat being more prevalent
these past few years, that we’re doing
more work around education
and preparation with our tenants.
So they're more prepared,
and just safer during those events,
as well as other emergencies or
natural disasters that could happen.
Yeah.
So let's build
on that a little bit Alex.
You know as you mentioned
BC Housing does manage...
It's, it's actually right now
is just over 5000
around the province.
But most of those units as you
mentioned
are here, in the Lower Mainland.
So when you when you think about for,
for BC Housing,
what does resilience mean?
It's this big word.
It could mean many different things.
Can you tell us just a little bit
about what that means
for the buildings
as well as for tenants.
For us, or how I see it,
is that both our buildings
and the tenants
that live within them, and also
the staff are just more prepared.
They're able to respond to challenges
or emergencies that might come up,
and then they can also recover
and come back from them, too,
because we've,
not just with
extreme heat and natural disasters,
but unfortunately,
we've also encountered
other significant emergencies
at some of our buildings,
like fires or floods
or things like that.
So we're just trying to ensure that
the people within these buildings
have the tools that they need
to be prepared and looked after,
essentially, if there's something
like this that occurs.
And I think for specifically
BC Housing and our tenants,
that would look like more informed
tenants, better prepared
just knowing about resources
and what's in the community,
being more connected to their
neighbours just so they feel like
they have more of a toolkit
and they're not so alone
too, like a lot of our tenants,
especially
our seniors, are living on their own.
They have limited social connections
and ties.
So I think it's really important
that we're taking this into account
and trying to foster these positive
relationships in our buildings
to hopefully
encourage
them to help each other, too.
So they're looking out
for their neighbours.
They're aware of what's
maybe coming up weather wise,
or what could potentially happen
if an emergency occurred.
So I think that's our main goal.
And what we see is a resilient
community looking like at our sites.
Right. Yeah.
So it's about so much more
than the building, right?
Social networks,
particularly for folks
who might be facing barriers.
Maybe, Stacy, can you share a little bit?
It's right
in the name of your organization,
you know,
how would you explain resilience
and specifically what
what do you think
the role is of resilience
in housing at a time of,
of some of the stresses
that Alex spoke about?
Yeah, yeah, thanks for that.
I really liked how,
Alex summed that up.
And I think what I would add,
you know,
we tend to think of resilience
as like these invisible muscles
that we can build that serve us
when times get tough.
And certainly resilience, the ability
to proactively respond
when there's challenges
is so important
when there's emergencies.
We're seeing that more and more,
as Alex said, but also just
those kind of chronic stresses
that are around all the time.
That resilience is, is more than just
emergency preparedness.
It can serve us with all kinds
of challenges, whether that be,
you know, health challenges
or challenges around food security.
Whatever the case may be,
we're trying to create communities
where people have the ability to
respond and take care of each other.
And I really liked that
Alex emphasized that
I think in our years of working
on building community resilience,
the thing that we've come to focus on
the most is the importance
of those social connections
that Alex was speaking about.
We kind of call it the
the magic ingredient
in building community resilience.
The line we often use is
when we're thinking about emergency
preparedness.
It's not just
what's in our emergency kit, it's
who is in our emergency kit.
So how do we create really robust
social
ties and social infrastructures
so that when times get tough,
we can help each other out
and nobody will get left behind?
Yeah, I love that.
Who's in your kit.
Stacy, when you think about
community
housing here particularly where
where we are on the
the territories of the Coast Salish
speaking people here and the Halkomelem
speaking people in the Lower
Mainland.
I mean, it's fairly dense, right?
We're often talking
about a multi-story residential,
mid-sized to tall towers
or some combination of that,
along with townhouse communities.
How do you see
the importance of building...
building those relationships
so that people have
who they need in their kit and
that type of a housing environment?
And can you talk a little bit
how it might be different than in,
you know, single family neighbourhoods,
perhaps?
Well, there's a couple things
that come to mind with that question.
I mean,
the first is just acknowledging
that there really are
systemic inequities
in terms of who's most at risk
with some of these challenges and,
and emergencies
that may come our way.
And so just acknowledging that,
you know, often
in some of these housing communities,
we have folks with multiple barriers
who are disproportionately affected
by, you know,
the impacts of climate change
or the things that are coming
our way.
So it's extra important
to invest in building resilience
when that's the case.
We've been working
for a number of years
as part of a provincial collective
impact
initiative called the
Hey Neighbour Collective,
and it's particularly looking at
how do we strengthen
social connectedness
and resilience in multi-unit housing,
and how is that different?
So exactly what you're asking about.
There's
a couple things that I've noticed.
One is that, ironically,
when people live closer together
in high density environments,
you'd think they'd be more connected.
But that's not always the case.
It's quite often
the opposite, actually.
Often when we're closer together,
people are concerned
about privacy,
maintaining their own space
and they don't necessarily
have those connections.
Also, in rental environments,
we see more,
more transients,
more turnover of tenants.
And so sometimes those longer term
relationships are harder to build.
So again, just sort of extra
important and investing in that.
And then the other is that,
we always say,
you know, our neighbors
are our first responders,
like in multi-unit housing.
Those folks right
next door are going to be
the ones that we need to turn to.
In the event of an emergency.
So, again, having those ties
with folks really close to home,
I think is extra important.
We've got these
the specific challenges,
of a more dense urban environment
and then compounded by
marginalization
and additional barriers
and the disproportionate impact
on these very communities of
extreme
weather events and climate change.
I'd like to make this real. So, Alex,
I'm hoping.
Can you tell us just a little bit
about, you know, what is the work
that that you and your team are doing
with resilient neighbourhoods?
Give us some examples of the work
that you're doing to help address
those barriers in community.
This started, specifically
with the BRN Group,
almost two years ago now.
So last spring we started
working together on a pilot project
just to encourage this support
and tenant resilience.
Initially this was started at four
of our directly managed sites,
so three here in the Lower Mainland
and one in Victoria,
that were chosen for...
that they were in different areas
and also, different tenant
bases at the buildings as well.
Some were just seniors, some were
a mixture of families and seniors.
And the goals were just to find ways
to strengthen social
connections
and encourage tenant engagement.
And also, a way for us to work
more closely with community partners
that we already have
relationships with and agreements
with that work at our sites.
So we really wanted to take this,
like kind of
holistic approach.
Of all of us working together,
all of the building staff
with our tenants, just to encourage
that participation in programing.
And from that, this tenant
engagement team that was already
somewhat in the works was born.
And now these five staff,
four in the Lower Mainland
and one in Victoria,
have really taken on what was started
with this pilot project
and have continued and it's grown
even more.
So we've done
quite a bit even just looking back,
in preparation for this,
all of the work
that's been done,
all of the different sessions
that we've done, in the past year
and a half, but a lot around...
And I think Stacy can probably add
to it,
a lot of dialog sessions
with our tenants.
So just talking about even like,
what does it look like to be prepared?
Or what would be an emergency?
Just to kind of get folks thinking.
Stacy and her team do really
excellent work around, specifically
connect and prepare in the, course
that they have with that.
So we were able to use some of that
information, with the tenants.
At one site
in particular, they were super keen.
So we've started kind of
almost like a little mini project
within the project
that are called Floor Connectors.
They were a site
that experienced a fire.
So I think they were more interested
in knowing how they can
protect themselves and be prepared.
So those tenants have kind
of stepped up
to volunteer
and help support their neighbours.
We've also done big group sessions
of all of the site staff,
or most of them like property
manager, building managers,
our community partners,
our housing and health services staff
coming together a few times
a year to talk about this work
and see what's working...
What can we do better?
What are some future ideas that,
now that we're seeing
when we're on site, more doing this,
what would be beneficial
for our tenants?
So that's kind of in a nutshell,
but I don't know if Stacy wants to
add on any more to.
Yeah.
Stacy, what are you seeing from the
I mean, it was a pilot project.
So what
what do you think the successes were?
Yeah, I mean,
I think the successes were many.
And, I'll speak to some of the
successes with tenants, but actually,
I think one of the pieces
that was really successful
was actually carrying out the project
in a really collaborative way
across departments within BC Housing
and with community partners.
So that in and of itself
was actually sort of modeling
resilience in a way.
And, and those strengthened
relationships
and working together and having sort
of, getting on the same page about
common goals around tenant resilience
and engagement, I think was huge.
And then in terms
of the tenants themselves,
I think, you know, one of the
core goals was around
strengthening social connections.
And the community partners
and BC Housing staff hosted
so many activities and events
that really,
you know, brought people out
and gave them a
we're very intentional
about giving people
a chance to build those connections.
You know, the examples that Alex
shared about the community dialogues,
it was, you know, going deeper
than just showing up for an event,
but really sharing meals together
and being in conversation together,
you know, understanding
what my neighbour cares about.
And maybe that's
some of the same things I care about.
So I think that really made
a difference
in terms
of strengthening relationships
that hopefully will be lasting.
And often out of those we see these
sort of informal ripples.
You know, someone meets over
a conversation in a meal
and then they learn, you know,
maybe they need help
getting groceries
or who knows what it is.
So we've certainly seen lots
of those informal ripples of support.
And then I think, you know,
what we really tried to emphasize
throughout the project,
the pilot project was using
these gatherings or these activities
to really strengthen tenant
leadership and provide opportunities
for tenants themselves
to step in to being contributors
in their community.
And I think the process of
being engaged in community
itself is very resilience building.
So the Floor Connectors example that
Alex shared is one of my favourites.
We just had a conversation
with many of them last week,
and what stood out to me was,
you know, they've made
a huge difference in their building.
They've engaged their neighbours
around emergency preparedness.
They did this incredible project
where they got small grants
to put together, grab
and go emergency kits
for their neighbours and many of the
tenants in the building.
But the act of doing that together,
having a shared goal,
doing a project together,
it really increased their confidence
and their connections.
And so many of them shared
that they actually felt
isolated prior
to participating in this.
In this gave them an avenue
and a way to get more connected
in community and,
and really be a contributor.
So that really stands out to me
as some of the,
some of the elements of success.
Yeah.
And and to build on that, Stacy,
I mean, you're talking about
the ripple effect.
What would you tell,
how do you explain the importance
of that ripple effect?
Right.
If you're talking to
a big organization like BC Housing
and you're saying, “Hey, listen,
we want to invest taxpayer
dollars in this.”
Why does that matter?
What was your pitch?
Well, I would say it's
lifesaving, actually.
Honestly,
if if one connection is made
for someone that a neighbour knows
to check in on them
in a big event
that could save someone's life.
So I think it actually
is so important.
And there's so many ways we
we may not even be able to recognize
how that can make a difference.
That's beautiful. Alex,
I mean, Stacy mentioned
some of the projects you had,
you've mentioned the pilot sites,
and we know that some of those sites
are also
where people have experienced fires.
Also, extreme heat,
impacts of wildfire smoke,
if you take a look ahead...
Certainly, we know that there's
some really challenging trend lines,
impacting not just BC Housing
buildings, but right across,
even in the private sector, private
market housing, not just community
housing, right around some of those,
some of those challenges.
What do you see ahead for this type
of programing in housing buildings
given the the trends
that we're seeing in the environment.
My hope is that it continues and it
grows like we're already seeing
such good results, in my opinion,
just from the past year and a half.
And tenants were already
I think they were already
feeling certain ways.
And this is just kind of,
let them
kind of name it and have work
to do associated with it.
Like even from the start,
we heard a lot of tenants
when we would talk about emergency
preparedness or,
similar events,
they were always more concerned
about their neighbours or pets than
they were about themselves generally.
So I think this is just like, okay,
my neighbours feel that way too.
It's not just me
concerned about somebody, but,
we're all kind of feeling like that.
So let's kind of get together.
So I feel like we're creating
this kind of...
I think it's, Stacy's term
or I'm taking it from her,
but that social infrastructure
that's in place.
So we're trying to make
our physical buildings
safer and more resilient, but also
the people who are living in them
the same.
And, we've just seen,
I think tenants start to realize
that they already do
have some of these skills and assets
that they can bring,
which they maybe just didn't realize
or, didn't
have the the confidence in themselves
to come forward with it before.
But now that's starting.
And I think when other tenants
see that,
they're more likely to step up
and even just to join in,
not that they have to necessarily
take on a leadership role,
but maybe they'd come out
to the lunch next time
or they'd participate
in that next fire drill.
And I agree with Stacy.
It's definitely lifesaving.
Like these fire drills and info
sessions are important.
Being prepared for
an earthquake is important,
and I think having recent events
has shown people that too
with recent earthquakes
on the island,
we've even seen smaller scale
things like a power outage.
Those tenants who received the grab
and go kits at the building
were using their flashlights already
that they got in the kits
and like, that's
already being put into practice.
So my hope is that
this just like grows and expands
and maybe in a few years
we'll have double the TEW’s
so that they can do more work
and reach more tenants,
especially across the province,
not just focused here
in the Lower Mainland and Victoria
because it's needed everywhere.
So that's my hope.
Yeah.
And, Stacy, what do you see in
the future for resilient communities?
Where do you think resilience
looks like? What I'm seeing,
you know, we've worked
on these issues for many, many years.
And when we first started Community
Resilience, nobody even really
had a sense of what that meant
or why that was important.
And I think so
many people are waking up
to why it is important,
given the challenges we're facing.
And what I hope is that,
you know, organizations
like BC Housing keep investing
in this type of work and recognizing
just how critical it is.
I, you know, kudos to BC Housing
for actually dedicating staff
positions to work collaboratively
with others to make this a priority.
I hope that continues and grows,
and I think I also hope
that, you know,
this was a small pilot,
now it's growing within BC Housing’s
directly managed sites.
I hope that this type of work can
spread to other nonprofit housing.
And that it's just becomes
the way of business,
you know, that that this is part
of what it means
to live in multi-unit
housing and social housing in BC.
That's a really good place to leave us,
with the positive view of the future.
Really excited to continue to see
what comes out of these projects
and the collaboration together.
Stacy, Alex, thank you so much
for joining us here.
Let's talk again soon.
Thanks.
Thanks, Sara.
To learn more about BC Housing,
including how to apply for
subsidized housing in British
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