Housing Outside the Box Solutions:

Auxiliary Housing, Backyard Suites, & Co-Living for Community Health

Exciting things are happening in St. Margarets Bay this fall! Transition Bay St Margarets is hosting a one-day housing symposium on November 4th, building on our successful 2018 Housing Outside the Box event.

Our focus for this program will be home sharing: the benefits and hurdles, building personal comfort, bringing those with excess housing together with those in need of housing, and determining what ongoing supports are needed.

We will come together with neighbours, community leaders, and experts from around the province to discuss:

• The nuts and bolts of home sharing: housing formats and solutions, current legislation, funding resources
• The inner tools for home sharing: understanding hurdles, building trust, health benefits of home sharing
• Forming relationships: making connections with potential home sharing partners
• Community advocacy: supporting solutions in the community

Join us for expert discussion panels, community sharing, and exploring new connections.

A light lunch and refreshments will be served.

This program requires registration. Please visit our listing on Eventbrite to register.

We are also inviting all attendees to please fill out this form. This information will help us shape the programming to ensure everyone gets the most from our workshop.

We are grateful for the generous support of the Community Housing Transformation Centre and welcome all community partners.

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AGENDA

Doors open, Registration starts at 8:00 am.

9:00 to 9:15

Opening: David Wimberly, Transition Bay St Margarets – Welcome and thanks to our supporters, overview of the day, introduction of Transition Bay.

9:15 to 9:30

Introductory Speaker: Nancy Gilbert, St. Margarets Bay Housing Coalition – Affordable Housing in the Bay: An overview of the affordable housing situation in St. Margaret’s Bay, Past Present and Future

9:30 to 10:00

Opening Keynote: Lori Weeks, Dalhousie School of Nursing – Social and Health Benefits of Shared Housing

10:00 to 11:15

Panel One: Nuts and Bolts of Home Sharing – Outer tools

New directions in what is being encouraged – Accessory dwelling units (AUD’s), Community Land Trusts and more.

• Kevin Hooper, United Way Halifax – Taking Stock and Taking Action – Our Collective Responsibility to a Better Housing Future
• Laurie Cook, Housing Innovation Co-operative – Land sharing and the use of AUDs: ‘gentle density’ to increase access to housing in rural communities, awareness, and education needed.
• Aiden Kivisto, Manager of Community Development, YMCA of Cumberland – Rural House Sharing is Invisible

11:15 to 11:30

Break

11:30 to 12:45

Panel Two: Community Building by Home Sharing – Inner tools. Finding how to live together in confidence and comfort.

• Dianne McDonald, Nova Scotia representative for HomeSHARE Canada,  HomeSHARE: Matching the Needs of Home-Providers with the Needs of Home-Seekers: learn how sharing your home can be beneficial to you, the Home-Seeker, your family, friends, and community.
• Blayne Robinson, Marketing and Brand Manager for Happipad NS, Introduction to the Happipad home-sharing process; how to register and start homesharing at no cost using Happipad.
• Daytona O’Leary, We Want to Stay: difficulties with affording to live in the bay as a young adult. 
• Suzanne Bourque-Pelham, It’s in the second drawer, to the left of the stove: from early childhood to senior years, thoughts and experiences from a lifelong advocate of home-sharing.
• Meghann Kerr, GPI Atlantic Youth Representative, Young Perspectives on Housing: a presentation of thoughts on the housing crisis from local youth.

12:45 to 1:30

Lunch & Learn – regulations, by-laws, grants related to shared and auxiliary housing

1:30 to 2:00

Keynote: Max Chauvin, Director of Housing and Homelessness, HRM, Hope and Context, Opportunities and Solutions in HRM Developing a municipal strategy and response to the growing homelessness crisis in our community, “ Housing is a human right and everyone deserves a safe, supportive, and sustainable home.”  

2:00 to 2:30

Q&A with All Speakers

2:30 to 2:45

Presentation wrap-up, Description of breakouts

2:45 to 3:00

Break

3:00 to  4:30

Breakout Sessions

• Digging Deeper: small group discussions with our presenters, allowing participants to delve further into the issues and solutions
• Making Connections: a chance for those with excess housing to make connections with those looking for home-sharing opportunities

4:30-5:00

Wrap-up and next steps, adjourn