REPORT ON THE 3RD ANNUAL NORTH HOUSE CONFERENCE ON HOUSING ISSUES IN SMALL TOWNS AND RURAL COMMUNITIES:
This year's conference was the best one yet. The presentations were engaging and the discussions were lively. Everyone seemed energized by the end of the afternoon.
We kicked off the day with a wonderful video made by Places for People of Haliburton, documenting the hard work that the community put into their new two apartment facility. From the video we could see the enthusiasm with which the community took on the project and saw it through from the first meeting to the ribbon cutting and opening ceremonies. After the video, Fay Martin took us through the process they devised to finance the project, an excercise that was extremely useful for others embarking on a similar project. She was particularly clear on the government funding and their relationship with the bank. Her concise explanations of why they made the decisions they did was very helpful in clarifying some of the barriers that the community overcame as the project progressed.
The second presentation by Josina Vink of SERA, Social Enterprise Rural Alliance, addressed the issue of the economic barriers facing small communities. SERA has produced a report showing some of the ideas that other rural communities have initiated to improve their economic resilience. There followed a lively discussion on the barriers and successes of social enterprises and suggestions for implementing this approach in our communities. Cesar Caneo of the Brock Community Health Centre and a member of SERA was especially helpful in answering fundamental questions about the social enterprise concept.
The third presentation by Howard Watson and Anne Kewley introduced RHINO, Rural Housing Issues Network of Ontario. This is an emerging network of housing and social service providers to share information and resources, increase awareness of housing needs in rural communities and advocate for "affordable" housing across the province. All were urged to join to give these issues a stronger presence both in the provincial discussions around "affordable" housing and with local municipalities. RHINO has a website on the Wellesley Intitutes' We encourage everyone to visit the website and join RHINO. There is no cost for membership but the more voices we can gather together the better chance we have of improving affordable housing in our communities. Working together we can make a significant differance.
Many thanks to MPP Rick Johnston who was only able to join us after 2 PM. He was kind enough to stay on after the wrap-up to answer questions and discuss options.
A very special thanks to Rev. Max Ward who made the Minden United Church available for this conference. We highly recommend this as a venue for important discussions. The hall is well equipped with an excellent sound system, screens of differant sizes and wireless capability. The ladies of the church cooked up an excellent lunch of homemade lasagne, salad and cake during the morning. The coffee was plentiful and the food was good.