From Crisis to Prevention | A Podcast by RentSmart: Recent Episodes
From Crisis to Prevention | A Podcast by RentSmart
This episode we sit down to speak with Andrew Holeton. Andrew is Director of Operations at Ready to Rent BC. Building on a background in small business management, Andrew Holeton has worked in the community and social enterprise sector for 18 years in operational, developmental, policy and advocacy roles.
Following a decade of frontline experience in BC and Ontario, his past positions include management roles in employment services, skills training, and youth programs. After serving as Director of Social Enterprise with the Learning Enrichment Foundation in Toronto, Andrew and his wife moved to Victoria in 2015. Prior to working at Ready to Rent, Andrew was a Program Director with the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria.
Listen in to learn about how RentSmart is rolling out in communities across the country and the key lessons learned.
Andrew also talks about an exciting new initiative that mitigates discrimination in the housing sector, the Landlord Guarantee Fund. This will help support youth leaving care to find and maintain rental housing.
In this episode, we are speaking with Melissa Jeffrey, Program Manager at the London Housing Stability Bank through the Salvation Army Centre of Hope in London, Ontario. Melissa started working at the Salvation Army Centre of Hope after finishing college and has been working in homelessness prevention programs for the past 10 years.
The housing stability bank offers financial assistance to low-income Londoners to obtain and retain their housing and offers financial assistance to those at risk of homelessness to remain housed. The Housing Stability Bank also provides grants or interest-free loans to assist with utility arrears pertaining to gas, electricity or water.
Listen in to hear Melissa share best practices on eviction prevention and how the Centre of Hope is working collaboratively with community organizations in London to address the issue of housing instability.
This episode we sit down to talk to the Peer Housing Support project team from the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness. The Peer Housing Support Project is a community-driven solution to bring those transitioning from homelessness to housing together with experiential peer supporters.
Peer supporters provide a range of support and assist peers in navigating available resources, thus promoting success in the transition to stable housing. The program was designed by and for people with lived experiences of homelessness and continues to be guided by the Peer Housing Support Advisory Committee.
Stay tuned to hear more about the importance of peer support and how it should be a core component to supporting people transitioning from homelessness to housing and also tips on implementing a similar program in your community.
This episode, we are speaking with Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Women’s Resource Society and Atira Property Management.
Abbott has dedicated her career to helping Vancouver’s most vulnerable, she has been with Atira since 1992. She has led the organization from a single transition house to a large, multi-service agency with more than 20 non-residential programs and 58 non-market housing sites across the Lower Mainland, totalling just over 3,200 units of housing.
In this episode, Janice speaks about the suite of resources Atira uses to prevent evictions including the Good Neighbour Agreement. The Good Neighbour Agreement is designed to help make sure all tenants are committed to making their neighbourhood and community a safe, secure, happy and healthy place to live.
Janice discusses the link between violence against women and homelessness and the importance of acknowledging that experiences of women's homelessness are diverse and often invisible. Atira is grounded in an anti-oppressive and trauma-informed framework which support long term housing solutions for women.
Listen in to hear what Janice has to say about macro-level solutions to preventing women's homelessness.