MY MOTHER NAMED ME SUNSHINE

Personal advocacy and information sharing website of Regan Sunshine Brusse,

Current Site focus: Affordable Housing, Homelessness, and Unsheltered Lives

Where our Federal and Provincial aids hold gaps, we must persist. Where our local government needs time to change, we must loudly be patient. Loudly, so they feel our support for change. Loudly so they may know our desires and evolve towards them.

Because we do evolve, and in this moment, I'm thinking, we are.

Our world and lives are all in their own variants of chaos. So let's come together on the smaller levels to assure each others care. With innovation, transparency & willingness there is a beautiful way through this all.

Some of my more recent Thoughts and Ramblings:

Open Letter (to Region of Waterloo CAO):
Seeking aid for Unsheltered people in face of current Extreme Weather Crisis

As sent by email January 29. 2025 (PM/After Office Hours)

Dear CAO of The Region of Waterloo,

We’re reaching out to discuss the dire situation taking place currently for our unsheltered Waterloo Region community members.

It is cold outside, with wind chill factors posing an undeniable risk. The potential for harm clearly increases when an individual faces little to no relief from the extreme weather elements at play.

While municipal policy contains responses intended to be enabled in times of communal duress, this policy contains substantial gaps....

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January 2025: Extreme Weather & Relief Needs

January 21, 2025

It’s difficult for me to view our failure to adequately and quickly respond to the extreme weather our unsheltered community members are currently facing as anything but negligent..

We have the tools to address situations of community risk, yet the municipality is right now failing to use them. This is a choice - one that directly impacts the wellbeing of others.

It’s brutally cold right now....

Continue Reading...

To our municipal leaders:

I urge you to step up and protect our community members who are at risk from this weather.

This crisis demands a response—and it must happen NOW. The province’s failure to act and offer proper support does not absolve us of our own responsibility.

There are community members at risk, people who cannot afford to wait. We must act before someone pays for the cost of our non action with their life.

The Region of Waterloo has committed to a Human Rights approach in addition to its Housing First approach. This approach includes providing relief from the elements, among other basic needs.

We must activate emergency responses immediately to ensure this need is being met. The disproportionate level of potential impact those without the insulation of a brick and mortar home are facing from this current weather is enormous. The "list" of potential consequences being faced for some people right now include possible death or loss of limb.

We have surpassed our ability to handle the volume of #unsheltered supports needed, and the need continues to grow. Supports continue to do their best to manage despite being exhausted and overwhelmed.

This is an emergency in the strictest political sense. This is an emergency by both Provincial Act and local policy definition.

This is also a human rights issue.

Right now, we are failing to meet the basic needs known to be required for human survival, all while being fully aware of the risks associated with our inaction.

I urge you to step up and protect our community members who are at risk from this weather immediately.