MY MOTHER NAMED ME SUNSHINE
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    • Connecting with our WR Municipalities & Local Democracy
    • Human Rights - Leaning in & Learning >
      • A Human Rights approach to encampments - What does this mean?
      • Exploring the Key Principles of "A National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada"
      • Draft Policy – Encampments on Region-Owned Public Lands
    • Living Rough >
      • Living Rough: Warming & Cooling Centres
      • Info Page: Living Rough: Encampments
      • Living Rough: Victoria/Weber Encampment 1.0: Summer Recap
      • Living Rough: Washrooms
      • Unsheltered: Living the Experince
    • Advocacy - Nickles and Dimes >
      • Open Letter: ​Seeking aid for Unsheltered in face of current Extreme Weather Crisis
      • CAEH Conference Ottawa 2024
      • WR Women's Shelter - What's going on? Regional Council Meeting
      • 519 Community Collective: Enough is Enough
      • Me Proposal Jan 13th 2020 Details
      • Unsheltered Campaign Letters to Local Municipalities
      • Unsheltered Campaign 2022 Municipal Candidate Pledge
      • My "nickel": Victoria and Weber Encampment
      • Love, compassion and a whole lot of action!
      • As we start having more of the difficult conversations surrounding Unsheltered lives
      • Social Justice Housing Rally
      • On the right to adequate housing
      • Host Bob Jonkman connects with Regan Sunshine Brusse , Anti-Poverty activist with the Alliance Against Poverty
      • The Record: Letter to the Editor re: oneROOF Funding Loss
      • Community Forum: Videos
      • Alliance Against Poverty Supports Local Grassroot Plea For Aid
      • Blue Sky Horse Radio Segment - Martin Asling, Lesley Crompton, And Terry Kaan
    • Around here - Older content
    • Municipal Meeting Pages >
      • April 23, 2025 Regional Council Meeting & 100 Vic. Proposed Bylaw April 23, 2025
      • WRPS Board Meeting June 12, 2024
      • October 12, 2022 Region of Waterloo Council Meeting
      • August 18, 2022 Regional Council Meeting
      • June 22nd Regional Council Meeting
      • August 9, 2022 Regional Community Services Comittee Meeting
      • Region of Waterloo Council Meeting April 27, 2022
      • May 9. 2022 -Region of Waterloo Community Services Committee Meeting
      • November 15, 2021: 2022 Plan & Budget Development- Com. of Whole
      • 2022 Budget public input session- Regional Council November 8, 2021
      • November 9th, 2021- Committee of the Whole Regional meeting
      • Proposed November 17, 2021 To Waterloo Regional Council
      • June 26, 2023 City of Kitchener Council Meeting
      • December 6, 2022 Region of Waterloo Meetings
    • Advocacy Resources - Broad
    • Social Media
  • Home
    • Connecting with our WR Municipalities & Local Democracy
    • Human Rights - Leaning in & Learning >
      • A Human Rights approach to encampments - What does this mean?
      • Exploring the Key Principles of "A National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada"
      • Draft Policy – Encampments on Region-Owned Public Lands
    • Living Rough >
      • Living Rough: Warming & Cooling Centres
      • Info Page: Living Rough: Encampments
      • Living Rough: Victoria/Weber Encampment 1.0: Summer Recap
      • Living Rough: Washrooms
      • Unsheltered: Living the Experince
    • Advocacy - Nickles and Dimes >
      • Open Letter: ​Seeking aid for Unsheltered in face of current Extreme Weather Crisis
      • CAEH Conference Ottawa 2024
      • WR Women's Shelter - What's going on? Regional Council Meeting
      • 519 Community Collective: Enough is Enough
      • Me Proposal Jan 13th 2020 Details
      • Unsheltered Campaign Letters to Local Municipalities
      • Unsheltered Campaign 2022 Municipal Candidate Pledge
      • My "nickel": Victoria and Weber Encampment
      • Love, compassion and a whole lot of action!
      • As we start having more of the difficult conversations surrounding Unsheltered lives
      • Social Justice Housing Rally
      • On the right to adequate housing
      • Host Bob Jonkman connects with Regan Sunshine Brusse , Anti-Poverty activist with the Alliance Against Poverty
      • The Record: Letter to the Editor re: oneROOF Funding Loss
      • Community Forum: Videos
      • Alliance Against Poverty Supports Local Grassroot Plea For Aid
      • Blue Sky Horse Radio Segment - Martin Asling, Lesley Crompton, And Terry Kaan
    • Around here - Older content
    • Municipal Meeting Pages >
      • April 23, 2025 Regional Council Meeting & 100 Vic. Proposed Bylaw April 23, 2025
      • WRPS Board Meeting June 12, 2024
      • October 12, 2022 Region of Waterloo Council Meeting
      • August 18, 2022 Regional Council Meeting
      • June 22nd Regional Council Meeting
      • August 9, 2022 Regional Community Services Comittee Meeting
      • Region of Waterloo Council Meeting April 27, 2022
      • May 9. 2022 -Region of Waterloo Community Services Committee Meeting
      • November 15, 2021: 2022 Plan & Budget Development- Com. of Whole
      • 2022 Budget public input session- Regional Council November 8, 2021
      • November 9th, 2021- Committee of the Whole Regional meeting
      • Proposed November 17, 2021 To Waterloo Regional Council
      • June 26, 2023 City of Kitchener Council Meeting
      • December 6, 2022 Region of Waterloo Meetings
    • Advocacy Resources - Broad
    • Social Media
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YOUR CART

Personal advocacy and information sharing website of Regan Sunshine Brusse,
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Sunshine?
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:


Community & Health Services Committee - May 6, 2025

​PECH Mid-Year Update - Region of Waterloo
View PAge
Video to the left, of full meeting, is set to preview a councillor comment, also quoted below. Additional information about this meeting and topic can be accessed using the button above.  
"I understand there are some co-creators that are quite upset about the bylaw and how that was rolled out, and so I wonder if you could speak to what is being done to repair some of those relationships or what we might be abe to do to help foster that repair as well?" 

Councillor Chantal Huinink


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REgion of Waterloo Council Meeting &
Proposed BYLAW ​RE: 100 victoria

Being held April 23, 2025​

View Meeting page


Nickles and Dimes: Seeking Change

(& Trying to somehow make cents of it all)


some initial thoughts
​
RE: 100 Victoria proposed Bylaw

Published April 18, 2025
Until this bylaw becomes a bylaw, it remains a choice.

​We still have the opportunity to shift our approach to better reflect the current work, available tools, and most importantly, heart of this community. In this spirit, could we not instead bring this conversation back to the Region-selected experts within the PECH functions before solidifying an approach that risks causing further communal harm?
read more...

a little bit of background before delving in
RE: 100 Victoria proposed Bylaw

Before I get into specific aspects and share more of my thoughts on the proposed bylaw, I’d like to offer some background to help provide context for a few of the points I’ll be raising within these.
read part 1
General topic history related to regional encampment policy, as passed by council December 15, 2021. (and a few other ramblings) 
read part 2
The Plan to End Chronic Homelessness (PECH) & Regional Code of Use Bylaw 13-050 
read Part 3
The Valente Decision - Court ruling on 100 Victoria, A Human Rights based approach, Point In Time Count Data, and Unsheltered Campaign Candidate Pledge 

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Visit Fightback! KW's Website HERE
(Above image source)

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....
​
Continue Reading

Sign the Petition: 

Click the image below to vist Change.org where you can add your name
​to this message too! 
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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. 
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Advocacy Resources
Municipal MEeting Pages
Information Pages
Advocacy: Others & Self



Recently Started & "In-Build" Pages
(Click images or titles to go to pages in progress)
  • City of Cambridge Council Meeting November 5, 2024 (& the Notwithstanding Clause)
  • Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness National Conference (Presentation & Trip) - Ottawa 2024
  • ​Fall 2024 - Buses for Warming & Other Potential Concepts
  • A Human RIghts approach to encampments in Waterloo Region - What does this mean?​​​​
  • Defining Affordability in Housing​
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More about the
​Social Justice Housing Rally
 (above)

​

*NEW*


  • ​Updated: Substance Use and Homelessness
  • Emergency or Public Health Crisis?
  • Info Page: WR Women's Shelters - What's going on? (& Aug. 13, 2024 Region of Waterloo Community and Health Services Committee Meeting) - (Incudes "Open Letter - Hidden In Plain Sight: Women's Homelessness in Cambridge and Waterloo Region") 
  • ​WRPS Board Meeting June 12, 2024 ( &  Letter - "The closure of the Cambridge encampment is no blueprint for success" by Unsheltered Campaign)

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*Click image to view Report*
Report Source : Civic Hub - ABTC

​Intended/Future (?) Pages:​​​
  • Social Assistance Rates in Ontario: Ontario Works & Ontario Disability Supports Program
  • Inclusionary Zoning (?!?!?!?!)​
  • Local Supports & Services​​

Bits and pieces ("recently" collected/ in "sorting"/to be added)

  • Encampments and Legal Obligations: Evolving Rights and Relationships Report for Advocates and Legal Practitioners 
  • Putting people first: The Federal Housing Advocate’s 2023–2024 Annual Report to the Minister
  • Heegsma vs. Hamilton (City) 2024 ONSC 7154​


Website built, designed, and managed by Regan Sunshine Brussé