MY MOTHER NAMED ME SUNSHINE
  • 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 >
      • Dear RoW: Your Bylaw is Faulty (& Your Politics Kinda Suck) - Seeking Change: Nickels & 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 >
      • Dear RoW: Your Bylaw is Faulty (& Your Politics Kinda Suck) - Seeking Change: Nickels & 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
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Homelessness isn't only a winter problem and it isn't only a night time problem. We need more safe and welcoming spaces for people to go in the day, with options.

— Elizabeth Clarke (@EClarkeYW) January 18, 2020

Picture

From the Article: "She said she's searching for a new location to run the store and serve as an informal drop-in. "I'm not moving until I find a new place. There's people that depend on this spot." https://t.co/CsLlvDag4d

— Regan Sunshine Brussé (@ReganBrusse) January 19, 2020

Corner store faces closure for providing refuge for homeless https://t.co/nAqyLc38AS pic.twitter.com/xcZqksVIG6

— KitchenerToday (@KitchenerToday) January 17, 2020

Life Stories of Displacement: Building cheap and non-profitable housing seems to be an impossible scenario, especially in the urban core along major transit lines - except for all other conceivable scenarios. #kwawesome #wrawesome #everyvoiceountsWRhttps://t.co/owtduK9Fow pic.twitter.com/D62zW83GeH

— Social Development Centre Waterloo Region (@sdcwr) October 23, 2019

The web copy for my story today provides more details into finding Robert a temporary living space.https://t.co/W4sin8XHuu

— Zayn Jinah (@CTVZayn) January 19, 2020

https://t.co/wwES4KGCf9 , a voice that is local atm in the efforts of @m2bowman and @MartinMcScratch. Chatted with both when @CTVZayn did this piece. https://t.co/Dpuf671LK9 …
Much to discuss in this realm on #Affordable #Housing in #Kitchener 1/3

— Regan Sunshine Brussé (@ReganBrusse) January 19, 2020
\

PHOTOS: 'We're in an emergency:' Protesters gather for climate strike in Kitchener https://t.co/61XZzgOTCL

— CBC KW (@CBCKW891) January 17, 2020

'The system isn't working': Kitchener housing report raises red flags on affordability https://t.co/Rs6KMvOIlu pic.twitter.com/mJ0y49cVyh

— CBC KW (@CBCKW891) January 13, 2020

Being serious about achieving the #SDG also means being serious about the gap in qualitative data and lived experience perspective in research and measurement design. @IISD_SDGs https://t.co/I5lk6Agvo1

— Social Development Centre Waterloo Region (@sdcwr) January 18, 2020
Recently, Council, you wisely chose to vocalize your support for the need to act on climate change. I very much respect this. I have children. They are dependent on our current actions; are also affected by the stagnancy of our response.

As I chewed on this, because it does scare me, I started wondering about many things. I need to ask, I need to know.

Daily, we see on the internet, in the news, on the radio, the impact of our current climate state. Globally we are feeling the impact. Floods, forest fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, temperature alterations, droughts, disease; CHANGE. Eventually I fear that we will feel it here too.

What will happen when these situations arrive to the residents of this area? How do we respond locally to emergency situations? Will I be able to re-stabilize my family? It could happen to me. It could happen to you. 

The City of Kitchener Emergency Response Plan, dated December 2017 defines an emergency as “distinct from the normal daily operations carried out by municipal first response agencies and City departments. “

Okay.

“The Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act defines an emergency as: ‘A situation or impending situation that constitutes a danger of major proportions that could result in serious harm to persons or substantial damage to property and that is caused by the forces of nature, a disease or other health risk, an accident or an act whether intentional or otherwise.”

I’d like to suggest that we’ve caused an accident. It wasn’t intentional, but it’s posing a danger to many. We have a situation on our hands, and a further impending danger of major proportions.

We can no longer hide from the crisis of affordable housing. Solutions need to be found. We cannot delay the necessary action to solve this crisis.  

I am here today to propose that the following things to be immediately implemented into the budget.

Part 1 is commitment. A permanent budget line titled “Affordable Housing Initiatives Funding” be added to this year’s budget.

This assures that dealing with affordable housing will continue to take place each year. Its how we commit to our citizens need for support and housing stabilization. and say that we refuse to allow our most vulnerable to be forgotten. We acknowledge their need, and express that they hold value as individuals, not just statistics.

Part 2 is Funding.
I am asking for $5,000,000 in municipal commitment spread over this current year and the following four years.
 

Press Release 

Aleksandra Petrovic working for the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region will be presenting at the Community and Infrastructure Services Committee, as her organization has been tracking trends in homelessness since the 80's and gentrification since 2010. "The assessment is a testimony that hard data and statistics haven't at all influenced policies and strategies to date. The investment into deeply affordable housing at all levels of government remains gravely inadequate to address the crisis that has built up over time," says Petrovic.

Regan Sunshine Brussé, poverty advocate with the Alliance Against Poverty, who also ran in the municipal race for the ward 2 council position in 2018, intends to approach Council at the evening budget meeting.
​

The current City of Kitchener Budget already includes funding for the ALL IN 2020 Campaign, responsible for the most recently released data on the topic locally. Brussé suggests that “the 2020 budget option needs to be selected at its highest tier." She goes on to explain "I think this is a necessary and positive step, and would hate to see us miss the chance to really get started due to lack of funds. We've committed to this. We can no longer hide from our knowledge of this crisis.  We need more funding options."

Both women are active locally in the community and many share their deep concern. 

Petrovic states that "the only way housing strategies can be successful is by welcoming the people who are homeless, or who spend far beyond 30% of their income or social assistance check on poor and unsafe housing to be at the center of planning and implementation. Re-humanizing of marginalized groups is a process that will build broader understanding about the spending decisions that have to be made.”
For more information please contact either:
Aleksandra Petrovic - Executive Director - Social Development Centre Waterloo Region
or
Regan Sunshine Brussé - Poverty Advocate/Speaker – Alliance Against Poverty
​

"I'm finally waking up" - Ani DiFranco (Evolve)

Picture

Intentional Community


Picture

"The Time To Hesitate
is through"

Picture

There Is No One Solution


Picture

Social Justice Housing Rally


Picture

40 Days for Choice


Picture

Free Transit for Low Income Individuals



Picture

Affordable Housing Initiatives Funding Proposal

Picture

On the Right to Adequate Housing


Picture

Mental health & the stigma that
​surrounds it


Picture

End of Life Care

Picture

Closing oneROOF a devastating loss to homeless youth


Picture

Homelessness: An open ​letter by me





Website built, designed, and managed by Regan Sunshine Brussé
Photos from michaelmueller410, James_Seattle, dolbinator1000, marcoverch, Robb North, Capt' Gorgeous, artwork_rebel, John-Morgan