Creative water solutions for affordable housing
At the root of so many solutions to the affordable housing crisis is water. We have to do better, and in one of the wettest parts of Canada, we know we can.
North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) staff do a fantastic job and deserve our respect for the work they do. However they are not acknowledging the unintended consequences of their recent water moratorium on exacerbating the housing crisis, and are providing no flexibility towards finding alternative solutions.
We need their senior staff and board to help come up with more creative solutions that protect our precious resource while supporting the urgent needs of the community for more low-income and rental housing.
NSSWD is hosting an open house on Monday March 11 at 1:30 at the Library. Please attend if you can!
If you are not able to attend, you can use our handy tool to send them a letter.
If you want help with your letter, our request is that they:
- recognize that affordable housing is as much a crisis for Salt Spring as the water crisis
- acknowledge that their moratorium has had the unintended consequence of making the housing crisis even worse and greatly limiting solutions
- make working with others to find and implement affordable housing solutions a priority in their strategic plan
We know we can find creative ways for the community to use the same, or even less, water while supporting well designed affordable housing solutions.
One last request: please refrain from criticizing or demeaning the NSSWD staff or board. They are working hard within their very limited mandate to manage complex infrastructure, protect their current ratepayers from future climate induced impacts, and protect our precious water ecology.