Our Healthy Housing Action Guide is officially here! Filled with information, examples, funding opportunities, actions and resources, the guide is a helpful primer on how a Healthy Communities approach to housing policies can support health and well-being in your community. With a variety of rural and urban examples, the guide provides ideas and inspiration for communities across the province. Access the guide.

When you centre a process around equity, amazing things can happen. That's the vision held by Strathcona Community Health Network, an inter-sectoral partnership who used their Housing Needs Assessment as a tool for advocacy. The process resulted in coordinated action, including the creation of approximately 50 new supportive housing units in Campbell River in the next two years. Learn more about Strathcona's accomplishments.

"My passion lies in service to people"

Gillian McLeod has worked with the public for over 30 years, first as a librarian and now as Delta's Social Planner, responsible for creating Social Action Plans focused on improving community well-being. She works diligently to bring a health and equity lens to her role, ensuring everyone benefits from government policies. Read her story.

Supporting health and well-being in your community is easier when you have access to data. Our Community Health Data page contains links to databases of information about the places, populations, and environments of BC. We've added additional resources that cover air quality data, economic data, climate data, housing data, traffic & injury data and more.  Visit the new and improved page.

The City of Kamloops hopes to create a permanent plaza in the downtown core to improve pedestrian and cyclist experience. The proposed 4th Avenue Pedestrian Plaza was piloted last year with enormous success, and is a strong example of how to promote social connectedness in a city centre. Public consultations on this pilot, which were funded in part by PlanH, revealed that the community is overwhelmingly in favour of making the Plaza a permanent fixture of the community. Read more.

BC's Housing Needs Reports legislation took effect this April. Local governments are now required to develop Housing Needs Reports every five years, with the first due in 2022. This article from last year outlines why equity, diversity, inclusion and engagement need to be at the forefront of the Housing Needs process. Find out how to incorporate a Healthy Communities approach in your Housing Needs Report.

As part of the launch of our new Healthy Housing Action Guide, join us on Monday, July 8 at 10:30am PDT for an in-depth discussion of the role of Health Authorities in Housing Needs Reports.  Bringing a health lens to Housing Needs Reports is a critical step in developing equitable, sustainable housing policies in our communities. So how can Health Authorities best support the Housing Needs Reports process? Join us for our next webinar to discuss these questions and more. Register here.