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Kathy Vassilakos, May 21 at 7 p.m. at the Stratford Country Club
It is not possible to engage with traditional or digital media and be unaware of the housing crisis in Canada. It is a local, regional, provincial, and federal crisis that is decades in the making. The housing crisis is affecting almost every demographic and every community. This is a story that can be told in two parts. One part is told through numbers, graphs, charts, and data. It lays out in startling detail the scale of current crisis, who is affected, and just how far off the mark we are in creating sufficient housing units to reach affordability. The other part is told through the experiences of those who find themselves struggling to attain or retain suitable housing. The numbers help us to understand the scope of the problem and assess how many units are needed, what kind of units are needed, and where units are needed. However, it is the human side of the crisis and how it affects individuals and communities that helps us understand that we need to stop viewing housing as a commodity. In order to address the crisis, we need to embrace the concept of housing as a human right, a social good, and a community responsibility.
Kathy is the Director, United Housing at the United Way of Perth Huron. Kathy holds a PHD in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto and is a CIHR Post-Doctoral Fellow and has worked as scientist and project manager for preclinical drug development. She served on the Stratford City Council for 8 years, and has held positions in the Ontario Municipal Water Association, and Stratford Welcomes Refugees.