What They Heard: The Cortes Housing Report

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The ‘What We Heard Report,’ from Cortes Island’s Housing Forum and the subsequent Housing Survey, has been released. 


“We already had a pretty good idea from previous reports and information, but this really gave us a good sense of what the challenges are and then what do people want us to move forward with?” explained Mark Vonesh, Regional Director for Cortes Island.

“It really gives us a framework and direction for taking action following the political will of the people. Which is really exciting because it's really easy to be like, ‘I think this is a good idea,’ but this really gives us the information to move forward in a way that we know we're following the will of what Cortes wants.”


“I think it puts Cortes in a really exciting place. Not many communities have such a strong roadmap for making change. I'm really excited to work with the Cortes Housing Society and the Strathcona Regional District and, various levels of government, to move forward with the action items that have been outlined in the survey and all of the discussions that happened in the breakout groups during the housing forum in December.”

Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Cortes Community Housing Society, agreed, “ It feels like a good step forward and it's a good culmination of lots of feedback from people through the survey and in person and online, but there's lots of work to be done.”


CC: What are the highlights of this report?


Sadhu Johnston: “I guess the highlight for me is just the extent to which people participated in the survey and in the in-person consultation and online. This is clearly an issue that's near and dear to a lot of people on Cortes Island.”


“At the forum, I was a little bit surprised that there were so many people  that own property, and aren't at risk of losing housing, but are  very concerned about the challenges on Cortes. It really feels to me like there's a pretty broad recognition of people that are living on the island, or spending time on the island, that the housing crisis is  a threat to the community diversity and  the very fabric of the community that we all love so much. That was  really made clear to me in the  type of comments that I heard and the way that people were showing up.” 


Looking back to his years as the City Manager, and prior to that the Deputy City Manager. of Vancouver (2009-2021), Johnston observed, “I worked a lot on affordable housing in Vancouver. In Vancouver, if the housing in the community isn't affordable, people drive further away or take the train further or the bus in order to live.  There's this old saying, "drive until you qualify,' which is really driving further and further out into the suburbs until you can qualify for a mortgage that you can  make work.” 


“In a community like Vancouver - the businesses that we rely on, the community of teachers and others - can still function because people are driving further and further out, which is not good for the environment or for their quality of life or for the health of a community, but the community could still work.”


“On Cortes, there's no ‘driving till you qualify,’ there's leaving. If you can't find housing,  it's not like you can just drive to the neighbouring community and find housing. As people that can't afford to be there or can't find housing leave, many of those houses  are being sold to people that are not on Cortes as much so there's more and more empty homes and under-utilized homes.  That combination really is resulting in a fundamental risk  to the community that we love so much.  That was just really brought home to me  in talking to people over the last couple of months, in the housing forum, and in the survey.”  


“People want us to do something about it, which is really good to see. There's maybe not 100 percent alignment on what to do, but there's a lot of alignment on a number of the things to do.”