CSD-20-004 - Advancing the City's Work on Equity, Anti-Racism, Indigenous Initiatives and Social Justice Issues

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City of Kitchener Housing Strategy In late 2019, a Housing Strategy Advisory Committee was formed to provide advice on the creation of an affordable housing strategy for the City of Kitchener. That advisory committee is comprisedof 35 members of the public, the non-profit community, advocates, people with lived experience, the development communityand academia, as well as municipal, regional and provincial staff. Councillors Chapman, Michaud, Schnider and Singhare also on the committee. The Affordable Housing Strategy will be the first time in decades that the City of Kitchener has undertaken a comprehensive study of affordability across the housing continuum, which includes addressing homelessness, social, non-market and market housing. A draft Housing Strategy was presented to Council on August 31, 2020and staff are expecting to present a final strategy to Council for its consideration in December 2020.The strategy will clearly define what roles the City of Kitchener should play that are complementary to work of the Region,province and federal governments, as well asthe non-profit sector and the private sector, to help ensure housing is provided in the city that meets the needs of existing and future residents. REPORT: The City of Kitchener currently does not have any permanent staff dedicated toworking onissues of equity, anti-racism,Indigenous initiatives, and othersocial justice issues such aspoverty,homelessness and addictions(eg. consumption and treatment servicessite).As a result, Citystaffhas limited expertise, or lived experience,in these areasto make informed decisions and recommendations to City Council. To rectify this lack of staff subject matter expertise and lived experience, the workplan of the EDI Task Force(first created in 2019 and updated in 2020), as well as the City’s Housing Strategy, both contemplated making recommendations to City Council in Q3/4 of 2020 to secure dedicated staffing with expertise in these areas. Recent events within the local community havesolidified andaccelerated the need to secure thatstaff expertise on an urgent basis: On June 3, 2020, local leaders from Black Lives Matter WaterlooRegion, the African Caribbean Black(ACB)Network, and otherscommunity leaders, organized a very successful Black Lives Matter march in downtown Kitchener. This march, which was organized in response to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, served as a catalyst for urgentcommunity conversations about anti-Black racism.It also demonstrated a desire from many residents for the City and othersto acturgentlyto dismantlesystemic racism. On June 20, 2020, members of the local Indigenous communities established the O:se Kenhionhata:tie Land Back Camp in Victoria Park. One of the demands of the camp organizers wasthe need tofor local municipalities tocreate paid, permanentIndigenous staff positionsto engagewith local First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. The camp has received significant support from community members. In addition, staff have had discussionswith other local Indigenous community members including the Wellbeing Waterloo Region’s First Nations, Métis, Inuit Advisory and Advocacy Circle. These discussions have strongly reinforced the need for the City to secure internal staff expertise to move forward on its obligations under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (see below). 3 - 3