It’s REALTORS Care® Week 2020—a time to celebrate the REALTOR® community’s long-standing commitment to volunteer service and an opportunity to reflect on how REALTORS® from coast to coast can make an even greater collective impact together.
Earlier this week, CREA was pleased to host the REALTORS Care® Week 2020 Virtual Conference on Homelessness. More than 1,000 REALTORS® from communities across Canada came together to explore this complex and solvable issue with the help of leading experts in the field. If you missed the conference, click here to watch the recording.
Key takeaways from the conference include:
- homelessness affects communities big and small;
- it can be hidden;
- it can happen to anyone; and
- it is a solvable problem that can be eliminated and prevented in our country with the right policies, investments and leadership.
What can the REALTOR® community do at the national level to help move the needle on efforts to end and prevent homelessness? As a next step, CREA’s Advocacy team has drafted a letter to the Honourable Ahmed Hussen, the Minister for Families, Children and Social Development. (He is also the lead minister responsible for the National Housing Strategy.) Our letter outlines the REALTOR® community’s REALTORS Care® Week 2020 activities and voices support for the federal government’s recent commitments to end chronic homelessness and increase affordable housing capacity as well as the newly-launched Rapid Housing Initiative.
In addition, our letter reiterates CREA’s pre-budget recommendations that relate to conversion projects leveraging private sector developers’ resources and expertise while promoting partnerships with community housing providers.
With our letter to Minister Hussen, CREA aims to show the REALTOR® community is committed to continuing to use our collective voice in support of the creation of more safe and affordable homes across the housing spectrum, simultaneously helping the most vulnerable populations and allowing more Canadians to gain stability and opportunity through homeownership.
REALTORS® can preview the letter at REALTORSCare.ca/TakeAction. From there, you can add your name as a signatory by filling out a simple online form.
The more signatures we gather from the REALTOR® community, the stronger our message will be and the greater the impact it will have. Thank you in advance for adding your voice to this important conversation.
