Screening of affordable housing documentary in downtown Oshawa Monday evening

“How did we get into a housing affordability crisis? Just as important, how do we solve it?”

There aren’t any simple answers to those questions but Oshawa Councillor Derek Giberson hopes a series of housing ‘townhalls’ may provide some direction to the issues of the housing crisis and more specifically, the lack of affordable housing locally and across the country.

The first in the series will be hosted at downtown Oshawa’s Back Door Mission Monday evening with a screening of ‘Thinking Beyond the Market: A film about genuinely affordable housing,’ followed by a discussion and Q&A with Dr. Brian Doucet, the filmmaker and Associate Professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo.

The film explores innovative housing solutions being implemented in communities across Canada and highlights practical approaches that could help tackle affordability challenges locally.

“His film takes a trip across Canada into communities where they are taking ambitious action to solve housing affordability challenges – ideas that we can apply in our own city and communities,” said Giberson, the city’s Ward 4 Councillor representing Oshawa’s downtown.

Giberson aid the Townhall is geared to “everyone who is concerned about how our entire housing system has failed and become unaffordable” for so many, including people who work for modest incomes and still can’t find something “suitable and decent” at their income levels.

Doors open for the event at 6 p.m. with the screening at 6:30 p.m. and those wanting to attend can pre-register (at no cost) at https://dg.derekgiberson.ca/HousingTownhall_8ivhp4

The event is co-presented with the Back Door Mission for the Relief of Poverty at 66 Simcoe St. S.