People First Radio – December 21, 2023People First Radio – December 21, 2023
People First Radio
Members of the Nanaimo Systems Planning Organization talk about coordinating the city’s response to homelessness, from data and prevention efforts to new shelter options and policy changes. The conversation highlights how a medium-sized community is working together across agencies and levels of government to address a growing housing crisis.
0:00•21 Dec 2023
Coordinating Nanaimo’s Fight Against Homelessness with Data and Community
Episode Overview
- Spo focuses on identifying gaps, building partnerships, and coordinating agencies to create a more unified community response to homelessness.
- New extreme weather response sites are moving ahead thanks to detailed research, collaboration with BC Housing, and coordination among local agencies.
- Data shows homelessness in Nanaimo has grown significantly, with an estimated 800–1,000 people homeless on any given night and many more at risk.
- Prevention tools such as rent banks and better use of administrative data are highlighted as crucial, even though preventing homelessness is hard to measure.
- Changes to local bylaws and a stronger alignment between municipal, provincial, and federal actors are seen as key steps toward expanding shelter and housing options.
“From my perspective, this challenge is a community-wide challenge, and everyone has a role to play in it.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? On this edition of People First Radio, the focus shifts squarely to homelessness and housing in Nanaimo, with a close look at how one small organisation is trying to make a big structural difference. Host Joe Pugh talks with three key figures from the Nanaimo Systems Planning Organization (Spo): executive director John McCormick, chair Don Bonner, and research and knowledge mobilisation lead Andrew Thornton.
Spo’s brief is clear: bring research, data, coordination, and quiet behind-the-scenes support to a community struggling with rising homelessness and limited shelter space. Across the conversation, you’ll hear how Spo has spent its first nine months spotting gaps, building partnerships, and helping agencies pull in the same direction.
A concrete example is their work on extreme weather response shelters, where Andrew explains how careful background research and coordination helped push forward two new sites: “It was based on doing the background work,” he notes, stressing that this wasn’t just about spotting a need but lining up the right partners and funding. The episode also digs into stark numbers.
Andrew outlines how point-in-time counts show homelessness in Nanaimo roughly tripling since 2016 and provides a current best estimate of 800–1,000 people without housing on any given night, with around 6,000 at risk.
John adds a human angle, urging residents to picture a loved one suddenly unable to afford a place to live and to “be a positive support for the work that we’re trying to do.” This conversation is especially useful for anyone interested in how local systems, data, and policy can shape practical responses to homelessness, and how medium-sized communities might actually hold lessons for larger cities. It’s a reminder that progress can be slow, but coordinated, fact-based effort matters.
If homelessness and housing feel like distant policy issues, this might prompt you to ask: what small role could you play in being, as John puts it, a “productive force for good” in your own community?
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