It’s no secret that there have been many challenges in recent years; issues that primarily used to affect people living in poverty are now impacting people in the middle class, resulting in vulnerability for a large portion of our community.
As issues multiply, combine and intertwine, how can we reduce their impact on our community? There can be no doubt that the only way out of this crisis is to pull together.
The results of collaboration
The housing shortage is affecting our community more than ever. Already in winter 2019, the housing situation prompted concern among many community partners, and given the obvious urgency to act, the MRC de Coaticook, the Société d’aide au développement de la collectivité (SADC) de la région de Coaticook, and the Corporation de développement communautaire (CDC) de la MRC de Coaticook joined forces to launch a major housing initiative.
This led to the emergence, four years later, of a housing needs study, an action plan to remedy the housing crisis, a housing project manager and a housing development officer. On January 30, 2024, these three partners officially created L’Entrée, an affordable-housing NPO.
Its mission is to acquire, maintain and manage multi-dwellings in order to build up a housing stock of non-profit, affordable units that will meet the needs of people in the MRC de Coacitook.
The vision of L’Entrée is to provide a living environment where every citizen has access to decent housing that takes into account their income and needs.
Thanks to a collaborative initiative between organizations from three different worlds, inspired by a model that originated in Châteauguay, a concrete, real-world solution has been developed to make a real impact on the housing crisis and bring affordable housing to our community.
A matter of strategic planning
The MRC, SADC and CDC have succeeded in uniting three different organizations, bringing together three different visions developed through different strengths. This has led to a union between the community, economic development and municipal sectors.
Over the past year, the SADC de la région de Coaticook has embarked on a strategic planning process for 2023-2024 with the aim of producing a five-year plan that will meet the needs of the population of the MRC de Coaticook. The first strategic direction clearly reflects the desire to adopt a posture similar to the one embraced for L’Entrée, namely:
Adopt a discourse that brings together the area’s social and economic concerns, both to express the SADC’s mission and to convey a “socio-economic” vision of the Coaticook region’s development.
This direction attests to a high-level stance and assertive leadership; SADC wishes to uphold this vision through the next five years. In other words, as a socio-economic development organization, the SADC wishes to move closer to social development as a priority.
This ambition is shared by the CDC, namely, to create more links between social and economic development, for the well-being of the entire community.
For the MRC, most decisions and actions are guided by strong values such as expertise, boldness, cooperation and accessibility. Working in collaboration with regional partners is essential, especially for issues as important as housing.
Creating such partnerships and working on a concrete project is not always easy, but the results are all the more impressive. The natural ties between the organizations, the current crisis and the urgency to act have all given birth to this partnership. The question now is: What if joining forces with our different, complementary visions was THE way to go? What if we gave ourselves the time, agility and freedom to make this THE way to develop our community?
It will be worth keeping a close eye on developments in this regard.