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| My living room window. |
Yesterday afternoon KMHC had their general meeting. I entered the community room and slowly the
other tenants came in. A native elder
guest started the meeting with a prayer then an introduction from Ontario
Aboriginal Housing acting director Justin Marchand and his colleagues. I sat beside Hamilton City Hall social
housing manager Mr. Adam Sweedland. I
introduced myself as a tenant and author of the Hamilton Native Housing blogsite. Unfortunately UNH board member Carol Hill
couldn’t attend because she locked herself out of her home. What a great way to start a serious meeting
with a little humor. :D
I found out Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services aka OAHS is
based in the northern city of Sault Ste. Marie and have other offices and 2,000
homes across the province of Ontario.
Their credentials are impressive they have been around for many
years. OAHS objective is to assist UNH’s
with maintenance, repairs and I sense a transitional period until they finally
take over management, Justin was vague when I asked the question about the
current UNH Acting Director. Beside
that sharing their other plans was all positive, the repairs, working to better
communication between staff and tenants.
We were told there are five board members that meet with the UNH Acting
director once a month to discuss God only knows what! :P
Discussion between tenants got a bit heated then Franklin the
cultural coordinator stepped in to remind tenants about petty bickering and
snide remarks are not acceptable and invited those to see him privately to help
with their issues.
Starting within the next few months OAHS maintenance staff
will be doing KMHC unit inspections then eventually hire contractors to do the
work. We were told Candlewood (Kenatah Complex)
is in need of many repairs that will probably take top priority and I’m all for
it. Families are up there.
The current UNH staff will be employed until March 31/18 then OAHS will be reevaluating their job positions. Personally I hope Teresa and Crystal stick around after the transitional period but all I can do is hope for the best. Paralegal Ali Naraghi from Hamilton Community Legal Clinic offered his services should tenants need advice yet since receiving the N5 notice from their office I’m skeptical.
The current UNH staff will be employed until March 31/18 then OAHS will be reevaluating their job positions. Personally I hope Teresa and Crystal stick around after the transitional period but all I can do is hope for the best. Paralegal Ali Naraghi from Hamilton Community Legal Clinic offered his services should tenants need advice yet since receiving the N5 notice from their office I’m skeptical.
As the meeting adjoined I leaned over to the City of
Hamilton Social Housing manager Mr. Sweedland and I said, Thank you sir I’ve
been waiting a long time for this. He
smiled and said I know. :)
You know what folks! This is the best Christmas present to receive for the year 2017. Truth be told this is why I created this blogsite back in 7/24/10 to share with the world there are problems at KMHC and we need help. I’m optimistic a better future for indigenous tenants across the City of Hamilton.
Thank you for reading my blogs. I love you all & have a Merry Christmas. :)
Tk
Comments
Thanks Mathew.
tk