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Housing Alternatives
FINDING SOLUTIONS TO THE AFFORDABILITY DILEMMA
» Thursday 18 September 2008 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing people and ideas featured in Okanagan HOME. Join us as Lona Manning of Habitat for Humanity, Zena Ryder, founder of Kelowna Cohousing Community, and Dona Sturmanis, senior editor of Okanagan Home discuss the challenges and opportunities of affordable housing.
» This is a free event. Refreshments will be available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE
Designing Out of the Box Affordable Housing
 The quest for affordable and user-friendly housing is an ongoing journey in the Okanagan considering our ever-escalating real estate prices. This is especially true for young and single families, those with low incomes, students, seniors, those with special needs and some who simply want to live in a more interconnected community.
Part of the solution for this situation is alternative forms of housing and different ways of making them happen.
On Thursday, September 18, Okanagan Institute Express explores these issues with its presentation Housing Alternatives: Finding Solutions to the Affordability Dilemma featuring Lona Manning of Habitat for Humanity, Zena Ryder, founder of Kelowna Cohousing Community, and Dona Sturmanis, senior editor of Okanagan Home. This free event gets underway at 5 pm at the Bohemian Café.
Dona Sturmanis, senior editor of Okanagan Home, says, "While affordability is a main concern, so are the needs and preferences of the home dweller. Okanagan residents are becoming more creative in their search for reasonable and individualized housing."
Sturmanis has experienced many different types of homes: downtown artist live-work studio, two boats, on-the-road Airstream, rural cabins, communal houses, shared condominium living, rental apartments, strata townhouse and family detached home with in-law provisions.
"Each one of them presented their own unique advantages and disadvantages," she says.
Zena Ryder is the founder of Kelowna Cohousing Community, which was formed in December 2007.
"We aim to build a community with real neighbours - people who genuinely know one another and are supportive of one another," says Ryder, a stay-at-home mother, unschooler, homemaker and writer. "Cohousing will be as environmentally friendly as possible, designed around people instead of cars to encourage walking, biking and social interaction between neighbours. In addition to each household's private home, there will be a common house and outdoor areas with community facilities that are shared by all residents."
Lona Manning has lived in the Okanagan area with her family for almost 20 years. She has worked as a vocational trainer for persons with mental illness. She has volunteered with the SPCA, Heart & Stroke Foundation, the Learning Disabilities Association of BC and the Okanagan Mission Community Hall. She is currently the executive director of Habitat for Humanity Kelowna.
Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit independent faith-based volunteer organization. Habitat donors and volunteers work together with families to build decent, low-cost housing. Habitat has built more than 225,000 houses around the world. Habitat for Humanity Kelowna was established in 1992 and will finish their 17th home this year.
Housing Alternatives: Finding Solutions to the Affordability Dilemma is a free event, and takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 58th event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007. Since that time, the series has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, architect Jim Meiklejohn, and others from a variety of creative fields.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
Where Enquiring Minds Gather. Okanagan Institute at the Bohemian Café A hearty feast of lectures, presentations, workshops and showcases celebrating our culture and community. Produced by the Okanagan Institute in association with Wheat King Publishing magazines: Okanagan Arts and Okanagan Home. Express is sponsored in part by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan, Wood Lake Publishing, UBCO-FCCS, and in support of Project Literacy Kelowna.
The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that have gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.
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