What “Housing First” means in practice - with Shayla Day

"Send us a text about this episode!"On this episode of Nonpartisan Hacks, Parksville City Councillors Sean Wood and Joel Grenz sit down with Shayla Day, founder and CEO of DayHomes Society, a nonprofit serving the Oceanside region with outreach, food support, housing navigation, and community coordination. Shayla also chairs the Oceanside Homeless Task Force and co-chairs the Oceanside Community Action Team.Shayla brings a perspective most policy conversations don't have: she was homeless herself from age 11 to 21, and has spent the sixteen years since building a career in the sector she once relied on. She and the hosts talk through what “Housing First” actually means in practice, why detox and treatment beds are scarce between Nanaimo and Courtenay, and how coordinated regional shelter networks and case tracking work day to day for the people trying to get someone into care.They also get into the tension local councillors face when calls about people in crisis land on their desks, even though municipalities have no dedicated social services branch to respond. It's a candid, non-partisan look at where policy and frontline reality line up, and where they don't.Listen for:Shayla Day's own story of homelessness and addiction, and what it actually took to get cleanWhat “Housing First” means in practice, versus how the phrase gets used in policy debatesWhy there are no detox or treatment beds between Nanaimo and Courtenay, and what that gap costs OceansideHow coordinated regional shelter networks and case tracking work between communitiesWhat falls to local councillors when social service calls land on their desk, and what doesn'tVisit the NonPartisan Hacks website: nonpartisanhacks.comVoice message: https://thepulsecommunity.ca/contact/You'll find all episodes of The PULSE Podcast on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, TikTok and YouTube podcasts, as well as PULSECommunity.ca.Special Thanks to our Sponsor Ian Lindsay & Associates for supporting ThePulseCommunity.ca.Check out Skookum Kid's Stories on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio, YouTube Podcasts, and SkookumKids.com.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to stay up to date on guests, contests and more: https://bit.ly/PulseNewsletterSignup#ThePulsePodcast #VancouverIslandPodcasts #NonPartisanHacks #Oceanside #Parksville #QualicumBeach #Homelessness #HousingFirst #LocalGovernment #CivicEngagementSupport the show