Looking back over ~4 years worth of email the topic of Extreme Weather Response (EWR) is one that has come up often and been the source of much frustration from those looking in from the outside (like NSUN) and seemingly more often just another hoop to jump through with little to gain on the other side for those living unsheltered in the Capital Region during extreme weather. And I use the term extreme weather without any qualifications because that is one of the glaring problems with the program – looking through a lens of what might be dangerous weather conditions for a relatively healthy person who is housed seems a poor way to set a threshold for when people living outdoors are at risk.
Tents in the snow on Pandora – November 12, 2023
Almost from the moment I met Jody Paterson*, who describes herself as a communications strategist and writer with a background in journalism, we were talking about the hot potato (one of many) which is the Extreme Weather Response.
Now Jody has given us a huge gift in the form of a 9-page Briefing Note that gives us a look inside the labyrinth that is the Extreme Weather Response, why it has been so difficult to execute well in Victoria and some possibilities for improvement before the winter** of 2026/2027 is upon us.
If you have any interest in this topic (or just some kind of masochistic to desire to see the tangle of government operations up close) please download (and share!) this Briefing Note.
*See more of Paterson’s writings on her delightfully retro blog A Closer Look which also contains links to her ‘Humans of New York’ style Street Stories Victoria and links to her features published in the Times Colonist in 2026 (scroll to the bottom of the page).
**Another massive problem with the EWR is that there is no consideration given for other kinds of extreme weather than cold/rain/wind/snow – as far as NSUN is concerned, and I would guess any reasonable organization serving the unhoused feels the same way, an extreme weather response needs to be YEAR ROUND and ready to respond to extreme heat with the same kind of urgency as we respond to cold
Neighbourhood Solidarity with Unhoused Neighbours 