Activist Leigh Bursey formed the Mount Pearl Streetfriends shortly after moving back to his home province in 2021. Bursey was at the Ross King Memorial Library this past Saturday to collect stories for a written submission to the Federal Housing Advocate to help better address homelessness, eviction, and inadequate housing. “It creates an opportunity, when you have these kind of community outreach sessions, for people to understand that their voice is important,” said Bursey. “We want to amplify the voices of people who have been left behind, or who have fallen through the cracks, or people who have had bad experiences with existing legislation.” Bursey says that sometimes even ‘well-intentioned,’ polices can be flawed, saying that he knows one person who was recently exempt from receiving the federal government’s one-time $500 top-up intended to help low-income earners with their rent payment because the person earned $12 above the annual income threshold. Bursey hopes his submission will help address issues such as this. While working on the submission over the next month or so, he hopes to host more ‘pop-up’ events.
