Our Origin Story

The Spark

In January 2021, Delta City Council held a Public Hearing to consider a handful of modest revisions to the policies regulating secondary suites in the city. A lot of speakers argued persuasively that these revisions were a good idea because our city needs to find ways to provide a range of housing options to residents and newcomers. Positively, a majority of Council members voted to approve the changes and a small but important step was taken!

In the weeks following that meeting, a few of the people who spoke up at the meeting began to have informal discussions about creating a more supportive group that could share resources, keep ourselves up to date on projects worth supporting, and get the word out that a silent majority of Delta residents want to see our city take actions to address our housing shortage.

The Concept

In March of 2021, we settled on the idea that we could be a “people-oriented places” group modelled on the excellent work being done in Olympia, WA by O-POP (Olympians for People-Oriented Places) and in Botthell, WA by Bo-POP (Botthellites for People-Oriented Places). These two cities within the Cascadia region have faced similar challenges to the ones we’re facing. We were impressed by the way that both groups had managed to bring together vibrant and diverse coalitions of people who loved their city and wanted to see better land use and housing practices become more commonplace in their respective cities.

Cary Westerbeck of Bo-POP was interviewed by Strong Towns – take a moment and check out the episode and you’ll be inspired to join a people-oriented places group like Del-POP!

The Formal Beginning

In April 2021 we launched our website, registered as a non profit society in BC, and held our first regular meeting to discuss housing needs in Delta. This was an exciting moment as it marked the first time in Delta’s history that an explicitly pro-housing advocacy group has existed! 

The Work Continues

Since then, we have held monthly meetings, rallied support for numerous housing proposals, and celebrated the passage of two significant milestones:

1. approval of the City of Delta’s Housing Action Plan, and
2. approval of the Ladner Village Revitalization Plan

We are continuing to plan for the year to come and looking forward to opportunities to share our message and vision with a growing network of community members!

So…

If you’ve read this far, won’t you consider joining? You have the attentiveness to details and interest in these topics that will make you a great Del-POP member!