Item - 2023.CA11.1

During the review of the Order Paper on December 13, 2023, City Council adopted a procedural motion to remove this Item from the jurisdiction of the Civic Appointments Committee and bring it forward for consideration by City Council.

Appointees' biographies:

Nicole Alexander

Nicole Alexander is a Black, queer person of Afro-Caribbean descent. Nicole uses she/they pronouns. Nicole works in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultation and has previously worked in harm reduction and federal prison in-reach. Nicole is passionate about housing accessibility for all and wants to be a voice for the community.

Joy Connelly

Joy Connelly is a member of Right2Housing Toronto. She has spent her entire adult life in the affordable housing sector: as a co-op housing member, manager, development consultant and educator; as Communications Manager and course writer for the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association; as a consultant to over 20 non-profit organizations and all three levels of government; as a founding Board member of Circle Community Land Trust; and as an effective affordable housing advocate and volunteer.

Chase Gaudet

I am a young Aboriginal male who has grown up in the greater Toronto area. Throughout my years I have been close to my native community and sadly a lot of my peers have witnessed the hardship of finding housing especially with our housing crisis. Just recently I have gained housing and want to help others find the same path.

Lindsey Lemieux

As a survivor of the Ontario Disability Support Program who successfully obtained housing after experiencing homelessness, I feel I have a abundance of knowledge and resources to draw on due to my direct lived experience. When we allow those who have experienced lived adversity to use that knowledge, I believe all of the community benefits. I am currently residing in a Toronto Community Housing building, and I am the Tenant representative for the building. My intention is to advocate to the best of my abilities.

Harmy Elevi Javier Mendoza

Harmy Mendoza is a success-driven, enthusiastic, and visionary senior-level leader with over 16 years of progressive experience in equity and diversity. Her work is characterized by a sharp analytical, conceptual approach from an intersectional anti-oppression framework, and she has a proven track record of influencing policies and programs to benefit the most vulnerable sections of the population.

Ann-Marie Moulton

Ann-Marie Moulton is a Social Work practitioner, social justice activist, advocate and front-line service provider who is passionate about improving the city of Toronto, while helping to foster equity, inclusion, and fairness on issues of housing and homelessness. She has more than fifteen years experience working with youth experiencing homelessness and on the verge of being homeless, as well as with marginalized communities experiencing poverty. She has served for five consecutive years as a voting member for United Way Greater Toronto Board of Trustees.

Ann-Marie is privileged to work with other members to ensure the fulfillment of governance and legislative requirements, while working together to tackle poverty among underserved communities. Through her passion for community development and community engagement work, she believes thriving and growing communities are the bedrock of society. Ann-Marie has committed herself to working collaboratively through the power of partnership, to build equitable and inclusive communities and to ensure long-term systemic change in all aspects of city life.

Elizabeth McIsaac

Elizabeth McIsaac is the president of Maytree, an organization committed to advancing systemic solutions to poverty through a human rights-based approach. She has led Maytree to a deep focus on advancing the human right to adequate housing through strategic opportunities with cities and other orders of government. She also has extensive experience working and volunteering on issues related to immigrant and refugee inclusion.

Saroja Ponnambalam

Saroja Ponnambalam (she/her) is a Community Planner with Social Planning Toronto with over a decade of experience in resident engagement in Toronto's diverse neighbourhoods. She is dedicated to reducing barriers to civic participation through local governance processes and community organizing. She has worked with many community groups and networks across the city to advocate around systemic issues, ranging from racial justice to housing equity. She holds an Master’s in Human Geography from University of Toronto.

Danyaal Raza

Danyaal Raza is a family physician with Unity Health Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, and Assistant Professor with the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Raza serves on the Board of Directors of the St. Michael's Hospital Academic Family Health Team, and is the founding physician lead of the Sumac Creek Health Centre in Toronto’s Regent Park, where he also practises family medicine.

Bahar Shadpour

Bahar Shadpour is the Senior Manager of Regional Housing Policy at the United Way Greater Toronto. For the past decade she has been working on advancing housing solutions that meet the needs of low- to moderate-income people across Canada. In her previous roles at the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights and the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, she has gained deep understanding of intersecting issues impacting renters, people experiencing housing precarity and homelessness.

Bee Lee Soh

Bee Lee Soh is an anti-poverty advocate and an active community volunteer. She is a frequent speaker on housing, transit, employment, food insecurity and social assistance to bring policy and systemic changes. Bee is currently a member of Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness’ People With Lived Experience caucus; Toronto Public Health’s Health and Homelessness Advisory Working Group; a founding member of St Michael’s Hospital MAP Community Expert Group on Homelessness, Housing and Health; member of Power in Community, fighting for affordable homes (multi-tenant houses) and founding member of Social Assistance Coalitions of Scarborough, fighting for shelter money to be raised with market rent. Previously, Bee was a member of the City of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Lived Experience Advisory Group and the federal government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Poverty leading to the first National Poverty Reduction Strategy. Bee’s contributions have been recognized with an Everyday Political Citizen Award from the Samara Centre for Democracy and a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Pin.

The City Clerk recommends that:  

1. The Civic Appointments Committee recommend eleven candidates, including one as Chair, to City Council for appointment to the Housing Rights Advisory Committee, at pleasure of Council, for a term of office ending on November 14, 2026.

2. City Council direct that Confidential Attachments 1 and 2 remain confidential in their entirety as they relate to personal matters about identifiable individuals being considered for appointment to the Housing Rights Advisory Committee.

The Civic Appointments Committee will conduct interviews and recommend 11 public members, including one as Chair, to City Council for appointment to the Housing Rights Advisory Committee.