Item - 2024.HS2.5

The Housing Rights Advisory Committee recommends that:

1. Notwithstanding Part 277 of City Council decision in Item 2021.EX21.2, City Council amend Section 7 of the Terms of Reference for the Housing Rights Advisory Committee so that it now reads as follows:
 

7. Advisory Committee public members will be eligible to receive an honorarium of $125.00 per meeting or working group attended in recognition of the contributions they are providing to Toronto. The Advisory Committee's honoraria payments are subject to the following:

a. honoraria are not intended for public members who serve on the Advisory Committee as representatives of organizations or businesses where they are employed;

b. public members who serve as the Chair or Vice-Chair of the Advisory Committee are not eligible for any additional honoraria; and

c. honoraria are not paid for attendance at sub-committee meetings or events.

The purpose of this motion is to request that Council revise the Terms of Reference for the committee to allow the honorarium to be paid to public members for working group meetings. Recognizing that public members of the committee who are not otherwise compensated by their workplace, and are bringing subject matter expertise, including lived/living experience of homelessness or housing precarity, are needed in order for this committee to fulfill its mandate. It is a matter of equity that their time be compensated for this contribution to the work of the City.