The magic room was a community effort, maintained by many residents volunteering their time to keep it well organised and running smoothly. I often saw my neighbour, Wendy Showyin, when I stopped by.
"We're here on behalf of the people who put us here, and who need to know that their government is accountable to them, and that we, their representatives, will ask questions and investigate discrepancies on their behalf," said District 2 Councilor Sameer Kanal.
"Over the last year, our committee set out to learn about asset management and the state of one of our most important assets, which is our streets and our roads. We learned that our streets are riddled with potholes, and many of the streets are failing. The condition has worsened over the last five years. We learned that if we do not act now to address the degradation of our streets, it will continue to worsen."
Carmella Charrington has lived in the house with her family for more than 17 years, asserting that the sale was conducted without her father's knowledge and that the supposed heirs had no legal claim to the property.
The Homekey project at 1237 San Antonio Road has been in the works since fall 2023, when city and state leaders touted its importance in addressing the local and regional housing crisis.
That 2025 NOFO that dropped in November was the precursor of what the future's gonna look like. I strongly believe that, for the majority of wild and crazy things in that NOFO, that is what's going to drop in July of 2026. If that happens, dozens of people in the region could fall back into homelessness.
