Former Victoria mayor appointed B.C.'s special adviser on housing
Lisa Helps to help design program focused on building middle-income homes
The former mayor of Victoria has been appointed as a special housing solutions adviser to support the provincial government as it works to create a program focused on building more homes in B.C.
The provincial government said Lisa Helps, who served in the capital city for eight years, will help design and develop the B.C. Builds program — an initiative the province said was intended "to build housing for middle-income families, individuals and seniors."
"I'm very pleased that Lisa Helps has agreed to use her years of leadership to help us work on innovative solutions, like B.C. Builds, to make it easier for people to find a good place to live in their communities," B.C. Premier David Eby wrote in a statement released Thursday.
Helps served as mayor of Victoria for two terms, having been elected in 2014 and 2018. She chose not to run for a third term last year.
Helps is the latest public official in B.C. to be appointed as a special adviser to support the provincial government on key issues in recent weeks.
Dr. Penny Ballem, who was hired by the provincial government to lead B.C.'s COVID-19 immunization plan, was named the premier's health systems specialist last week. Coast Salish lawyer Doug White was named special counsel to Eby on Indigenous reconciliation in December.