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Greater Victoria Acting Together (GVAT) appears to be run by a member of the political pressure group Homes For Living.

GVAT is part of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) which is based in the United States. GVAT attempts with concerted organization to advance a housing first agenda during local government elections in Greater Victoria.


By Sasha Izard
August 2, 2026

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Recently, I wrote the following article:

‘Livable CRD’, and its alliance of astroturfing organizations, seeking to influence the outcome of the 2026 local government election. – CRD Watch Homepage

As I showed in the article, two of the organizations that are part of the Livable CRD coalition, are actually based in the United States. These are Strong Towns, and the Greater Victoria Housing Society (GVAT). GVAT is part of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), which is based in the United States, and like Strong Towns provides training and an operational framework internationally, to subsidiaries and those involved with them.

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GVAT’s only listed member of staff.

Surprisingly, Greater Victoria Acting Together (GVAT) has only one listed member of staff on their website, Izzy Adachi, who is also referred to as the organizations “Lead Organizer”.

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT – About

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Izzy Adachi appears to have been a member of the political pressure group Homes for Living, practically since the organization’s inception in early 2022. Homes For Living was a 3rd party election advertising sponsor for the 2022 local government election, which saw a majority of their endorsed candidates get elected to Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich councils.

The following is a screenshot of IzzyA on Homes For Living’s Discord dated April 1, 2022:

IzzyA: ive been asked if I am a Homes for Living member. does this organization actually have a membership? does being on this discord constitute membership?

Phil.MacKellar wrote: Yes, the discord membership is it, so yes, you are a member. We have a newsletter too which people can sign up for but discord and the newsletter are it.

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The following screenshot is of a more recent post in July of 2026 of IzzyA posting on the Homes for Living online Discord channel:

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Izzy (izzy@gvat.ca) is the contact for the GVAT housing policy page:

From the same page:

“A Milestone Event

In 2022, we held our first Homes For All Community Assembly, bringing together 300+ members from our diverse community to hold municipal candidates accountable on housing affordability.

Through it, we gained the commitment of the candidates to meet with us annually to discuss how they are meeting our Homes For All campaign targets.”

Note: the names Homes For All, Homes for Living, and the Province’s Homes for People plan are remarkably similar.

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If I would like to contact the directors of the organization however, there are no contact info provided for them:

If in order to contact them, you would essentially need to go through the only listed member of staff, Izzy, who appears to be in charge of general inquiries to the organization.

If I scroll down to the bottom of the website for example, I cannot find a contact link, but I can find a link that says “GET INVOLVED”.

If I click on the “GET INVOLVED” link, I am taken to the following page:

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT – Get Involved

“Building Power to Change

“Our alliance runs on regular people like you. We are a training ground for developing leaders, who are building a permanent alliance for real change in Victoria. Schedule a meeting with an organizer to get involved by contacting
izzy@gvat.ca

Start the conversation using the form below. We look forward to hearing from you!”

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Sonia Theroux

The following is a Social media post from the Greater Victoria Acting Together 2 years ago:

“Join experienced organisers, Izzy Adachi and Sonia Theroux, to explore power and strategic context, and help us plan an impactful campaign for vacancy control.

Event details

Date: July 6th

Time: 3 – 5:30pm

Location: BCGEU Offices, 2994 Douglas Street”

Sonia Theroux was an Executive Director of Leadnow.ca and was former Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps’ campaign manager in the 2014 election. She also played a key role in Helps’ 2018 re-election campaign.

Sonia Theroux and Logan McIntosh become Co-Executive Directors of Leadnow.ca

Theroux was also an organizer for GVAT:

“On Sunday November 6, our organisational and team development consultant Sonia Theroux led a half day workshop which included over twenty people from across the organisation. Sonia will be developing a report that is intended to be a living document, as opposed to just a summary of findings. Drawing from engagement work including this event, the report will help us become more effective, efficient and equitable. It will also include recommendations for future trainings and workshops.”

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT – GVAT December Newsletter – Translating politicians’ promises into action on affordable housing and climate justice

Theroux also worked as the event coordinator for GVAT’s major “Homes for All Community Assembly” in October 2022, managing communications and media relations for the housing crisis forum.

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT – MEDIA RELEASE: Regional Mayors, Mayoral Candidates to Commit Support for Housing Policies In Front of Hundreds at “Homes for All Community Assembly”

“Housing

Homes for All Municipal Commitments

In the days leading up to the B. C. municipal elections, GVAT invited the leading candidates for mayor in Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay and Esquimalt to our Assembly on Affordable Housing. Over 300 GVAT members attended this event in person at Christ Church Cathedral, with up to 77 watching live online. All the mayoral candidates pledged publicly to support GVAT’s housing policy platform and to meet with GVAT leaders within 100 days if elected. All four elected mayors (Dean Murdock, Marianne Alto, Kevin Murdoch, Barb Desjardins) kept their promise.”

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT – Our Wins

“GVAT’s Board hired a consultant, Sonia Theroux. She submitted a report in December/January A Handbook to Guide Planning Decisions and Activities for 2023 and Beyond based on interviews with many of GVAT’s leaders and workers.

She found there are different written versions of GVAT’s vision and mandate. She found that decisions are made without everybody knowing about them, and that decision-making roles of some committees are unclear and overlap. She suggested decision methods for leadership teams to consider and an order in which to consider them.

She suggested we continue to develop new leadership that would include greater diversity and be more representative of the community.”

FUCV-In-the-Spirit-March-2nd-2023.pdf


“12) Training

Much training has already been offered to GVAT members in 2023.

●      our consultant, Sonia Theroux, led a pair of workshops on Preparing and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Meetings.  Recordings, slides and summary documents are all available from admin@gvat.ca . “

Greater Victoria Acting Together / GVAT – GVAT December Newsletter – Translating politicians’ promises into action on affordable housing and climate justice

In 2017, Faith in Action, an alliance of church groups was rebranded as Greater Victoria Acting Together, after merging under the GVAT banner with various NDP oriented unions, including CUPE, The Victoria Labour Council, and the BCGEU.

Wayback Machine

Church and state, were now merging with union and state.

The following year in 2018, saw a new slate sweeping to a powerful position on Victoria City Council. It was called Together Victoria. Note, the word Together entered the name of the newly branded GVAT only a year before. Coincidence?

Theroux, was a donor to the Together Victoria Electors Organization campaign:

DS-EO-VICT-TVEA-A1.pdf

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Nicole Chaland

Another key figure that has various crossovers between these organizations is Nicole Chaland of A Home For All.

About Us | A Home For All

Comment: Mayors in the core municipalities pledge action on housing – Victoria Times Colonist

Chaland through organizational work provided a key boost to Together Victoria, and like Theroux donated to the Elector Organization behind it in 2018.

100139727.pdf

How to Use a Renters Housing Crisis to Gain Votes and Influence Elections | by Darren Alexander | Medium

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Conclusion:

When union and business merge as has been observed with the BC NDP, the result is known as business unionism.

How is it advanced though? It doesn’t look good when it’s advanced directly, so rather its agenda is advanced indirectly through numerous other organizations.

What happens when church and union not only merge together but merge with the state itself? Which one do you think is going to be the junior partner? GVAT’s model goes beyond lobbying, to utilizing the power and community pressure of church groups and unions on politicians and candidates to compel a housing oriented agenda.

GVAT is financially supported by the City of Victoria and the District of Saanich, while at the same time successfully getting its mayors to commit themselves to its goals.

However, as grassroots and local as the name Greater Victoria Acting Together makes it seem, in reality it is part of an international organization in the United States that provided them with training and a framework to operate in. The organization is the Industrial Areas Foundation, and as with Strong Towns which operates on a very similar model, this is happening in numerous other towns across Canada. In my view, this is foreign interference in local government elections.

While GVAT’s goals have been ostensibly humanitarian, the state while mainly paying lip service to those goals, has primarily pushed a market-based agenda in the profit-driven interests of the development and real estate industries that does not deliver on real affordability. This has been achieved by using housing crisis rhetoric to steam role community planning with industry’s agenda, with devastating environmental consequences to the urban forest.

By the time this agenda will have come to full fruition, the once urban forest may appropriately be referred to as an industrial area, just like the Foundation.

Stay tuned, there will be a subsequent article to this.

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See also:

Front organization – Wikipedia

‘Livable CRD’, and its alliance of astroturfing organizations, seeking to influence the outcome of the 2026 local government election. – CRD Watch Homepage

2 Sentence Constitution of the Homes For Living Foundation removes any doubt that Homes For Living (HFL) is a purpose-built pressure group designed to influence municipal politicians. – CRD Watch Homepage

Index of Articles and other Media Coverage about Homes For Living – CRD Watch Homepage