PREMIER David Eby has appointed Lisa Helps, Victoria’s former mayor, as the Premier’s housing solutions adviser.

Helps will work with the Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing, stakeholders and partners, to help design and develop the BC Builds program, an initiative to build housing for middle-income families, individuals and seniors.

“The current reality is that many people in our province struggle to find housing, even if they earn a good income,” said Eby on Thursday. “I’m very pleased that Lisa Helps has agreed to use her years of leadership to help us work on innovative solutions, like BC Builds, to make it easier for people to find a good place to live in their communities.”

Helps’ appointment as a special adviser on housing comes after Dr. Penny Ballem was named the Premier’s health systems specialist and Doug White was named the special counsel to the Premier on Indigenous reconciliation.

“Doug, Penny and Lisa have tremendous amounts of experience and they are all very motivated to help take concrete action on the issues important to British Columbians,” said Eby.