The environmental left will be running a slate of three candidates for Victoria city council in the Oct. 20 municipal election.

Laurel Collins, Sarah Potts and Sharmarke Dubow — all endorsed by Together Victoria, a group of self-described “progressive environmentalists” — will officially announce their candidacy today outside city hall.

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Potts is a manager of volunteers at Our Place who has worked as an organizer for the Green Party. Collins is a sessional lecturer and interdisciplinary PhD candidate at UVic. Dubow, a Somali refugee, has just been laid off and is unemployed, and most recently worked at the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria with its Syrian refugee project. None of them has previous elected experience.

Collins and Potts are Victoria residents. Dubow lives in Esquimalt, a victim, he said, of the “housing crisis,” which is an issue he would like to address. “I was living in Victoria for about four years, then I ended up almost homeless because I couldn’t find a place to live,” he said.

“That is one of the reasons I’m running for Victoria council because, as you know, the vacancy rate is zero; rents are high and people are being displaced.”

The three describe Together Victoria as “a grassroots organization” that is “dedicated to creating an affordable, inclusive and thriving city.”

Its vision: “Create a political movement in Victoria that tackles the challenge of affordability and inclusivity, and wins a stable council majority that transforms local government into a vehicle for participatory democracy, social justice and environmental justice.”

Collins describes herself as a community organizer and lecturer who has been involved in supporting arts and culture. “I’ve advocated for affordable housing, to stop renovictions. I’ve organized and led groups tackling environmental sustainability and environmental protection,” she said.

Affordability is also top of mind for Potts, a single mom. “I’m a renter, I’m a young professional and I’d really like to buy a home in Victoria. Right now, it seems like it’s out of reach, and I think there’s more that the city can do in terms of affordability.”

Incumbent Coun. Ben Isitt said he is a member of Together Victoria. He dismissed any suggestion that he is behind organizing a slate to solidify council’s balance of power on the left. “I’ve had extremely minimal involvement with this organization,” he said.

Mayor Lisa Helps said she is not involved with Together Victoria, but planned to attend the candidates’ campaign announcement.

Together Victoria was formerly known as Organize Victoria. Its website says its genesis came shortly after the 2014 municipal election when a number of “progressive political organizers” met for a post-mortem of the campaign.

Their conclusion was that the campaign had divided the progressive community as the campaigns of candidates were at odds with each other “preventing the opportunity for strong progressive turnout to be translated into a strong majority at the council table.”

Meanwhile, there are still no candidate announcements from NewCouncil.ca, a group formed to replace incumbent councillors, whose stated priorities include: a greater focus on community safety, fiscal responsibility and affordable housing that addresses neighbourhood needs.

“It’s taking longer than we expected [to line up candidates], but we’re very pleased we are taking the time, said organizer Stephen Hammond, one of the founders of Mad As Hell, a neighbourhood group that mobilized when a tent city was set up on the courthouse lawn from the fall of 2015 until August 2016.

“At the moment, we’re not revealing [candidates], but it will be very soon,” he said.