Category: Justice

What: Protest for Renoviction Protections!
When: 5:00pm on Monday 6 January 2025
Where: Meeting outside Kitchener Central Library, marching to Kitchener City Hall
Location: 85 Queen Street North, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Contact: Phone Number: +1‑519‑670‑1859, Email: kw@acorncanada.org

Waterloo Region ACORN March for Renoviction Protections in Kitchener!

ACORN Waterloo is organizing a march calling out the City of Kitchener for refusing to take action against renovictions on Monday January 6th at 5:00PM starting at Kitchener Central Library.

(Kitchener, ON) – In the wake of a housing crisis, low-income tenants are losing their affordable homes faster than new affordable units can be built, while landlords are profiting from mass evicting vulnerable tenants. Cities like Hamilton, Toronto, and London have taken steps to pass anti-renoviction bylaws to curb this issue, and other cities and even small towns like Kawartha Lakes are taking steps towards similar bylaws. Meanwhile, the City of Kitchener insists it’s not in their jurisdiction to regulate renovictions.

Countless stories have surfaced across the Region of low-income tenants being uprooted from their rent controlled units for so-called “renovations”, a practice becoming all too common among landlords seeking to make bigger profits. 267 Traynor, 250 Frederick, 141 & 149 Borden are all just some examples of a systemic problem destroying our affordable housing stock in Kitchener: Renovictions.

ACORN members and tenants of various buildings facing renovictions across the city are furious that Kitchener City Council is refusing to take the necessary steps to curb this crisis, despite other cities passing renoviction bylaws, and despite legal opinions from ACTO and Raven Law highlighting how it is fully within Cities’ powers to pass these laws.

This is why Waterloo Region ACORN members are leading a march to City Hall on Monday, 6 January 2025. ACORN members are demanding the City pass a renoviction bylaw similar to Toronto or Hamilton, where landlords must apply for a license to renovate units, and provide tenants with temporary accommodation while renovations are taking place, at the same rental rate the tenant paid before renovations began.

We invite you to join us on Monday to speak with ACORN members facing renoviction and to learn more about ACORN’s anti-displacement campaigns.

Background:

ACORN Canada is a national independent organization of low-and-moderate income families with 180,000+ members in 21+ neighbourhood chapters across 10 cities.