What: Region-Wide Day of Action for Municipal Anti-Renoviction Bylaws
When: Tuesday 27 August 2024 at 1:00pm
Where: Register on Zoom
Contact: Vonica Flear, kw@acorncanada.org Phone: +1‑226‑545‑4359
Website: https://acorncanada.org
Waterloo Region ACORN: https://acorncanada.org/locations/waterloo-acorn/
ACORN members and tenants across Waterloo region are banding together to fight for better protections from bad-faith evictions.
On Tuesday August 27th, Waterloo Region ACORN will be holding a Region-Wide action calling on Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge city councils to enact anti-renoviction bylaws similar to the one passed in Hamilton earlier this year.
On January 17th, Hamilton City Council voted unanimously in favour of the city passing a strong anti-renoviction bylaw called the “Renovations License and Relocation Bylaw.” This happened after a 5 year effort by Hamilton ACORN and several motions passed to direct the creation of a bylaw based on the success of policy from New Westminster, BC. The original bylaw in New Westminster eliminated renovictions since passing in 2019, reducing the total number of renovictions from 333 to zero. The new Hamilton bylaw will require landlords to:
- Apply for a licence within 7 days of issuing a tenant a N13.
- Provide tenants with a Tenant’s Rights and Entitlements Package
- Provide tenants wishing to exercise their right to return to their unit (at the same rent!) with temporary accommodation OR a rental top up for the duration of the renovations.
ACORN members across the Region are ecstatic to see Hamilton pass STRONG tenant protections that will significantly reduce the number of affordable units being systematically removed by landlords taking advantage of the loopholes in Ontario’s rent control measures. Waterloo Region ACORN members will be meeting on Zoom on August 27th to review ACORN’s renoviction bylaw campaign and facilitate phone blitzes to Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge city council offices to call for similar bylaws to be passed in each city.
Maribel Jagorin, Co-Chair of the Waterloo Region chapter of ACORN and currently facing renoviction from her own apartment, says, “There is a big disconnect between the cost of living and income. There is a housing crisis out there. How am I supposed to live? I can’t afford somewhere else, and there’s nothing out there for me. I am fighting for my affordable housing and my rights because everywhere I look I can only see greed and lack of balance. Landlords are privileged!”