The candidates’ forum toolkit is designed to help you question candidates in the 2013 BC election about affordable housing, social housing, and rent control. It is meant as a general guide only and does not include statistics specific to your local community.

Download a copy of the Social Housing Toolkit PDF

The purpose of asking candidates about the housing crisis is not only to find out where they stand, but also to make people attending the forums think about the housing crisis in their communities.

Remember!

• “Affordable housing” does not necessarily mean social housing
• Shelters are not housing; they are a band-aid that hides homelessness
• Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels are not safe, healthy homes. The BC Liberals count the 1,500 hotel rooms they bought in 2007 as new social housing but it is not
• Lack of social housing & high market rent prices are a problem for low-income and low-wage workers in every city and town in all of BC
• We need a regular social housing program of 10,000 units a year. More than 116,000 people facing homelessness need housing funded and built on the basis of their housing needs, not influenced by the real estate market. Social housing built through partnerships with private industry in the best environments produce only 1 unit of social housing for every 10 units of market housing. Partnerships will not give us the housing we need.
• Social housing is a federal and provincial government responsibility to be funded by taxes; it is not the responsibility of charities, municipalities, or private developers.
• Housing is not only a question of shelter, but also a question of physical and mental health.
• The housing crisis is a serious emergency. The classic image of the homeless person is the minority of those facing homelessness. 11K are visibly homeless, 40K hidden homeless, and 60K facing the immediate danger of homelessness.

Questions for the candidates:

• How many units of social housing will you create in this city/town/community? How will you fund them?
• Over the next twenty years operating agreements of existing co-ops and BC housing units will expire, leaving operators without funding. What will you do to save existing low-rent housing?
• There is currently no government program to fund social housing after 2015 and the Housing Endowment Fund is all spent. What will you do to address this?
• The Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) allows for landlords to raise rents without limit after making renovations, effectively evicting low-income tenants. Will you close this loophole in the RTA?
• What do you think about tenant unions? Will you recognize their right to negotiate with landlords?
• Temporary migrant workers live in housing conditions controlled by their employers. Their housing arrangements are set in their work contract and the RTA does not protect them. They are not eligible for BC Housing. What will you do to extend housing rights to Temporary Migrant Workers & undocumented people in BC?
• The RTA encourages landlords to evict low-rent paying tenants because there are no limits to rent increases between tenancies. Do you support freezing rents to protect low-rent housing? What sort of rent controls do you support

]]> http://www.socialhousingbc.com/2013/05/07/social-housing-toolkit-available/feed/ 0 http://www.socialhousingbc.com/2013/05/06/it-takes-courage-to-make-change-activists-challenge-bc-ndp-to-end-homelessness-and-poverty/ http://www.socialhousingbc.com/2013/05/06/it-takes-courage-to-make-change-activists-challenge-bc-ndp-to-end-homelessness-and-poverty/#comments Tue, 07 May 2013 06:10:03 +0000 admin http://www.socialhousingbc.com/?p=952 It takes courage to make change: Activists challenge BC NDP to end homelessness and poverty

By Ivan Drury

View more photos here

Social housing flying squad report #13
Flying squad outside Adrian Dix’s Campaign Office
Friday, May 3rd, 2013

UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORY: On Friday May 3rd a group of 16 housing and welfare activists visited BC NDP leader Adrian Dix’s campaign office. The rally, co-organized by Raise the Rates and the Social Housing Coalition BC, called on the NDP to revise their election program to end the crises of homelessness and poverty in BC.

Bill Hopwood, organizer with Raise the Rates, said, “The NDP platform on inequality and welfare is like going to a doctor and getting diagnosed with cancer but only getting prescribed aspirin.” He spoke on the sidewalk outside the NDP office, cars going by on Kingsway interrupted him honking their support for the slogans on the protest banners.

“A person on disability in BC still gets $662 less a month than a person on disability in Alberta. The NDP platform does not promise to change that,” Hopwood said. “Dix promises to lift 8,000 kids out of poverty; which is great for those kids, but there are 100,000 more children still living in poverty.”

Dave Diewert, an activist with the Social Housing Coalition BC, explained how the NDP’s housing platform lets down people facing homelessness. “Partnering with the private sector is the problem, not the solution to the housing crisis. When you build for profit you don’t build the homes people need, you just build the homes people will buy,” Diewert said. “We need homes for more than 100,000 people facing homelessness. Not only will the NDP plan not build those homes, it could cause housing losses and more displacement.”

Alexandra Henao, with the Agricultural Workers’ Alliance and the Social Housing Coalition, said that thousands of agricultural workers are dropped into this housing crisis every year and need support from the NDP. “Temporary migrant workers come for eight months and live isolated from other workers and communities. They pay rent for typically a two-bedroom place for 12 guys and work 6-7 days a week, 12-hours a day and they don’t have the right to speak out,” she said. “Migrant workers are isolated in farm-housing and invisible to peoples’ eyes and also to those who make decisions, we need to defend their right to be in this society and not at the mercy of the politicians.“

We were surprised that the only media that turned out for our action in front of Dix’s office was Fairchild TV. Their absence had us feeling we were there representing the people in BC no one wants to hear about. It was like we were making Liberals nervous because our rally is proof that their stories about the radical socialist NDP are lies. And like we were making the NDP nervous because we’re raising the issues their members support but their leaders won’t act on. We could really feel that if no one will speak for working and low-income people then we have to speak for ourselves.

Chanting, “tax the rich to house the poor! Social housing now!” the demonstrators marched into the NDP campaign office with their banners held aloft. Five NDP staffers and volunteers were in the office working on Dix’s campaign and the protesters directed their message to them, asking them to advocate to Dix for action.

Fraser Stuart, a Downtown Eastside resident on welfare, said, “A $20 increase in welfare is an insult, not a rate increase. It won’t do anything to help low-income people.” Pearly May, a member of the DTES Power of Women Group, said, “I am an Aboriginal woman and a single mom and I know what it is to be discriminated against when I need housing. The landlords just tell you there’s nothing available, everywhere you go. Indigenous people can’t afford to wait any longer for the housing that we need.”

And Charlene, steering committee member of the Social Housing Coalition, said, “Our communities want good health, and to get it we need good housing and enough to live on. Unfortunately it does not look like the NDP is prepared to make a difference.”

The NDP staffers and volunteers responded hesitantly: One said, “we know there’s a problem and this doesn’t do much, but we’re standing behind our platform.” Another said, “Our program is a start, it’s better than nothing.” Their reasoning was similar to one NDP supporter who stopped to chat with the protesters outside. He said, “You guys are right that there’s a housing crisis and no one is taking it seriously. I understand why you’re frustrated. But be patient and trust that Adrian is a good guy and will help you when he gets in. The task now is to get him in.”

Herb Varley, Nuu’chah’nulth and Nisga’a member of the Social Housing Coalition, didn’t accept the wait-and-see approach. “The NDP says it will make change one step at a time but I don’t buy it. The Liberals didn’t hesitate to cut taxes for the rich or social programs for the poor, they did it in one foul swoop.“

Varley challenged the NDP to support people most in need, “It takes courage to make change and there’s no courage in the NDP platform.”
Bill Hopwood summed up, “Our final message to the NDP is that our campaign really begins on May 15. Our pressure to get the NDP to end homelessness and poverty in BC is just beginning.”

LOCATIONS ACROSS THE PROVINCE
Kelowna
Farmers’ Market @ 11:00 am
at the corner of Benvoulin & Springfield (near Sears parking lot)
Karen Abramsen (Council of Canadians), kareneh @ uniserve.com

Keremeos
Memorial Park (3 to 4 pm)
Dawn Thurston, 250-499-5348 or tws2009 @ telus.net

Download and print:

• 11″ x 17″ colour poster
• 11″ x 17″ black & white poster
• 8.5″ x 14″ colour poster
• 8.5″ x 14″ black & white poster
• Colour flyers (4 per page)
• Black & White flyers (4 per page)

Hundreds of people in nearly two-dozen different communities have been rallying every Saturday for months to STAND for social housing and to end homelessness in BC. The target of these actions has been the BC election, with hopes of making social housing an election issue.

Both the BC Liberals and BC NDP have blacked out social housing from their platforms, as though the housing crisis and more than 100,000 people facing homelessness did not exist.

On May 11th we will STAND before the election one more time to demand the parties act to end homelessness and the housing crisis in BC. All our communities will STAND together across the province and in the Lower Mainland, will march downtown with our red “Social Housing Now!” banners and show all the parties that our campaign is not finished and we’ll see them on the other side of the election.

This action is also part of a call from Quebec for actions for housing across Canada throughout May, calling on the federal government to create a national housing program. For more on the Canada-wide actions see: http://defendoursocialhousing.com

Organized in Vancouver by Social Housing Coalition BC

On Tuesday May 7th, activists from the mainland will travel over to Vancouver Island to be part of a day of action for social housing in BC. For months communities on the Island have been part of the movement for social housing with weekly stands for housing on Saturdays in their communities. Join the convoy to support a day of social housing actions to better connect and network our community actions together and continue our struggles for housing justice and to end homelessness in BC.

VICTORIA
Part of the rally to end poverty in BC
12noon, Meet at the corner of Pandora & Quadra
Organized by Victoria Community Action Plan on Poverty
www.caponpoverty.ca

DUNCAN
Community Stand for Social Housing
3:30pm, downtown Duncan
More info: a.balding @ hotmail.com

NANAIMO
Community Stand for Social Housing
5:30pm, Pearson Bridge in Nanaimo (Park at Maffeo Sutton Park)
More info: gorfathome @ yahoo.ca

Vancouver travel info: Leave from Carnegie (Main and Hastings) at 7:30am for the ferry in Tsawwassen. We will travel up-island together in a van and then come back on the ferry from Nanaimo to arrive back at Carnegie at 11:15pm. We will be travelling with a larger group going to Victoria for the anti-poverty demonstration there; they are going in a larger convoy to walk-on the ferry and then hooking up with a bus on the other side. If you want to be part of this action in Victoria (but not go on with the housing group) please contact Bill from Raise the Rates at bill50 @ vcn.bc.ca

To join our social housing day of action from the mainland please register by Saturday May 4 so we can arrange enough vehicles to travel together. Contact Dave D from the Social Housing Coalition at ddiewertt @ shaw.ca

Photo of the STAND 4 Social Housing in Smithers, BC on March 16, 2013

Here are the locations of the STANDS 4 Social Housing, with contact information for the person(s) organizing and coordinating them. If you are willing to organize a STAND in your neighbourhood, please contact Dave Diewert (STANDS @ socialhousingbc.com or 604.253.1782) and he will send you a STAND kit and support you in getting it going.

You can download a copy of the flyer if you need to print more copies for your STAND!

• black & white version PDF
• colour version PDF

Port Alberni
Harbour Quay, foot of Argyle
Patty Edwards (Alberni Valley Community Stakeholders Initiative To End Homelessness),250.720.1518 or pledwards @ shaw.ca

Smithers
Highway 16 and Queen Street
Pauline Taekema, sheltermanager @ scsa.ca
Marilyn Morrison, mmorrison @ positivelivingnorth.ca

Kamloops
Farmers’ Market @ 10:00 am
PEACE MARCH at noon!
Karen Abramsen (Council of Canadians), kareneh @ uniserve.com

Surrey
Surrey Central Skytrain, Bus Loop
Rachel Goodine (ACORN), rachel.goodine @ gmail.com

New Westminster
6th Street and 6th Avenue
John Anderson (ACORN), 778.385.4385 or bcacornva @ acorncanada.org

Burnaby
Edmonds Skytrain Station
Dominic Pistor (SFU Students), 778.791.0807 or dominic.pistor @ gmail.com

Richmond
Granville Ave and Minoru Blvd
De Whalen (Richmond Poverty Response Committee), 604.230.3158 or de_whalen @ hotmail.com

Vancouver
Hastings and Abbott
Ivan Drury (Carnegie Community Action Project), 604.781.7346 or ivandrury @ gmail.com

Vancouver
Hastings and Nanaimo
Barry Morris (bkmorris59 @ hotmail.com) or Linda Shuto (lshuto @ shaw.ca)

Vancouver
1st Ave and Commercial
Letizia Waddington (Streams of Justice), letizia.waddington @ gmail.com

Vancouver
33rd Ave and Main Street
Kia Salomons (Community Advocates for Little Mountain), 604.322.5827 or ksalomons @ telus.net

Vancouver
4th and Vine Street
Kathy Shimizu, 604.725.6054, kathy @ kathyshimizu.com

Hope to see you there!

The BC election is just two weeks away and the two main contenders for power in Victoria have avoided uttering the words “Social Housing” in their platforms and debates; meanwhile more than 100,000 people in the province are struggling in the face of homelessness.

Now is the time to act. Come join us in the streets as we take action together for housing justice for the 100,000 and more.

Kamloops Farmers Market at 10 am
Peace March at 12 noon

Hope to see you there!

And read our coalition’s statement in response to the NDP and Liberal housing platforms here. Press on both the BC NDP and Liberals to commit to building social housing and amending the Residential Tenancy Act to protect tenants against any more evictions and rent increases. It is clear that our work will not be done with this election but can use these remaining days to gather our people, strengthen our campaign, and look ahead with hope.

* A group will leave from Carnegie at 11:15am

Just two-weeks before the BC election the NDP has released their full program, to the great frustration and disappointment of low-income and low-wage working people throughout the province. To fight income inequality, the BC NDP is promising to raise welfare rates only $20 by 2015. To fight homelessness they are promising exactly zero social housing. Come to a rally to specifically challenge the BC NDP to act to end poverty and homelessness in BC.

The rally is co-organized by Raise the Rates coalition and the Social Housing Coalition BC because the issues championed by these two groups have been shut-out of the NDP’s election campaign promises.

People on welfare have been lobbying, organizing, and rallying for a significant increase in welfare rates for years. In 2012, the Raise the Rates group organized a major campaign hosting NDP MLA Jagrup Brar as the “MLA on welfare.” The NDP gained press and attention for participating in this campaign, but where is the corresponding action? Working and middle-class people throughout BC showed their support for the demand to end the policy of punishing people on welfare with starvation rates by the mass participation in the $26 diet campaign and marches and demonstrations. But the NDP has shut out people on welfare.

The Social Housing Coalition BC has collected more than 50 endorsements of their 6 demands for social housing and rent controls from groups ranging from housing providers to labour unions. They have organized STANDS for social housing in communities throughout the province for months, and flying squads to bring homelessness to the fore of the election at campaign and party events of both the NDP and Liberals. They have distributed 20,000 brochures on the streets of cities and towns in BC and found widespread support for their demands. But the NDP has shut out the homeless

Join the rally for welfare and homes to challenge the NDP to act and send them a clear message that our communities’ support for their party is not automatic, and that we will continue our struggles no matter who is sitting (and not acting for justice) in Victoria.

Organized by:
Raise the Rates: raisetherates.org
Social Housing Coalition BC: www.socialhousingbc.com

Stay Connected with Social Housing Coalition BC
fb: facebook.com/socialhousingcoalitionbc
twitter: @stand4housing

Social Housing Coalition BC statement on BC Liberals and NDP housing platforms

UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORY: On Wednesday, April 24th, the BC NDP released its platform statement on housing and, consistent with the party’s position on welfare rates, there is very little for low-income people. While the BC Liberal platform is completely silent on social housing and welfare rates, the NDP platform promises are woefully inadequate.

During the current tenure of the BC Liberals, homelessness and the acute housing crisis has expanded considerably. From 2002 until 2010 homelessness in Vancouver nearly tripled to 1,713, and throughout the province over 10,000 people are visibly homeless. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface are tens of thousands of people among the “hidden” homeless and over 65,000 are at risk of homelessness, paying above 50% of their income for rent, often for inadequate and insecure housing.

The BC Liberal housing platform mischaracterizes the party’s record on social housing by counting shelter beds, provincially-purchased SRO rooms and subsidized rents among its count of social housing. Newly built units of social housing, in fact, have been meagre over the past decade, and its 2013 election platform does not promise or plan a single unit of new social housing in the future.
Compared to the BC Liberals, the NDP platform gestures towards the housing crisis that accompanies increasing poverty and inequality in BC. Unfortunately, these gestures appear to be quite empty. On the housing front, the NDP are not “moving forward, one practical step at a time,” but taking a step in the wrong direction.

NDP housing platform: continuing the Liberal legacy

NDP Platform statement on Housing is part of its plan for “Reducing Poverty and Inequality.”

4. Expand affordable housing

• Build up to 1,500 units of affordable non-profit, co-operative and rental housing for low- and moderate-income families, seniors and individuals each year by leveraging the existing $250 million Housing Endowment Fund to support partnerships and equity contributions with local governments, the private sector, and the non-profit and co-operative housing sectors.
• Strengthen and rebalance the Residential Tenancy Act and Manufactured Home Act to better protect tenants and landlords.

What this really means:

• The platform announces a plan to “build up to 1,500 units” a year. It does not promise a specific number of new units. Rather, 1,500 is the ceiling, and in any given year, less than that may be built. Even if 1,500 units of social housing were to be built a year, BC would still fall short 1,200 units a year just trying to keep up with population growth, not to speak of actually mounting a challenge to homelessness.
• Whatever the number, the NDP’s platform is not promising social housing for low-income people and families but a mix of “affordable non-profit, co-operative and rental housing for low- and moderate-income families, seniors and individuals.” The language here avoids the expression “social housing” and is couched in vague terms. “Affordable” is undefined, as is “low- and moderate-income” levels, and there is no indication of how much of the housing will be for those most in need, including people on welfare or basic pensions.
• These units will be paid for by “leveraging the existing $250 million Housing Endowment Fund”. The NDP platform promises to dedicate exactly zero more dollars to social housing, thus locking in a decade of drastic funding cuts. The BC Housing website explains that the Housing Endowment Fund “is now fully subscribed” with all future Fund monies “committed” to coming projects. The NDP’s platform does not promise anything BC Housing was not already planning under a Liberal government.
• Any Provincial money for housing under an NDP government will not go towards specific government-funded housing but will be dedicated to “support partnerships and equity contributions” with other players, most likely the private market. Rather than building the housing needed, the housing generated through the NDP plan will be limited to projects that support the interests of private developers or which find sympathy from charities or foundations.
• Our coalition called for three important amendments to the RTA: to give all renters rights; to freeze rents and extend rent controls to cover the unit between different tenancies, and; to make tenant unions a right. Instead of supporting renters against renovictions and homelessness, the NDP platform promises “to better protect tenants and landlords.”

Address the cause and meet the needs of the housing crisis in BC

The cause of the housing crisis in BC is found in the real estate market itself. Vancouver is home to the second most expensive housing market in the world, second only to Hong Kong where an accompanying homelessness crisis is averted because nearly half the housing is non-market social housing. A small handful of investors, speculators and developers have made a lot of money in this real estate market, but the great majority of people in BC are struggling thanks to their profit.

The government has had a clear role in producing this crisis by rolling back tax rates for corporations and the richest people in BC. Two decades of this treatment has Vancouver boasting the lowest corporate tax rates in the world. Along with tax cuts, the BC Liberals also gutted social programs like social housing.

The NDP platform does not acknowledge these causes of the housing crisis. Instead, it dedicates housing money only within the framework of partnerships, which depend on collaborations with others who have interests distinct from or even opposed to the needs of communities facing housing crises. In this way, the NDP housing plan could enable and even subsidize gentrification and involuntary displacement in low-income neighbourhoods. Public-private partnerships (also called P-3s) cannot protect people from or challenge the inequalities produced by the private real estate market domination of housing and land.

The NDP platform does not address the causes of the housing crisis so it cannot meet the needs of those facing homelessness. By omission, the NDP platform trivializes the overcrowded underhousing typical for around 23,000 low-income Indigenous people living off-reserve. Five thousand people in the Downtown Eastside living in SRO hotels are promised nothing in this platform; neither are the 11,000 people who are visibly homeless throughout the province.
Where is the sense of urgency to support women, queer, trans, and young people stuck in dangerous domestic situations to find safe housing? The NDP has nothing to say to seniors and people on disability living in moldy and insecure trailer parks in towns around the province or to agricultural workers and live-in caregivers trapped in abusive work-live contracts. They are equally tight-lipped as they avert their gaze from the 40,000 people sleeping in cars and couch surfing.

The NDP lives in a different province than the BC where more than 50% of recent migrants pay more than half their incomes to live in cramped, unhealthy and insecure apartments, and where people with HIV and AIDS are warehoused in tiny rooms that absorb the money they should be spending on healthy food. And is there any hope here for those who need reprieve from renoviction, or support for tenant rights in “supportive,” student, or temporary foreign worker housing? Not in this election.

The news is in: the 100,000 people who are living in BC facing homelessness are not an election issue for the NDP or BC Liberals. The homeless do not have a Party.

Read the 6 demands to end the housing crisis endorsed by more than 50 organizations.

About two dozen members and supporters of the Social Housing Coalition BC attended the BC NDP’s rally on the first night of the official election period. The Hotel Vancouver ballroom was crowded with NDP members and supporters, many of whom also supported our flying squad’s cry for an ambitious social housing program to end the housing crisis in BC.

Our group circulated through the crowd waiting outside the ballroom distributing brochures to a mostly supportive group. One man in a steelworkers shirt (the steelworkers, in Vancouver on convention, made up a goodly portion of the crowd) saw the red brochure and looked at his pamphleteer cockeyed. He said, “For a second I thought you were with the Liberals with that red. But it’s for social housing? That’s all right by me!” Most people took a brochure with a thumbs-up or a smile and appreciative nod.

Inside the ballroom our group gathered near the front. Dave dropped a “Social Housing Now!” banner and Herb started chanting. There was a group of people posing on a platform behind us and when Herb started with, ”End the Liberal legacy, Social Housing Now!” all the young people on that stage joined in.

The reception of security at the event was less enthusiastic. Our flying squad was immediately approached by the NDP security detail who pushed up a bit too close and demanded we drop our banner and stop chanting. Herb spoke with one of them on behalf of our group. He said, “We are here at your rally to call for social housing. Isn’t that part of the NDP’s vision for BC?” Security demanded we give them our banner. When a CTV camera person came over and started filming the exchange the candidates were not far behind.

We agreed to take down our banner and not chant in exchange for an audience with the NDP policy caucus. We considered this a minor victory because our coalition had been asking for a meeting with their policy caucus for about three months and the NDP, thus far, had not even told us who was on that caucus.

Rally for housing at BC Liberal fundraiser and demand HOMES NOT AUSTERITY

Tuesday, April 30 at 4:30pm
Vancouver Club (915 W. Hastings)

Taking place on unceded Coast Salish Territory: the traditional territory of the Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueum, and Skwxwú7mesh/Squamish nations.

Come to a demonstration Tuesday April 30 outside a BC Liberal fundraiser for MLA Margaret MacDermid at the Vancouver Club. The Vancouver Club is a symbol of elite Vancouver. The BC Liberals holding a fundraiser there while including more social cutbacks in their platform is a sign of their vision for a more and more unequal BC to come.

Join communities who are demanding emergency action to end the housing crisis in BC outside the Vancouver Club to demand the BC Liberals act to meet peoples’ needs, not corporate greed.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

• Tuesday, May 7 • day of actions on Vancouver Island: rallies, meetings and actions in Victoria, Duncan, and Nanaimo
• Saturday May 11, 12noon at Vancouver Art Gallery • United we stand for social housing, march & rally on Canada-wide day of action called from Quebec