The Tenant Class

Notes

Epigraph

NOTER_PAGE: (7 . 0.172619)

Contents

NOTER_PAGE: (8 . 0.116071)

Introduction: The Housing Crisis That Isn’t

NOTER_PAGE: (9 . 0.110119)

political struggle over housing is old news. The Toronto Star article is from 1950, the Maclean’s story appeared in 1969, the Montreal press conference took place in 1980, and the BC commentary dates back to 1911.

NOTER_PAGE: (9 0.4784565916398714 . 0.3135593220338983)

In contrast, Canada’s “housing crisis” is a permanent state of affairs that harms people in, or in need of, rental housing; roughly one-third of the country’s households.

NOTER_PAGE: (9 0.7916398713826367 . 0.1620762711864407)

Landlords, real estate investment firms, and developers operate in a stable and lucrative business environment.

NOTER_PAGE: (9 0.8540192926045016 . 0.6875)

A housing system that serves all but one group is not in a state of crisis; it is one based on structural inequality and economic exploitation.

NOTER_PAGE: (10 0.10418006430868168 . 0.16101694915254236)

NOTER_PAGE: (10 0.29710610932475884 . 0.2055084745762712)

The purpose of the rental market is not to ensure the highest possible number of families is securely housed. The purpose of the rental market is to extract income from tenants, and as far as this goal is concerned, it works like a charm!

NOTER_PAGE: (10 0.6726688102893891 . 0.15360169491525424)

A “housing crisis” suggests the need for a technical solution and coordination between various stakeholders, all of whom desire the same outcome: the end of the crisis.

NOTER_PAGE: (10 0.7639871382636656 . 0.4120762711864407)

The main problem with this “supply-side” argument is that it is not true.

NOTER_PAGE: (11 0.0797427652733119 . 0.6324152542372882)

land, on which housing is built, is a fixed resource. We cannot produce more of it (though we can make better use of urban land).

NOTER_PAGE: (11 0.1517684887459807 . 0.22245762711864406)

land, on which everything is built

Housing increases in value over time; someone holding onto an empty apartment in Vancouver is making lots of money

NOTER_PAGE: (11 0.2739549839228296 . 0.3294491525423729)

landlords chose to wait longer to fill vacancies or offered one-time rent discounts over lowering rents.

NOTER_PAGE: (11 0.47459807073954985 . 0.5540254237288136)

Neither Pomeroy nor I contend that Canada has enough housing or that additional supply would not be beneficial. The point is that supply alone will not solve the problem.

NOTER_PAGE: (11 0.5633440514469453 . 0.4565677966101695)

Problem-solving theories, as he called them, don’t ask how things came to be, who benefits from the way things are, or whether things could be different. Instead, the focus is on smoothing out any troubles with the existing institutions. By not only accepting but helping to troubleshoot the current order, problem-solving theories legitimize and entrench the status quo.

NOTER_PAGE: (11 0.6745980707395498 . 0.22245762711864406)

Innovation as Conservative Force

This argument has been made for decades; it has justified countless subsidies for the real estate industry, it has not lowered rents, and it will not go away

NOTER_PAGE: (11 0.8829581993569132 . 0.6514830508474576)

the idea that Canada’s housing system worked well at some point, but something unexpected happened, bringing about unseen and widely undesirable outcomes. That’s not true. For a large share of the population, the housing system never worked, and the current state of affairs is making lots of people rich

NOTER_PAGE: (12 0.12282958199356914 . 0.2309322033898305)

There is no invisible hand hiking up rents and forcing tenants out. That hand is the hand of a landlord, resolutely extracting income from workers. Rents don’t go up. Landlords raise rents.

NOTER_PAGE: (12 0.48360128617363346 . 0.15466101694915255)

One: Tenants, a Social Class

NOTER_PAGE: (14 . 0.110119)

Governments decide how housing is built, renovated, used, rented, bought, and sold. Nothing just is when it comes to housing.

NOTER_PAGE: (14 0.2482315112540193 . 0.125)

Yet, the high cost of housing is constantly presented as the outcome of invisible forces that governments haven’t yet figured out how to arrest.

NOTER_PAGE: (14 0.32282958199356915 . 0.5540254237288136)

In contrast to this depoliticizing “complex policy” approach that cuts issues into a thousand pieces, some social scientists use the concept of social class to glue the pieces back together

NOTER_PAGE: (14 0.7157556270096463 . 0.15889830508474576)

Class analyses expressly name the people taking too much, and those from whom too much is taken.

NOTER_PAGE: (14 0.7684887459807074 . 0.4120762711864407)

The political power that leads to substantive change is achieved by connecting issues and uniting people with the same class interests, not segmenting them.

NOTER_PAGE: (14 0.8212218649517685 . 0.1716101694915254)

Social class

NOTER_PAGE: (14 . 0.883929)

Marx and conventional Marxism treat primitive accumulation as water under the bridge, a forgone process during the rise of capitalism. Dene Indigenous Studies scholar Glen Coulthard disagrees. He calls attention to the “persistent role that unconceded, violent dispossession continues to play in the reproduction of colonial and capitalist social relations.”

NOTER_PAGE: (15 0.45980707395498394 . 0.5561440677966102)

Economic injustice

NOTER_PAGE: (15 . 0.761161)

the continuing use of “affordability” as the way to describe the problem serves to conceal profit-making.

NOTER_PAGE: (16 0.10868167202572347 . 0.6896186440677966)

What renders rental units “unaffordable” are landlords who charge too much for them and governments that allow it to happen.

NOTER_PAGE: (16 0.16913183279742766 . 0.225635593220339)

the 30 percent affordability threshold is almost always part of the conversation. The problem with the widespread use of this measure is that it focuses on how much tenants pay, neglecting the other side of the equation, namely, how much landlords profit.

NOTER_PAGE: (16 0.4135048231511254 . 0.646186440677966)

tenants and homeowners have similar labour-force participation rates. Tenants are simply less remunerated for the work they do.

NOTER_PAGE: (18 0.1607717041800643 . 0.2044491525423729)

46 percent of working tenant households lived paycheque to paycheque.

NOTER_PAGE: (18 0.38456591639871385 . 0.3760593220338983)

While countless media stories look at young families struggling to save for the down payment on a house, this seems to be a concern for a small share of tenant households.

NOTER_PAGE: (18 0.4469453376205788 . 0.6536016949152542)

Markets are doing what markets do: transferring income from workers to the capital-owning class. As far as the landlord class is concerned, the rental housing market is working just fine.

NOTER_PAGE: (18 0.5845659163987138 . 0.2245762711864407)

Two: Myths about the Tenant Class

NOTER_PAGE: (19 . 0.110119)

Most of the plan refers to renters as aspiring homebuyers, with fewer references for tenants living in poverty. At least two-thirds of tenants don’t fall in either category,4 but they were not mentioned.

NOTER_PAGE: (19 0.4302250803858521 . 0.3866525423728814)

Many of these government programs simply help first-time homebuyers to take on debt larger than they should.

NOTER_PAGE: (19 0.5337620578778135 . 0.1620762711864407)

how much do you have to hate being a tenant to make these absurd purchases?

NOTER_PAGE: (19 0.670096463022508 . 0.1917372881355932)

Renting is not a phase

NOTER_PAGE: (20 . 0.609375)

While, on average, tenants are a bit younger than homeowners, 70 percent of primary maintainers in tenant households are older than 35, and 22 percent are older than 65.

NOTER_PAGE: (20 0.7961414790996785 . 0.4014830508474576)

93 percent of renters who responded to the survey will not stop renting any time soon.

NOTER_PAGE: (21 0.09196141479099679 . 0.1620762711864407)

Tenants pay property taxes

NOTER_PAGE: (21 . 0.396577)

given how the information is presented, property tax debates focus on homeowners.

NOTER_PAGE: (22 0.07845659163987138 . 0.2510593220338983)

Conservative homeowners have repeatedly used “taxpayer” or “ratepayer” as a badge of honour and way of sidelining other voices in their neighbourhoods. The tenant struggle for recognition includes challenging these false claims.

NOTER_PAGE: (22 0.21093247588424438 . 0.17266949152542374)

Tenants work same as homeowners

NOTER_PAGE: (22 . 0.290923)

tenants work at very similar rates to homeowners. But they are paid less.

NOTER_PAGE: (22 0.7035369774919614 . 0.3495762711864407)

the lower the wages, the more likely tenants will be overrepresented.

NOTER_PAGE: (22 0.8405144694533763 . 0.1906779661016949)

Government transfers are the major source of income for 16 percent of homeowners —a less-often cited figure.

NOTER_PAGE: (23 0.10739549839228296 . 0.15889830508474576)

using the household as the unit of analysis overstates the point.

NOTER_PAGE: (23 0.13890675241157557 . 0.4364406779661017)

emphasis on government transfers serves to explain high rents away—as the fault of governments who don’t raise assistance rates—and to negatively depict tenants as people who don’t work hard enough. That’s false.

NOTER_PAGE: (23 0.30610932475884245 . 0.13135593220338984)

Not every tenant is a wannabe homeowner

NOTER_PAGE: (23 . 0.381696)

the dominance of private rentals and profit-seeking landlords prevents a fair comparison between the two. When given a choice between owning and driving a car or relying on an underfunded, unreliable public transit system, many will opt for the car. But would they still choose to drive if cheap and reliable transit was available to them?

NOTER_PAGE: (24 0.4135048231511254 . 0.4205508474576271)

Three: But What about the Landlords?

NOTER_PAGE: (25 . 0.110119)

nearly half of tenant households relying on employment income had only up to one month’s worth of income in savings.

NOTER_PAGE: (25 0.2771704180064309 . 0.2542372881355932)

The widespread notion of “struggling landlords” is a grave mischaracterization of the rental market. In fact, Canada’s landlord class comprises wealthy families, small businesses, corporations, and financial investors.

NOTER_PAGE: (25 0.4257234726688103 . 0.3326271186440678)

Non-market housing

NOTER_PAGE: (25 . 0.732143)

12 percent of all tenants rented from governments, non-profit housing providers, or co-operatives. This figure accounts for approximately 601,000 households, or 4 percent of all households in the country.

NOTER_PAGE: (26 0.1832797427652733 . 0.2478813559322034)

Canada is light years behind the countries at the top of the OECD list (the Netherlands, 34 percent; Austria, 24 percent; and Denmark, 21 percent); it is also far below countries to which it is often compared, namely the United Kingdom (17 percent) and France (14 percent).

NOTER_PAGE: (26 0.24630225080385854 . 0.3241525423728814)

in the 1960s and 1970s Canada’s enabling policies and high investment levels in social housing were well regarded internationally.

NOTER_PAGE: (26 0.3389067524115756 . 0.3347457627118644)

Non-market housing, for all its advantages, is notoriously difficult to get into. In 2018, 283,800 Canadian households (2 percent of all households in the country) had at least one family member on a waiting list for non-market housing.

NOTER_PAGE: (27 0.354983922829582 . 0.1641949152542373)

Private landlords

NOTER_PAGE: (27 . 0.47247)

38 percent of tenants rent homes not specifically built for renting

NOTER_PAGE: (27 0.5176848874598071 . 0.534957627118644)

A family that owns multiple homes is wealthy; it is not scraping to get by.

NOTER_PAGE: (27 0.8109324758842444 . 0.2097457627118644)

Going back to the question the media frequently asks me (But what about the landlords?), the simple answer is, they will be fine! In contrast, tenants who miss rent have already skipped meals, sent kids to school with inadequate winterwear, walked miles in the cold to save transit fares, and sacrificed other basic needs in trying to pay rent because the risk of being evicted is terrifying. Tenants don’t choose to fall into arrears.

NOTER_PAGE: (27 0.8983922829581994 . 0.1620762711864407)

it ought to be treated for what it is: an investor seeking to make a high profit, not the story of a struggling family.

NOTER_PAGE: (28 0.504823151125402 . 0.1641949152542373)

The opposite of democracy is not only authoritarianism but also patrimonialism, which refers to political contexts in which a person (usually a man) can ignore laws and procedures, and treat everything as belonging to him and everyone as depending on his favour. In a democratic society like Canada, tenants should not be at the whim of landlords, worried about being on their right side and avoiding doing things that could upset them, even if that is simply cooking dinner after getting home late from work.

NOTER_PAGE: (29 0.22636655948553056 . 0.6663135593220338)

Small businesses

NOTER_PAGE: (29 . 0.55134)

If a small business cannot pay workers a minimum wage, what is the point of continuing that business? Shut the doors. The same goes for landlords that cannot keep properties well maintained; we are better off without them.

NOTER_PAGE: (30 0.39935691318327976 . 0.3633474576271186)

Corporations

NOTER_PAGE: (30 . 0.47247)

They own an estimated 20 percent of all rental units in Canada.

NOTER_PAGE: (30 0.5215434083601286 . 0.4247881355932203)

Homestead Land Holdings, one of the largest landlords in the country, owns 225 buildings and more than 27,000 units.

NOTER_PAGE: (30 0.5974276527331189 . 0.1620762711864407)

Minto Properties, for example, owns 299 buildings and manages an additional 21 for investors.

NOTER_PAGE: (30 0.6282958199356913 . 0.510593220338983)

Sterling Karamar Property Management; they serve as landlords for hire in 134 buildings across Ontario.

NOTER_PAGE: (30 0.6572347266881029 . 0.4819915254237288)

Hazelview Investments (formerly Timbercreek), for example. Its portfolio grew from 16,055 to 21,580 units between 2015 and 2020, a 34 percent increase in only five years.

NOTER_PAGE: (30 0.7016077170418007 . 0.6419491525423728)

Starlight Investments bought 500 units in Victoria in a single acquisition during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NOTER_PAGE: (30 0.732475884244373 . 0.6991525423728814)

Financial landlords

NOTER_PAGE: (31 . 0.47247)

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are the largest type of financial landlords. Other types include pension funds, insurance, and asset management companies. Combined, financial landlords own roughly 8 percent of rental units in the country, though that share is growing fast.

NOTER_PAGE: (31 0.7511254019292605 . 0.2129237288135593)

Housing and commercial real estate have become the “commodity of choice” for corporate finance,

NOTER_PAGE: (32 0.12604501607717042 . 0.15677966101694915)

Legislation enacted in the 1990s exempts REITs from paying corporate taxes, as long as most rent revenue is distributed to shareholders.

NOTER_PAGE: (32 0.3254019292604502 . 0.15783898305084745)

From 1996 to 2021, REITs alone acquired nearly 200,000 apartment units, roughly 10 percent of the purpose-built stock.

NOTER_PAGE: (33 0.15305466237942122 . 0.15254237288135594)

The involvement of pension funds in the financialization of housing is particularly troubling. In recent years, a larger share of Canadian residents has become invested in the exploitation of tenants, even if unknowingly so.

NOTER_PAGE: (33 0.47009646302250807 . 0.2669491525423729)

Four: A History of Struggle

NOTER_PAGE: (35 . 0.110119)

Instead of describing the demands of social movements, the author chose to quote Stanfield’s speeches at length. The crowd is anonymous and voiceless, whereas whatever that man said is worth repeating 40 years later.

NOTER_PAGE: (36 0.7440514469453376 . 0.3273305084745763)

history is capital’s most precious asset. It gives the property-owning class the power to define what is possible and what is not.

NOTER_PAGE: (37 0.3819935691318328 . 0.1292372881355932)

Tenant Struggles: A Canadian Tradition

NOTER_PAGE: (37 . 0.548363)

Prince Edward Island, 1864 to 1878

NOTER_PAGE: (37 . 0.795387)
Europeans brought diseases that decimated between 50 and 90 percent of the Mi’kmaq population on the Atlantic coast.
NOTER_PAGE: (37 0.845016077170418 . 0.3601694915254237)
in 1767, the British Crown parcelled the island into 66 lots and distributed them through a lottery system to “political or military figures, or merchants with an already established interest in the region,” most of whom resided in Great Britain. The Crown assumed grantees would move to Prince Edward Island and tend to their properties, but few ever did.
NOTER_PAGE: (38 0.18135048231511255 . 0.3665254237288136)
gentlefolk, who could not bother getting their shoes dirty, benefited from the hard work of tenant farmers they had never met.
NOTER_PAGE: (38 0.3221864951768489 . 0.2913135593220339)
The tenants’ rent covered the landlords’ taxes and other costs associated with owning the property, plus a comfortable profit margin. Tenants had to clear forests, build a house for themselves, and make the necessary improvements to turn virgin plots into agricultural land. They did all the work and covered all the costs, but if they were evicted or their lease was not renewed, they were forced to walk away from everything they built.
NOTER_PAGE: (38 0.3954983922829582 . 0.3463983050847458)
Landlords used the right to apply different exchange rates and substantially increase the price of rent as a way to threaten and punish defiant tenants,
NOTER_PAGE: (38 0.5646302250803859 . 0.4798728813559322)
The police went after the Tenant League’s leaders, and the government declared the Tenant League an illegal organization. Eventually, Halifax sent troops to the island
NOTER_PAGE: (38 0.8514469453376206 . 0.6228813559322034)
In 1878, Prince Edward Island, now part of the Dominion of Canada, passed legislation dispossessing absentee landlords.
NOTER_PAGE: (39 0.09581993569131833 . 0.4576271186440678)

Nova Scotia, 1917 to 1949

NOTER_PAGE: (39 . 0.247024)
Following the Halifax explosion, a relief commission tasked with rebuilding efforts replaced the destroyed rental homes with better quality, publicly owned, working- class rental homes—approximately 345 houses in a neighbourhood known as The Hydrostone.
NOTER_PAGE: (39 0.3408360128617363 . 0.19915254237288135)
By 1907, only a few Mi’kmaq families lived in a seasonal settlement along the Dartmouth shore called Turtle Grove, comprised of seven wigwams and a school. This settlement was destroyed by the tsunami resulting from the explosion, and it was never rebuilt. Instead, the explosion was used as an opportunity to deport the remaining Mi’kmaq. Today, the area is named Tufts Cove, after the family that treated the Mi’kmaq as squatters and demanded their forced removal.
NOTER_PAGE: (39 0.6012861736334405 . 0.3336864406779661)

Montreal, Quebec, 1966 to 1970

NOTER_PAGE: (40 . 0.429315)
This document—known as the Hellyer Report, naturally —is widely credited for putting an end to federal government support for urban renewal initiatives.
NOTER_PAGE: (40 0.782636655948553 . 0.1461864406779661)
Then there was the second aspect of urban renewal: the disciplining of tenants. Residents had to sign a rental contract containing 32 punitive clauses.
NOTER_PAGE: (41 0.12540192926045016 . 0.16101694915254236)
The administrator, Léopold Rogers, fiercely responded to tenant activism. He swiftly evicted the author of the press release, tenant organizer Napoléan Saint-André. In his archival research, Nettling found it was not uncommon for the administrator to evict tenants, with a five-day notice, for participation in political activities.
NOTER_PAGE: (41 0.2604501607717042 . 0.163135593220339)
bribed Gérald Lalonde, the head priest at Saint Jacques Catholic Church—where the majority Catholic population went to worship—to disclose their weekly confessions.”
NOTER_PAGE: (41 0.3215434083601286 . 0.2627118644067797)
a cleavage in housing activism. Segments of the left blamed poor living conditions at HJM on the design of large public housing projects. These were mostly “progressive” intellectuals and urban planner types, some of whom became openly anti-HJM, joining conservatives in deeming these “ghettos” an urban planning failure.
NOTER_PAGE: (41 0.642443729903537 . 0.3177966101694915)

Vancouver, British Columbia, 1968 to 1978

NOTER_PAGE: (42 . 0.247024)
In 1969, the VTC and allied city councillors made significant gains by passing a bylaw that introduced a series of new regulations: a maximum of one rent increase per year; mandatory three months’ notice of rent increases; a $25 limit on security deposits; and making landlords responsible for repairs.
NOTER_PAGE: (42 0.4739549839228296 . 0.3411016949152542)
BCTO made collective bargaining rights a central demand.
NOTER_PAGE: (42 0.7485530546623794 . 0.13559322033898305)
The election platform of the 1972-elected New Democratic Party (NDP) government included a commitment to collective bargaining rights for tenants, but the party eventually backed down on this promise. According to Yorke, the party was “afraid of the economic power of large real estate and corporate interests.”
NOTER_PAGE: (42 0.7704180064308682 . 0.15466101694915255)

Five: Tenant Organizing Today

NOTER_PAGE: (44 . 0.110119)

In the words of Bruno Dobrusin, a York South-Weston Tenant Union member, “we either organize ourselves and confront landlords, or we succumb to their whims; no one is coming for us.”

NOTER_PAGE: (44 0.45594855305466236 . 0.1472457627118644)

Rent-striking the REIT

NOTER_PAGE: (44 . 0.717262)
REITs also become predictable as their actions against tenants in one place are shared with tenants elsewhere, which helps organizers to plan.
NOTER_PAGE: (44 0.8385852090032154 . 0.3951271186440678)
HTSN canvassed the four buildings (618 units) InterRent had just bought, collecting information about the tenants (languages spoken for example), recent rent increases, and above-guideline rent increase (AGI) applications. They also assessed people’s interest in participating in committee meetings.
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.29710610932475884 . 0.4819915254237288)
At the peak of the strike, we had monthly mass meetings (for tenants from all four buildings), weekly lobby meetings (in each of the four buildings), and bi-weekly “strike captains” meetings, with the most involved strikers from each of the buildings.…
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.38263665594855306 . 0.3866525423728814)
Tenants have voted on all the big decisions,
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.4212218649517685 . 0.4766949152542373)

NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.48231511254019294 . 0.2669491525423729)
HTSN also had a communications plan: “We think it is important to engage mainstream media
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.5118971061093248 . 0.13347457627118645)
Tenants celebrated the launch of the rent strike by sharing a potluck meal at the local park, marching through the neighbourhood, making speeches, and dropping a large “RENT STRIKE!” banner from the top floor of one of the buildings.
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.594855305466238 . 0.163135593220339)
delivered a large stack of work order forms to the property manager’s office, documenting a slew of longstanding maintenance issues
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.642443729903537 . 0.4533898305084746)
travelled to the financial district in Toronto to visit the office of CI Financial, the largest investor in InterRent,
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.6868167202572347 . 0.15783898305084745)
underestimated how important it was for InterRent to negotiate within the standard Landlord and Tenant Board framework and not set a precedent by negotiating directly with the rent strikers or succumbing to their demands.
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.7569131832797428 . 0.1302966101694915)
financial and corporate landlords’ conscious efforts not to set a precedent
NOTER_PAGE: (45 0.8302250803858521 . 0.5328389830508474)
In the end, the landlord did not drop the rent increase, but the Landlord and Tenant Board approved a reduced AGI. Demands for repairs were also met.
NOTER_PAGE: (46 0.0752411575562701 . 0.15572033898305085)
HTSN dissolved in February 2020. The statement of dissolution explained that members had opted to focus on localized neighbourhood activities
NOTER_PAGE: (46 0.1562700964630225 . 0.1684322033898305)
When landlords issue eviction and rent increase notices, neighbours either stand together to fight them or they don’t. It makes a lot of sense to focus on building power locally,
NOTER_PAGE: (46 0.242443729903537 . 0.3983050847457627)

Territorial organizing

NOTER_PAGE: (46 . 0.381697)
Parkdale Organize stands out as having a clearly articulated political project,
NOTER_PAGE: (46 0.5517684887459807 . 0.16101694915254236)
development of working- class organizations that were independent from non-profit and Left hegemony.
NOTER_PAGE: (46 0.6797427652733119 . 0.6451271186440678)
Tenant unions, labour unions, migrant rights, and homeless and anti-poverty organizing purport to represent specific sectors of the working class or broader society. A tenant union organizes around “tenant issues” such as rents and evictions. Its political outlook is to improve conditions for tenants. Parkdale Organize intervenes on the struggles of working-class people in Parkdale. We don’t aim to organize within any particular sector of the economy. Instead, we aim to intervene within the myriad of struggles facing working-class people within a particular territory. We aim to build the power of working-class people, as a class, within that territory.
NOTER_PAGE: (46 0.7929260450160772 . 0.1864406779661017)
Tenant struggles are a major focus for Parkdale Organize because the reality of the area demands it. In Parkdale, 87 percent of households rent,
NOTER_PAGE: (47 0.07781350482315112 . 0.1663135593220339)
MetCap had to sit with the strikers and negotiate. “Over the course of two meetings, a settlement agreement was reached which significantly reduced the rent increases and provided further rent relief to tenants on fixed incomes.”
NOTER_PAGE: (47 0.2919614147909968 . 0.2997881355932203)
Twenty Parkdale Organize members came over one morning, mobilized other tenants in the building, and forced the landlord to call off the eviction.
NOTER_PAGE: (47 0.37877813504823155 . 0.1281779661016949)
In 2022, the group stopped the eviction of an entire 23-unit building. The organizing work started two years earlier, upon tenants learning the building had been acquired by a corporate landlord who would likely try to “reposition” the property.
NOTER_PAGE: (47 0.39807073954983924 . 0.4798728813559322)
Tenants immediately responded by delivering a letter as a group to the landlords at their homes
NOTER_PAGE: (47 0.49517684887459806 . 0.15783898305084745)

Changing city politics

NOTER_PAGE: (47 . 0.671875)
Service providers and traditional community groups mean well, and they have helped tenants in the past, but when push comes to shove, they will not confront the councillor. No matter what she does or how little she does, they don’t confront her for fear of the repercussions. People are afraid of getting on her wrong side. We’re not. Nunziata’s core supporters are the biggest landlords in our area. We know what side she is on,
NOTER_PAGE: (48 0.7080385852090032 . 0.4533898305084746)
YSW organizers usually participate in electoral campaigns—which are extremely taxing on the group—as big picture power-building efforts and often reiterate the goal of putting YSW on the map.
NOTER_PAGE: (49 0.12475884244372991 . 0.4703389830508475)

Coalitions of tenant groups

NOTER_PAGE: (49 . 0.370536)
RCLALQ has an equally inspiring 40-year history of struggles for tenant rights. Its current membership includes 53 tenant groups across the province of Quebec.
NOTER_PAGE: (50 0.3157556270096463 . 0.19809322033898305)
three active local chapters, and one of them, Mount Pleasant, recently had a large victory.
NOTER_PAGE: (50 0.6861736334405145 . 0.3305084745762712)
members of the Mount Pleasant Chapter met every Sunday before flyering and postering across the neighbourhood, recruiting residents and retailers
NOTER_PAGE: (50 0.8102893890675241 . 0.3305084745762712)
After holding the picket from 8AM to 6PM three straight days, the tenants won a stay of eviction
NOTER_PAGE: (50 0.879742765273312 . 0.19491525423728814)
union is devoted to concrete, everyday struggles against abusive landlords, but also takes on the political class that defends elite interests at city hall and the provincial assembly. The latter includes producing research that challenges technocratic consensus.
NOTER_PAGE: (51 0.222508038585209 . 0.13241525423728814)
aligns more with the decolonization and decommodification of these stolen lands, rather than a government promise of a million publicly owned units in the current market capitalism.
NOTER_PAGE: (51 0.49131832797427655 . 0.4608050847457627)

… and more

NOTER_PAGE: (51 . 0.577381)

hard to achieve a critical mass and have anyone who wants to fight for renters’ rights because there is that stigma attached to renting. Everybody’s like, ‘Why should I fight for renters if I’m going to buy a house eventually?’”

NOTER_PAGE: (52 0.2604501607717042 . 0.1705508474576271)

Individual tenants also confront abusive landlords in the secondary rental market

NOTER_PAGE: (52 0.5987138263665595 . 0.15148305084745764)

In Quebec, tenants do not have the right to contest rent increases in units built within the past five years;

NOTER_PAGE: (52 0.7672025723472669 . 0.1673728813559322)

On the ground, it is clear that landlords and tenants have conflicting interests: one side always has to give,

NOTER_PAGE: (53 0.28745980707395496 . 0.4269067796610169)

Six: Pick a Side

NOTER_PAGE: (54 . 0.110119)

The challenge for the tenant class is not to find a solution for the so-called housing crisis but to enact the solutions we know work: move as much provision as possible outside of private markets; tightly regulate the remaining market provision; organize tenants to ensure quality and access.

NOTER_PAGE: (54 0.36977491961414793 . 0.15995762711864406)

all major official housing strategies in the country consist largely of providing ever more favourable conditions for private investors, developers, and landlords. It is not that governments lack ideas. Politicians just don’t want to implement them, because doing so would hurt a parasitic but powerful economic elite.

NOTER_PAGE: (55 0.12154340836012863 . 0.5540254237288136)

The willingness to compromise in the name of a false sense of pragmatism is astonishing.

NOTER_PAGE: (55 0.3479099678456592 . 0.4671610169491525)

the only reasonable rent increase is no increase at all. Rents take too much of families’ incomes; they have to go down, not up.

NOTER_PAGE: (55 0.4739549839228296 . 0.3209745762711864)

Notes

NOTER_PAGE: (57 . 0.116071)

Index

NOTER_PAGE: (64 . 0.116071)

About the Author

NOTER_PAGE: (71 . 0.15997)