Big Win for Ottawa ACORN, Organizing Works!
A massive victory was won by ACORN members living in Manor Village, an affordable rental townhouse community in Nepean, Ottawa. After over two and a half years of tenant meetings, rallies, demonstrations, reports, press coverage, deputations, petitions, and lots of direct action, the Manor Village ACORN Tenant Union was able to force Smart Living Properties to withdraw their N13 evictions, allowing tenants to rightfully stay put within their affordable homes!
ACORN has been fighting against the mass displacement of Manor Village tenants since September 2020.
Many of the tenants have been in their homes for over 30 years, generations of families living in the same home in the neighbourhood. The community first came under threat when the City wanted to push Stage 3 LRT straight through the Manor Village. City Council voted 16 to 7 in favour of demolishing 300+ tenants’ homes. Members persisted and continued planning actions, forcing the city to reverse their decision and undertake the many other options.
However, just as community members cleared this hurdle, Smart Living Properties along with Forum Equities decided to buy Manor Village by issuing N13 eviction notices to all Manor Village tenants for unnecessary renovations. Smart Living intended to convert these affordable homes into high-end student housing, tripling the rent in the process.?Tenants were also confronted with a purposeful neglect of maintenance, constant doorknocking from the company, as well as being told verbally that their right to return to their unit after renovations were done would not be honoured. Aggressive buyouts were offered as well.
Although some had taken the buyouts, remaining tenants refused to back down. This all came to a head when weeks before Manor Village tenants and Smart Living’s scheduled hearing at the provincial Landlord Tenant Board, Smart Living finally rescinded their eviction notices to let tenants stay in their homes!
This win was only made possible because of persistent community organizing and direct action.
ACORN members are fighting to put an end to renovictions and the financialization of housing! BOLD action is needed from every level of government to make this happen:
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1. The City needs to create a city-wide anti-renoviction bylaw that would protect tenants’ rent and stop displacement.
2. The Province needs to close rent control loopholes that incentivize landlords to evict long term tenants by implementing vacancy control – this would set a cap on how much landlords can increase rents by when tenants move out.
3. The Federal Government needs to set limits to how much housing financialized landlords can acquire and enable non-profit housing providers, co-ops and land trusts to purchase at-risk rental buildings when they come on the market.
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Join the fight by signing up as an?ACORN member?or as a?community ally!