Affordable housing advocates rally at nine MPP offices Tuesday, including Hamilton and Mississauga
Published February 23, 2024 at 6:33 pm
Ontario ACORN members hit the streets at nine MPP offices Tuesday – including Hamilton and Mississauga – to demand major rent reform from the provincial government.
ACORN, an international collection of community-based organizations that advocates for affordable housing and other social issues, visited MPP offices on the day the Ontario legislature met for the first time since December 6 to demand full rent control, a ban on rent hikes that circumvent existing rent control measures and reforms to the Landlord and Tenant Board, which the group calls an “eviction factory that privileges landlord applications over tenants’ rights.”
Hamilton members gathered at the office of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MPP Neil Lumsden where the group claimed Lumsden’s staff admin “locked up the office and left when they saw us gathering.” The protesters left the MPP a letter at his door with a list of their demands.
Peel ACORN members visited the office of Mississauga Centre MPP Natalia Kusendova-Bashta and managed to get a meeting with staff who told them the MPP is on “the side of the tenants.”
ACORN members “won’t be convinced” until “real change” happens, the group said on their website.
York South-Weston MPP Michael Ford also was on the list, with 25 ACORN members delivering a letter, along with personal anecdotes of tenant experiences and changes they want to see with the ‘Get it Done Act.’
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Other offices visited Tuesday included Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP (and Associate Housing Minister) Rob Flack in St Thomas; Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod in Ottawa; Brantford-Brant MPP Will Bouma and Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris (where they were greeted both times by locked doors) in Brantford and Waterloo, respectively; Peterborough-Kawarthas MPP Dave Smith in Peterborough; and in Beamsville, where a “small but mighty crowd” of ACORN members and allies showed up at Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s constituency office.
ACORN’s 7th bi-annual National Convention will be held June 15-17 at the South Village at Ontario Tech/Durham College in Oshawa.
Peel ACORN members protested at Mississauga Centre MPP Natalia Kusendova-Bashta’s offices Tuesday