South Ottawa’s First Safe Apartments Bylaw Organizing Committee Meeting!

Last South ACORN Chapter meeting, we got together for our first Organizing Committee meeting for our Safe Apartments Bylaw. Real people talking about real problems and how we can fight to solve them.

We talked about what it’s actually like living in our buildings. Repairs that take forever. Pests that don’t go away. Being told “it’s coming” and then nothing happens. A lot of us are dealing with the same things, and honestly, it felt good just to sit down and realize we’re not the only ones and knowing there is a solution to what we are experiencing. 

We kept it simple. How do we get more people involved? How do we talk to folks in our buildings who might feel the same way but don’t know what to do about it? The plan is to knock on doors, check in with neighbours, invite people out, and spread the word that a solution is possible and that’s a Safe Apartments Bylaw. We discussed our turnout goal for the big meeting and that if everyone brings a few people, getting 100 folks to the big meeting isn’t out of reach. It’s doable.

We also picked two quick things to get started right away and get tenants active in winning this campaign:

Outreach in an Ottawa Community Housing community who are experiencing repair and maintenance issues.

Outreach at a corporate landlord-owned apartment building also experiencing pests, repair and maintenance issues.

Nothing over the top. Just neighbours helping neighbours to make our apartments safer and better to live in.

If you live in South Ottawa and you’re tired of waiting on repairs or dealing with the same old issues, come out next time. Bring someone from your building. The more of us there are, the harder it is to ignore us.

Shoutout to ACORN leaders Mathew Milne and Dakota Dundas for running the meeting!