BC ACORN takes a rally on the road with the Keep Tenant Communities Intact Bus Tour!

Today ACORN members from across the Lower Mainland took a rally on the road to action sites across the Lower Mainland where the communities are threatened by tenant development. Demovictions, tenant harassment and pressure tactics from unscrupulous landlords are forcing countless tenants out of their affordable homes–with few affordable options to turn to within Metro Vancouver.

New West ACORN Chair Monica Bhandari acted as a tour guide through 3 rally sites–each highlighting different unique problems with existing provincial housing policy.

ACORN marched and chanted to kick off the tour at it’s first stop, Maple Place Apartments in Guildford. Here predatory cash-for-keys offers and prolonged harassment have cleared out the first of 8 low-rise apartment buildings making up the property. Calling for action from the provincial government, ACORN is demanding that the RTB track evictions and mutual agreements to end tenancy and crack down on landlords caught acting in bad-faith to displace tenants.

The tour continued around the corner at a vacant lot on 108th Ave, the former site of affordable family-oriented apartment Brookmere Gardens. Tenants were demovicted in 2021, with promises from the City of Surrey that they could one day return to the reveloped building. Four years later, the property remains a vacant lot. ACORN is demanding that the Province introduce Burnaby-style anti-displacement tenant protections that guarantee demovicted tenants affordable interim housing in the neighbourhood, made possible by rental top-up payments.

The finale of the tour was what ACORN members are calling ground-zero of the demoviction crisis in Surrey. Rallying along 105 Ave in Surrey Centre, tour attendees chanted and marched past the 700+ affordable apartments slated for redevelopment in coming years. Without swift action from the Province, an entire neighbourhood will likely be razed to the ground, with no option for tenant families to stay in their communities and local schools.

ACORN’s campaign to Keep Tenant Communities Intact will continue with future actions and events until BC tenants are safe from landlord abuse and displacement, want to add your support? Click here to sign an online action demanding action from the Provincial government to protect tenant communities.