Calgary Tenants Unite to Take the Fight to Corporate Slumlords
Posted August 7, 2021
Posted August 7, 2021
Residents of Forest Lawn are fighting back against corporate slumlords who extract extortionately high rent from supposedly “affordable” housing, while leaving tenants to suffer repeated infestations and poorly maintained units.
Tenants at Trevella Townhomes in South East Calgary have come to realise that there is no reason why Mainstreet Equity – a property management company valued at $2.2 billion – can’t afford to pay professional, full time maintenance crews to make sure their homes are safe, clean and habitable.
Big property companies like Mainstreet Equity have been buying up swathes of affordable housing all over Canada, jacking up rent and leaving their tenants to fend for themselves against bedbugs, roaches, mold, leaks, broken furnaces, and myriad other issues that are not only uncomfortable and undignified to live with, but also hazardous.
At Trevella Townhomes, tenants are uniting and fighting back. On Thursday 5th August, people from the community gathered to discuss their long lists of issues with each other and decided it was time to demand more.
Our members and allies worked together to call their local elected officials and demand action on the appalling treatment of tenants, as well as Mainstreet themselves, to call them out on their immoral practices. In doing so, they’re taking the first step towards having their tenants’ rights recognised and putting big property management firms in their place!
