“City Hall’s Housing & Developer Champions” – Ottawa ACORN Voting Record Report Launch

On October 17th – just one week out from Ottawa’s Municipal Election – ACORN members released their new report outlining the housing voting records of city councillors running for re-election.

These include:

• The demoviction of 142 Nepean St when City Council chose to approve the demolition of 6 affordable housing units for a parking lot
• The demovictions of Herongate when City Council approved more redevelopment under the guise it would create more affordable housing when it did no such thing
• The decision to put Stage 3 LRT through the homes of 120 low income and working class families living in Manor Village
• The introduction of a permitting system for Airbnbs and short term rentals to stop ghost hotels from replacing potential affordable housing
• The decision NOT to implement a pilot program of a landlord registration system recommended by an outside consultant to address chronic disrepair and unsafe housing conditions
• The decision to NOT increase the capital affordable housing budgets in 2021 and 2022 so that the City could build more DEEPLY affordable housing

Our mission is to identify for our members which city councillors, when push came to shove, stood up for affordable housing or chose to side with developer interests.

Based on how they voted and if they received any developer donations to their 2018 election campaigns, ACORN members were able to identify on council ‘Housing Champions’ and ‘Developer Champions.’

It is no surprise to ACORN members and many others across Ottawa that councillors with zero developer funding stood up for STRONG affordable housing policies the overwhelming majority of the time. Even when being lobbied hard by developers. In Contrast, councillors whose election campaigns were primarily funded by developers RARELY voted in favour of these policies.

Read the full report here: https://acorncanada.org/resources/ottawa-voting-records-report/

Election Day is on Monday, October 24th with polls being open from 10am-8pm. Can we count on you help elect more Housing Champions to City Hall? Sign the pledge HERE!

Want more information on who supports ACORN issues like housing, transit, affordable internet and more? Check out the ACORN Political Action Committee endorsements & candidate surveys HERE!

For more information on how and where to vote in Ottawa go to ottawa.ca/vote