Surrey City Council votes once again to displace tenant families & destroy affordable housing at Kwantlen Park Manor

ACORN rallied with tenants from Kwantlen Park Manor outside Surrey City Hall ahead of Monday night’s council meeting, demanding Mayor Locke and Council vote to protect affordable housing and Surrey families.

Kwantlen Park Manor is yet another older, affordable apartment building on the chopping block in the rush to develop Whalley and Guildford–the two Surrey neighbourhoods with the most affordable rental housing.

In a direct contradiction of Surrey City policy, the owner of Kwantlen Park Manor is not planning on replacing the affordable apartments that will be destroyed. Only 10 units of the 70 unit replacement building will be non-market rentals, leaving the majority of the 32 families who called Kwantlen Park home with nowhere to return to.

ACORN member Kayla Watson lambasted Council for letting developers sidestep City policy designed to protect Surrey’s precious affordable housing-stock.

“What’s the point of having policies protecting tenants if they’re repeatedly not followed and council votes over and over to approve development applications anyway?” she asked. “There’s still time to make this right and listen to your constituents, which are Surrey families who live, work and raise their kids right here in this neighbourhood who want to be able to stay here.”

Ultimately Surrey Council voted once again to prioritize developer profits over the needs of their constituents, and voted unanimously and without debate to allow Kwantlen Park Manor to be demolished.

While Surrey Council seems to have given up on standing up for tenants, ACORN is keeping up the fight! We’re organizing to protect tenant communities and stop tenant displacement across B.C.

Take action now! Send a message to the BC Government here!