Tenant Speak Out for Landlord Licensing in Calgary’s Forest Lawn

A dozen ACORN members gathered in Calgary’s Forest Lawn Neighbourhood to speak out about negligent landlords and to pressure the City of Calgary to enact landlord licensing!

CTV showed up and ACORN members shared their stories of cockroaches, mice, and bedbugs that landlords refused to deal with and help treat. We read and delivered a letter to Mayor Gondek to take action to protect tenants! Want to get involved with the campaign? Reach out to the ACORN office at [email protected]

Dear Mayor Gondek,

We are reaching out on behalf of ACORN members across the East End of Calgary. ACORN Canada, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a grassroots organization with 177,000+ members in 31 neighbourhood chapters across 10 regions. Our central purpose is to effectively represent and champion the interests of Canada’s low-and-moderate income residents on the critical issues of social and economic justice. 

We are concerned with the epidemic of unhealthy homes and negligent landlords across our neighbourhoods. Too many people are living with bedbugs, mice, cockroaches, leaks, mould, lack of heat/cooling, and broken appliances. We at ACORN are calling on you to implement landlord licensing as a way to effectively enforce Minimum Housing and Health Standards. Today, ACORN members have organized a tenant speak out to bring attention to the epidemic of substandard housing across Calgary and the urgency for a municipal landlord licensing program. 

We are calling on the City of Calgary to implement landlord licensing which includes:

• Create a licensing or registration system for apartment buildings and their owners
• Implement a Calgary Apartment Standards bylaw that complements and strengthens the provincial Minimum Housing and Health Standards, that the City of Calgary will proactively enforce.
• Charge a small, per-unit licensing fee to landlords to cover partial costs of increased bylaw inspection.
• Develop a website that discloses information about buildings, owners, inspections, and bylaw violations.
• Work with tenant associations and unions, as well as landlord associations, to ensure tenants and landlords are informed of their rights and obligations.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,
Vanessa Badger
Chair, East End ACORN