Press Hits

A proposed Adequate and Suitable Cooling by-law would require landlords to keep the temperature inside apartments below a dangerous threshold — but tenants advocacy group London Acorn argues the exemption of certain buildings would leave many vulnerable Londoners at risk. The by-law would require landlords of rental units that are equipped with an air conditioning system to ensure that the temperature in the apartments does not exceed 26 degrees from June 16 to Aug. 31 each year. However, representatives of London Acorn warn that the by-law would exempt the buildings most in need of enforcement.

London city council is a step closer to making it mandatory for some landlords to keep their units cool to protect tenants from extreme heat, though critics say that the proposed bylaw falls short of protecting the city’s most vulnerable people. City council’s community protective services committee voted on Monday in favour of a new maximum temperature bylaw that would make property owners maintain indoor temperatures at their rental units below 26C from June 16 to August 31. The requirement, however, would only apply to units already equipped with air conditioning (AC), meaning many low-income tenants won’t benefit from the changes, said Jordan Smith, a local leader with tenants’ rights groups ACORN.

The Calgary Outlink Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity has called the ‘Old Y’ home for nearly 50 years. During the time, staff have seen the immense impact the community hub has had on everyone who walks through the doors. “People just show up here,” says Outlink’s director of operations, Emma Ladouceur. “They don’t always know us by name, they don’t always know the particular services, but they know this is a place where they will find help and will be met with safety and understanding.”

Several dozen Calgary agencies have joined together to try to stop a historic Beltline building from being vacated at the end of the month. The organizations involved work in the building – Calgary’s ‘Old YWCA,’ also known as the Arusha Centre – which sits at 223 12 Ave. S.W. The city had a lease with the Community Wise Resources Centre (CWRC), a nonprofit that has since terminated their lease and left the building. Now, the city has released an Expression of Interest for the buildings, seeking a tenant it can work with to preserve the building and maintain the space. The Save the Old Y coalition is made up of 65 organizations, all of whom will be forced out of the building come September 30.

Dozens of Calgary groups are raising the alarm, saying they are being forced by the city to relocate from a historic Beltline building by the end of the month. The ‘Save the Old Y Coalition’ says 65 community agencies will be without a place to offer much-needed services come October, because the City of Calgary is putting up the lease for the historic YWCA building on 12 Avenue SW. The group says the building has been a community hub since 1979 and its loss would “uproot an essential public gathering place, and leave a major gap in mental health, youth, arts, culture and many other services.”