Press Hits

Advocates are putting pressure on the Ontario government to at least double the amount of money people on social assistance programs receive. Chapters of ACORN, as known as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, organized what they called “poverty picnics” in six cities across the province on Tuesday. They set up picnic blankets, empty plates and lawn chairs outside the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) offices in Kitchener, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London and Brampton. They said the displays were a physical representation of food insecurity.

Affordable housing advocates will hold “poverty picnics” in Brampton and across Ontario to urge the province to double social assistance rates. The rallies will see members of housing activist group ACORN camp out in front of Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Ontario Works (OW) offices next week in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London, Kitchener, and Brampton. Dubbed “poverty picnics,” social assistance recipients will set up picnic blankets, empty plates, and lawn chairs as “a visual testament to how current rates keep people unable to afford food and other necessities,” ACORN says.

After two and a half years of fighting renovictions, the landlord of both buildings Michel Klein has withdrawn all remaining renovictions. This comes less than a week before the Webster tenants were expected to attend a hearing with the Landlord Tenant Board. “It’s been an awful nightmare. I’m glad I’ll get to wake up from it now.” said Marni Skilton, an ACORN member living in the Webster buildings. She continued by thanking ACORN for their contributions. “Without them we wouldn’t have made it, we needed that support and organization.”

Les loyers à Ottawa sont parmi les plus inabordables au pays. À l’est de Vanier, des locataires de longue date se battent contre le propriétaire qui tente de les expulser: «On n’aura nulle part où aller».

Tenants of 1270 and 1280 Webster Street have won a renoviction battle against their landlord, earning the right to stay in their homes. The fight has been ongoing for almost two and a half years. “I feel like I’ve been on the threshold of hell. I’m feeling greatly relieved that I don’t have to move, you don’t even know,” said Marni Skilton, an ACORN member who lives in the Webster buildings. “I thank ACORN for everything they’re doing. Without them, we wouldn’t have made it. We needed that support and organization.”

Hamilton renters tired of suffering from sweltering heat in the summer are urging city council to set a maximum temperature for all rental units in the city, after council’s planning committee voted 10-0 on Tuesday to require landlords who provide air conditioning to make sure they can cool units to 26 degrees Celsius or less. The measure only applies to landlords who have agreed within a lease to provide air conditioning, leaving out tenants such as Kayla Leet, who spoke to the committee on Tuesday. “My building unfortunately won’t benefit because my landlord only provides heating,” said Leet, a member of Acorn, a tenants’ advocacy group. She says she’s resorted to putting tinfoil on her windows to try to reflect some of the heat. “On extreme heat days in the summer it measured 32 [degrees C] with the tinfoil on the windows and 34 [degrees C] without them.”