Kitchener, ON – The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing recently told CKMS News that their “balanced approach” to the rental market is working, as purpose built-housing rental construction has hit “record-high” numbers. However, renters in Waterloo Region are facing their own record highs. According to rentals.ca, landlords are now charging 1,935$ a month for a 1-bedroom in Kitchener, and more than 2,327$ for a 2-bedroom. Prices are higher in Waterloo.
Organizations advocating for stronger protections for renters have maintained their focus on landlords and the various levels of government. One such organization is the Social Development Council of Waterloo Region, who primarily focus on “Housing & Homelessness, Grassroots Infrastructure, and Lived Expertise.”
This show features an interview with Megan Walker, a tenant organizer in theEviction Prevention program at the Social Development Council. Walker discusses her work and responds to statements the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing made to CKMS News.
This segment is on Renoviction and the work of locals, who step up and beyond for community welfare. We will follow progress as well via CKMS Community Connections [CCC]. Kudos to Regional Councillor, Robert Deutschmann. And thanks very much Megan!
Megan Ruttan of Waterloo Region ACORN joins Bob Jonkman to talk about evictions, renovictions, tenants’ rights, and setting up a tenants’ union in Waterloo Region.
Introducing Megan Ruttan and ACORN: The Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now, a low- to moderate-income tenants union, but they take on any issues that their members want to take on, for example payday loans. The union is just getting set up now to help fight renovictions and demovictions. Megan herself is experiencing attempts at renoviction. This has been happening for at least six years. This pre-dates ACORN, but ACORN would have fought it by drawing attention to it by direct action such as protests. There have been rallies against other renovictions in Kitchener. Landlords intimidate tenants by withholding information, so that tenants do not know what their rights are, or even who their landlord is. ACORN in Hamilton has helped create a by-law that makes it illegal to evict people in Hamilton for renovations. But each municipality will have different by-laws. ACORN has just held a national day of action on the financialization of housing. They’re asking for a law that will give first right of refusal will go to housing organizations, co-ops, and other businesses that want to build affordable housing. Waterloo Region ACORN has about 500 members; about 15 full members who pay $15/month in dues, but many people can’t afford that. Waterloo Region ACORN started about three months ago, in April.
Waterloo Region ACORN has a three month plan, meeting in August to plan an action to take place in September. They’re building membership; anyone is welcome to join, not just renters. The August meeting will be hybrid, both in-person and online for Covid safety. The national organization in Ottawa and the chapter in London have provided a lot of help in the form of flyers, handouts, mailing lists, &c. The money from dues goes towards copying costs and SDCWR for use of their facilities. The entire region of Waterloo has an epidemic of unsheltered people. The chapter was named Waterloo Region ACORN to include everyone in the region; it’s not just a Kitchener issue.
28m47s
“The financialization of housing” treats housing as an investment, not as shelter or homes, or as a human right. Municipalities are not building purpose-built rental housing; many politicians to make this happen to own rental properties, and seem disinclined to reduce their holdings to build affordable housing. Globally, the climate crisis is creating climate refugees, who need housing. Do we have shelter for these people? We need to build housing. The municipalities need to build the housing, not just pass by-laws or re-zones. The City of Kitchener is not acting to build housing or reduce renovictions when they had the chance to vote on zoning changes. Their answer seems to be to police housing. If they don’t build housing, people will die. Who could be affected by the housing crisis? Almost every renter. What happens with the laws that require landlords to provide the renovated units to former tenants? It gets ignored, landlords just rent to new, higher-paying tenants. People in this situation don’t have the capacity, “the spoons”, to deal with this. Megan has the spoons to deal with this because she’s connected in the community, and knows the resources.
38m14s
How did Waterloo Region ACORN get started here? There were already people with memberships in other chapters; people contacted the national chapter; they already had a mailing list! Everything is connected, Megan was already active in climate organizing, political organization; if one issue is advanced, the others are too.
How do people get involved if they have no background in tenant organization? Come to the meeting in August, ACORN will provide training on door knocking, &c. They’ll knock on the doors of tenants to let them know help is available. They’ve reached out to local politicians, but not all have responded. Talking about other events where ACORN has had a presence. Giving credit to Maribel and other leaders, their appearances in local media.
48m25s
What about all the local construction? It’s mostly condominiums, only 15% affordable housing. Condos aren’t affordable housing. The tenants’ union is the opposite of a Home Owners’ Association, the union lifts you up, doesn’t repress your rights.
50m36s
Reviewing Waterloo Region ACORN‘s presence on social media. Talking about Project Mushroom, an online presence for social activists. It had some setbacks when the founder discovered it could not be monetized, but Megan and others are still keeping it alive.
53m12s
Bob gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Climate action is often reported and engaged with at the national and international scale, but often, the local organizing efforts are lesser known. 50×30 Waterloo Region is a grassroots, community-led campaign advocating for the need for Waterloo Region to commit to a 50 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, in line with the imperatives of climate science and centering social justice and well-being.
For this segment, I will be in conversation with four community members:
Kai Reimer-Watts, a climate justice organizer;
Stephanie Goertz, a volunteer with the 50x30WR campaign;
Megan Ruttan, a climate justice organizer, and Fridays for Future Waterloo Region organizer, and
Andres Fuentes, who has engaged on climate work locally and globally for over 10 years.
In part two of this two-part series, we’ll talk about the history of organizing in the Region that the campaign is building on, the importance of building solidarity, and what a just climate future could look like, in the Region.
If you’d like to learn more about other cities working towards 50×30, consider the work of C40 Cities, including Vancouver, and Halifax.
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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca.
Music for this episode was courtesy of Dylan Prowse.
Climate action is often reported and engaged with at the national and international scale, but often, the local organizing efforts are lesser known. 50×30 Waterloo Region is a grassroots, community-led campaign advocating for the need for Waterloo Region to commit to a 50 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, in line with the imperatives of climate science and centering social justice and well-being.
For this segment, I will be in conversation with four community members:
Kai Reimer-Watts, a climate justice organizer;
Stephanie Goertz, a volunteer with the 50x30WR campaign;
Megan Ruttan, a climate justice organizer, and Fridays for Future Waterloo Region organizer, and
Andres Fuentes, who has engaged on climate work locally and globally for over 10 years.
In part one, we’ll hear about their motivations, the need for local climate action, and their work on a petition leading up to a motion to be presented at Regional Council.
In part two, we’ll talk about the history of organizing in the Region that the campaign is building on, the importance of building solidarity, and what a just climate future could look like, in the Region.
If you’d like to learn more about other cities working towards 50×30, consider the work of C40 Cities, including Vancouver, and Halifax.
—
This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca.
Music for this episode was courtesy of Dylan Prowse.
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