Members of the Nelson street Tenants Association (NTA) have made a showing at the Housing Justice Day rally at the BC legistlature on November 22nd. The rally was put on by A Home For All.

https://www.ahomeforall.ca/

NTA members posing in front of the legistlature

Nathan of VicTU made a speech there too! The script to it is below. There is also a video of his speech on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ZPuqlKs7k

We are in a historical crisis. Homelessness is historically high - but that’s not even the end of the story. Groceries are more expensive and food banks are busier than they’ve ever been. Rents are consuming more of our paychecks than ever before. The toxic drug crisis is still raging, almost nine years after being declared a public health emergency. Inequality in Canada is higher than its ever been - and that’s saying something. That means that while poor and working people are struggling and suffering through this crisis, the rich are just getting richer.

And what are the politicians like the ones in the building behind me doing to set things right? I’ll tell you what they’re doing: very little. They are certainly not rising to this historical moment. They’ve refused to institute vacancy control. They’ve declined to build enough social housing, relying instead on so-called market-based “solutions”. They’ve spurned land value capture policies. They’ve overseen the rise of corporate landlords, and they’ve watched home ownership become increasingly unthinkable for many of us. They’ve continued to allow existing affordable homes to be bulldozed to make way for gentrified, upscale housing that is more profitable for landlords and developers, but which many poor and working people cannot afford. They created mass homelessness and they’ve in effect criminalized homelessness. They’ve told us fairytales about the trickle-down effect of building unaffordable homes. And they’ve scapegoat immigrants and international students. SHAME! Immigrants aren’t the root of the problem, it’s all the profit that landlords and developers are making from the commodification of our homes! And they know it!

Nathan speaking on the steps of the legistlature

But you know what? We can hardly be surprised. Politicians, with very few exceptions, are property owners and landlords. And their friends are property owners and landlords. And they’re in bed with developers. We can’t count on them to do what needs to be done just out of the goodness of their hearts. They will never rise to this historical crisis willingly, because for them things are going great.

Poor and working people have to face reality. No one is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves. We have to build a movement of and for poor and working people - a movement that is powerful enough to bring about the change we need. We have to come together in solidarity - homeowners, tenants and unhoused people; citizens and immigrants; people of all genders - we all have to organize ourselves to end this historical crisis. We must build a movement that is equal to this task. They have left us no choice.

That’s why I’m a member of the Victoria Tenants Union. We’re a grassroots, democratic collective of renters who work together to protect ourselves from exploitation, neglect, and abuse by landlords. Just like labour unions help level the playing field in negotiations between workers and bosses, tenant unions help level the playing field between renters and landlords. We are done politely asking the politicians to save us; we are demanding better conditions for poor and working people, and we are building a movement to ensure that this demand cannot be ignored.

We are still new and we have a lot of room to grow, but already we have helped tenants in Esquimalt who are facing eviction from their homes to organize and fight back. We’re talking about 67 families, some of whom have lived in their homes for 30 or even 40 years! We’re talking about the destruction of two perfectly livable buildings that are filled with affordable homes just because the corporate landlord, Belmont Properties - which owns 37 buildings across 7 cities -, wants to make even more money than it already is. SHAME!

Nathan speaking on the steps of the legistlature flanked by NTA members

But these tenants are not going quietly. With the help of the Victoria Tenants Union these courageous families have come together to form the Nelson Street Tenants Association, through which they can speak to their corporate landlord with one collective voice, to say “hell, no, we won’t go!” They’ve decided to stand up and fight for their homes. They’ve decided to try and beat the corporation that is trying to displace them. And it’s a tough fight. But if they win, they’ll make history. And that’s exactly what we must do. We need to stand up for ourselves in solidarity. We need to make history. Our situation demands it.

So support the Nelson Street tenants however you can. Join the Victoria Tenants Union and grow our capacity. And think about organizing your own building to stand up to your landlord and build tenant power. In doing so you’ll be fighting for the rights of all tenants - of poor and working people across the city and beyond.

Thanks to Nathan for taking the time to prepare and get this important message out there. That Youtube channel has a playlist of the talks that were given on Housing Justice Day.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuWKJjYRIwRerc8-WOqKSVbeYF3kaLXpS