Affordable Housing my Ass!

So the NDP are at it again, as part of some mysterious affordable housing strategy they have made some changes to the NS Tenancy Act.

Changes include:
-- automatic lease renewal

I think this was the long hoped for security of tenure clause...however the way it reads sounds like nothing different then what already happens. In the past, unless you have a fixed term lease, if you or the landlord do not give notice the lease rolls over to the next year. There appears to be nothing in the updated act to imply that tenure is achieved...maybe its implied...implied laws are useless.

- improving the process to deal with unpaid rent

This is where it gets scary, with the changes a landlord can evict a tenant for non payment of rent after 15 days this is reduced from 30 days. This will profoundly impact people who receive only one cheque a month, whether that is income assistance or CPP/etc it will be nearly impossible to come up with arrears in between cheques.
This will mean more homelessness, more burden upon community based organizations who will be hit up for resources so people can stayed housed. Not really sure what kind of critical thinking went into that one.

-- a simpler process for rent adjustments in land-lease communities (formerly mobile home parks)

Will that mean it will be easier to increase...sounds like it to me

-- tenants on fixed-term leases can end their leases early, without financial penalty, for health reasons

This already happens

-- be able to award the application fee for those successful in the residential tenancies hearings
Yup this too

Overall, the changes are very one sided in the landlord's favour, some changes like the new arrears to eviction time frame will be devastating to those on monthly income and will increase homeless. So NDP if this is part of your affordable housing stragety....EPIC FAIL!

humm its been a sometime since we talked

Well I haven't written in this for sometime...truth is I have been so discouraged with the anti-poverty movement as of late, I feel like we have been co-opted by professionals. It is a dangerous thing to be poor and an activist...it keeps you under employed, it keeps you poor, it gets you either tokenized or in trouble. Am I bitter, a little.

I had great hope in the NDP government. Finally a government that thinks and believes in equity and justice for people living in poverty like I do, or so I thought. Wow was I wrong. Maybe the reason I feel betrayed is because I expected more. I expected that they would keep all their promises..you the ones they made when they were not yet government. I expected they would make things better for the poor, instead on this anniversary of the declaration of the international day for the eradication of poverty we are worst off then ever before, why, because our hope that we could have an elected government that sides with low-income people was just an illusion. This government sides with big business, and with the owners of this country, and we the low income populus...are not important to them at all, unless it is election times then they are smiles and promises.

I went to a rally and a panel discussion today and the stories I heard are the same ones I have been hearing for the last 20 years...exactly the same. One story today broke my heart, a single Mom of 3 children, living on income assistance and working part-time. She talked about not being able to afford her children's asthma medication and needing to make choices of paying rent, power, food and meds. She told us her story of not being able to get her children into sports or other recreational activity. Her voice trembled as she acknowledge her children were at a disadvantage and would be more likely to be poor because she was poor. How can this still happen, after all our activism, all our advocacy...how can all that work mean nothing, after all this time why haven't we moved forward.

What will it take to make a change? I for sure no longer believe government is the answer. We need to bypass them completely...create our own poverty elimination strategy. Maybe make them obsolete...ah my red is showing again...and I am not talking liberal..

As for me, I will keep moving forward...because there is no going back

gentrification - you jerk is not....

The definition of gen·tri·fi·ca·tion (jĕn'trə-fĭ-kā'shən)
is - The restoration and upgrading of deteriorated urban property by middle-class or affluent people, often resulting in displacement of lower-income people.

It is not - new low-income/modest housing - rental and others
- community based small business
- libraries, community schools and recreation centres
- community based organizations

To the middle class white boy, who had probably only a half a year of intro sociology, stop defacing our community with your damn graffiti - you don't know what you are talking/writing about or you would know better than to trash these places.
Poor people like nice things too, they want to be able to shop and access services in their community, take their kids to clean community spaces, you are not speaking or standing up for us....so knock it off

Hey so I haven't written in awhile.....

The truth is it has been grim, I was sad when HCAP ended and there felt for me no focus in my Anti-Poverty work. I did not fit in with the middle class do gooders, but was also getting a little too old for overtly radical action. Not nimble enough any longer to risk a tussle with the cops at a demo, not fast enough to get away. I have instead been focusing on generating political dialogue, changing opinions through active debate, challenging stereotypes, debunking poverty myths and sharing advocacy strategies. We will see where this takes me, now that I will have a new work schedule and more time to write, I am hoping to get out something at least a reaction piece to the federal budget.....now there should be a good fairytale

UPDATE 1-Bank bailout tax plan splits G20 | Reuters

Have I stepped into the looking glass? Canada, the land of the social left, free health care, education, publically funded social programs has now become more right winged that the US?  We now do not want the banks to pay their fair share? As the number of  people who fall into poverty increases, we will step up and  bailout banks because… why – they are struggling with their billion dollar profits? 

Our banks rode this last financial crisis well, it is time they step up and pay their fair share…..fair defined as equitable and just share not just a percentage.  The tax burden of this country has shifted from those who can afford to pay on their wealth and profit to a fragile consumer based tax system levied against an increasingly poorer nation…this is unsustainable and will put everything we as Canadians hold dear at risk………….think about it

UPDATE 1-Bank bailout tax plan splits G20 | Reuters

People’s Kitchen feeds G20 protesters - thestar.com

So this is probably one of the most terrifying acts committed by the protestors, feeding people for free.  I seemed to remember that it is when our group would have the most trouble, give someone a tofu sandwich and the police are all over you.  All jokes aside this is really an act of community solidarity and its not just about feeding people, but is about developing a shared community space and a chance to share political ideas, and for this government that is terrifying.

The government has worked so hard over the last couple of months to paint those who demonstrate as irrational thugs who are only out to destroy.  In reality the people who are out there on the streets are there because they want to make a difference, they know the decisions these so called “leaders” will be making will have dramatic and significant impact on our world and how we treat our people and resources. Given the past track record of most of those leaders seated around the table we have the right to be afraid that the decisions made there will exclude us and negatively impact all of us. As well as Canada has shown already in their excess and need to show off will waste the precious resources we have left and set oppression instead of liberation as its underlying agenda.

 

 

People’s Kitchen feeds G20 protesters - thestar.com

CTV Toronto - Police ride herd as G20 protesters march the streets - CTV News

Security is way over the top, anti-poverty activists OCAP and crew first to take the streets in what seems to be one of many protests planned for the upcoming week.  A water cannon has now been added to the arsenal of weapons to be used against protestors.  What are they so afraid of, Canada security forces are going to the extreme, it is like using an Uzi to kill a house fly.  Not that the protestors efforts are in vain, it is just the magnitude of force and resources being used to silence dissent is out of control.  This bullying tactic is not the “Canadian Way” – where is this coming from? Have we veered so far right we have forgotten who we are as a nation?  We are more paranoid than the Americans and that is saying something.  I know…..all the Bush advisors headed north and Harper hired them all…..argh! Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Stephen Harper HAS GOT TO GO….Toews too!

CTV Toronto - Police ride herd as G20 protesters march the streets - CTV News