Posted by Scott on 7/8/2009, 7:00 am
www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/07/08/10058546-sun.html
Landlords put on notice
Anti-poverty group to use municipal election as prod for inspections
By KEVIN CONNOR, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 8th July 2009, 3:58am
A Toronto poverty group wants to vote in a better life for those in need.
The Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) says it is tired of slum landlords and plans to use the 2010 municipal election to force local politicians to improve their lives.
"We plan to go door-to door to improve voter turnout and gain power for tenants using the upcoming elections," ACORN spokesman Tatiana Jaunzens said yesterday at a downtown rally.
"(Low income tenants') right to safe, hygienic living conditions is being ignored by politicians because they have low voter turnout."
ACORN says only 186 of the 5,000 rental properties in Toronto will be inspected this year.
"At this rate it will take 34 years to have them all inspected," Jaunzens said, adding the city needs to increase funding for its building inspection program.
The organization will run a campaign to increase the number of votes cast in areas with a high density of poor quality buildings in an effort to elect candidates who support tenant issues, added ACORN member Marva Burnett.
"It is time the politicians started listening to all their constituents instead of just some. There are so many of us living in slum buildings in this city," Burnett said.
'GO AFTER THEM'
Toronto Councillor Janet Davis, who represents Beaches-East York, agreed the election provides advocates with a way of increasing the power of tenants.
"Fifty percent of the city are tenants who don't have a voice. Getting out to vote will make a difference because there are too many bad landlords in this city," Davis said.
"We need to go after these landlords with everything we have got. We should be charging them instead of using taxpayers money to enforce these landlords."
Laura Howell lives with her daughter and mother in a run-down building in the Danforth-Victoria Park Aves. area and said she deserves to live in a clean home.
"The place is falling apart, it is cockroach-infested and the repairs don't get done. We are second-class citizens that management doesn't want to hear from. The only time we will see them is if the rent is late," she said.
"My hope is people will get out during the election and cast a vote so we can have a better life."
KEVIN.CONNOR@SUNMEDIA.CA
www.insidetoronto.ca/article/72036
COMMUNITY: Organization aims to boost tenant voter turnout
By JUSTIN SKINNER
July 07, 2009 5:10 PM
A group of tenants, backed by various Toronto politicians, took an important first step toward securing more rights for renters with the launch of the Tenants Vote 2010 campaign near Wellesley and Sherbourne streets on Tuesday, July 7.
The campaign was launched by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and aims to boost voter turnout among tenants in next year's municipal election. By doing so, organizers are looking to ensure the voices of renters are heard - and heeded - by politicians.
At issue is the ongoing neglect of many residential buildings. Many tenants, particularly in social housing units, face problems ranging from mold and mildew to cockroach and bedbug infestations to unheated units and a refusal on the part of some landlords to carry out necessary repairs.
The campaign included a rally with dozens of local residents, chants of "my rent, my vote" and the mailing of letters outlining their wishes to every City of Toronto councillor as well as Mayor David Miller.
ACORN spokesperson Edward Lantz said by mobilizing more tenants to vote, it would force politicians to take their concerns more seriously or risk being ousted in the 2010 election.
"We want to educate voters," he said. "Voter turnout for tenants has been pretty low due to a lack of education of tenants' rights, how they add up and how they can help people."
One of the key measures ACORN hopes to implement is a nominal fee that landlords would have to pay the city so Toronto can hire more inspectors to examine living conditions and ensure buildings are kept safe and well-maintained.
"Everyone should have human living conditions," Lantz said. "It's a human right."
ACORN member Martin Levine said there is a sense of hopelessness among many tenants who have been let down time and again by neglectful landlords and a bureaucratic system that seems ill-equipped to penalize building owners who do not keep buildings in good condition.
"People are sick and tired of not being seen and heard, so they think 'why vote?'" he said. "If (councillors) want to be voted in, why don't they go out to buildings and see and hear what's going on?"
Councillor Janet Davis was one of several local politicians, along with fellow councillors Paul Ainslie, Maria Augimeri and Anthony Perruzza and local MPP Paul Ferreira to attend the rally.
Davis said the rally would make many of the politicians at city hall sit up and take notice of the injustices facing so many renters today.
"Exercising tenants' power at the ballot box is absolutely the right way to go," she said. "The more tenant voices are heard, the more effective their elected representatives can be. There's nothing more powerful than the enforcement arm of the city working with the local councillor and tenants."
Davis added the city's multi-residential apartment buildings audit, launched last December, will improve conditions in rental units, but said giving more of a voice to those who are often underrepresented will bring the issue to the attention of many city councillors.
Augimeri said city councillors would do well to listen to the united voices of tenants, given that ACORN was able to rally renters together to help elect Perruzza and Ferreira.
"I've seen them succeed twice already," she said. "But it's not just a question of solely winning elections. It's a question of empowering tenants."
Perruzza said there are two truths many councillors hold to be self-evident. First, he said, many believe - often rightly so - that tenants tend to avoid the ballot boxes. Second, there is a sense among many veteran councillors that they will not be unseated by inexperienced challengers.
He said ACORN would put those supposed truisms to the test with the Tenants Vote campaign.
"I'm a living testament that you can do both those things," he said. "What ACORN did in my riding is they drove up the vote."
ACORN is now looking to drum up support among voters by postering in apartment-heavy areas, spreading the news through word-of-mouth and appealing to tenants online at www.tenantsvote2010.ca
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