NDP calls for urgent help for tenants fearing rising rent and renovictions in Hamilton

Hamiltonians have seen one-bedroom rent increase by 15.3 per cent since last year

HAMILTON – On Tuesday, Canada’s NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and local NDP MP Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre) met with members of the Corktown co-op and presented their plan to lower rent, stop renovictions and save affordable homes for Hamiltonians by making it easier for co-ops looking to acquire affordable homes.

Singh’s proposal would help the tenants of the 272 Caroline Street South apartments who, after learning their building was for sale, decided to organize and try to buy their building to create a co-op. These Hamiltonians admit they felt they had little choice, fearing their homes would be bought by a corporate landlord and that they would be renovicted.

“No one should be forced out of their home because of soaring rent. But thousands of renters across the country understand how these Hamiltonians are feeling. It’s outrageous that, under Trudeau’s government, working-class people have to get together and buy a building just to have an affordable place to live,” said Singh. “We’re urging the Liberals to help these tenants by delivering an affordable housing acquisition fund so they can keep their homes affordable by creating a co-op.”

“It’s absurd that tenants have to take on this burden or face renoviction. The Liberal government is asleep at the switch while the housing situation in our city gets worse,” said Green. “And Pierre Poilievre says he gets what people are going through, but he was in government for nine years. Instead of defending Canadian renters, his government kept Liberals’ cuts to affordable housing. He’s more interested in stacking the deck even higher for rich housing profiteers not standing up for hardworking people.”

The Liberal and Conservative governments’ failure to build the homes that people need means that Hamilton has lost almost 16,000 affordable homes between 2011 and 2021 — homes that may have been renovated before being rented for a higher price.

“It doesn’t have to be like this. We don’t have to lose affordable homes far faster than new ones are being built,” said Singh. “This acquisition fund we’re proposing would prevent renoviction by keeping homes out of the hands of for-profit housing profiteers. It would give support to not-for-profit organizations or municipalities wanting to purchase affordable housing when it comes on the market and keep it permanently affordable.

New Democrats know renters shouldn’t be abandoned by governments who expects them to compete with wealthy, corporate landlords on their own.”