ACORN picketing 30 MPs on May 4th calling for changes to rules that govern REITs.
REITs pay no taxes and have a disastrous effect on Canadian rental housing.
Halifax, NS – On Tuesday, May 4th Nova Scotia ACORN will be picketing at MP Andy Fillmore’s office calling on them to support ACORN Canada’s Rein in the REITs campaign. This is part of a larger day of action where ACORN is holding 30 similar MP pickets across the country.
Tenants and allies are taking this large action to call on the federal government to implement a series of policies that will rein in corporate landlords who are systematically making Canada’s affordable rental housing unaffordable.
What: ACORN Rein in the REITs MPO Picket (socially distanced, less than 5 people)
Where: MP Andy Fillmore’s Office – 1888 Brunswick St #808
When: Tuesday, May 4th at 11am
While, on the one hand, the federal government is investing billions of dollars in building affordable housing, at the same time, it is giving huge subsidies to big corporate landlords who are destroying the country’s affordable housing stock.
That is why ACORN is calling on the federal government to:
- Immediately end the tax exemption for REITs and replace it with a system where the taxes paid by REITs are directly related to the amount of affordable housing REITs are providing or eliminating.
- CMHC must stop financing REITs or it’s financing should have clear no tenant displacement guarantees as a condition to provide any insurance to entities such as REITs.
- The federal government should create a National Non-Profit Acquisitions Strategy that both funds and gives the right of first refusal for non-profit, co-op, and land trust organizations to purchase rental buildings when they come on the market.
- Ban REITs to own certain types of multi-family residential buildings that are best suited of permanent and true affordable housing provided by non-profits.
Details of Picketing Actions can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P33h09pNRn_jyKJ5jW1eQksnKetU7NGO4OMh1QCU7iE/edit?usp=sharing
Background on ACORN’s Rein in the REITs campaign can be found here: https://acorncanada.org/resource/rein-reits
What is ACORN?
ACORN Canada is an independent national organization of low-and-moderate income families and the largest tenant union in Canada with 140,000+ members in Alberta, BC, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
Something needs to be done about housing! Families looking to rent campers, others living in tents, and cars! Things are getting worse with everyone moving to NS. Most cannot get a mortgage. NS needs to do better!!!