One year after Burnaby passed a into a dense downtown core, housing activists are as determined as ever to protect affordable rental stock for the city鈥檚 low-income residents.
Several labour unions have joined ACORN in on demovictions 鈥� the process by which a developer buys a rental apartment building, evicts tenants, razes the structure and replaces it with a new building, often a highrise condo tower.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in the middle of a housing crisis and our members can鈥檛 afford to live because they spend more than 50 per cent of their income on housing alone,鈥� said Alli Massie, chair of the Teaching Support Staff Union at SFU.
Massie spoke at a press conference in front of a on Sussex Avenue Tuesday. She said housing affordability is the number one issue for TSSU members.
鈥淭ons of our members live in the Metrotown area ... and a lot of them have been demovicted and displaced or are having to move away simply because they can鈥檛 afford the rents that are here.鈥�
The BC Government Employees and Service Union and CUPE 23, which represents City of Burnaby employees, have also called for an end to demovictions.
Burnaby has the third-highest rents in the country, behind Toronto and Vancouver, according to PadMapper. The median rent is $1,500 for a one-bedroom apartment and $2,260 for a two-bedroom apartment.
ACORN activist Murray Martin said council to create the province鈥檚 first rental-only zoning is not enough.聽
He said 鈥測ou would have to be a fool鈥� to believe the 鈥渟udden change of heart鈥� was not related to the election, as Mayor Derek Corrigan claims. Martin said the Metrotown Downtown Plan and rezoning has had a disastrous effect on rental stock. Hundreds of rental units remain slated for demolition following previous approvals from the city.
