Hands Off Our Housing Rights

 

🏡 Hands Off Our Housing Rights: Tenants Fight Back Against BC’s Latest Policy Threat

🗓 October 9th, 2025 — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
🏡🏡🦀🦀🚌🚌

On unceded and stolen Coast Salish lands, a coalition of tenant groups, Indigenous advocates, and legal organizations are raising their voices to demand a halt to the BC Government’s plan to strip supportive housing tenants of their rights.

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⚖️ What’s Happening?

In 2024, the province quietly removed key protections from supportive housing tenants under the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) — rights that once gave people a chance to challenge evictions and live with dignity.

Now, in 2025, the BC Government is proposing even more cuts — even talking about removing supportive housing from the RTA entirely, claiming it’s about “safety.”

But advocates know better.

“The RTA does not prevent landlords from providing housing that is safe for tenants and workers,” says Robert Patterson, lawyer at the Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre (TRAC). “These changes would let some non-profit landlords evict people without notice or recourse. For tenants across BC, this would be a disaster.”

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💭 Let’s Reflect:

• Who truly benefits when tenants lose their rights?
• Why is “safety” being used as a justification to remove legal protections, instead of addressing underfunded programs or unsafe conditions?
• Why are government and non-profit agencies treating people in supportive housing as “clients” instead of tenants with rights?
• What does “support” mean if it can be taken away overnight?

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🧭 The Bigger Picture

Supportive housing was designed to give people a foundation — a chance to heal, stabilize, and rebuild their lives.
But removing legal protections creates instability, fear, and dependency — the opposite of support.

As Delilah Gregg from WAHRS, POWER, and VANDU asks:

“How does truth and reconciliation fit into a plan that reduces protections for the very people most harmed by colonization?”

We need to ask ourselves:

• Are these policy changes part of a broader shift toward privatizing social housing?
• Is BC prioritizing corporate-style control over compassion and community care?

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⚠️ The Real Root Causes

Violence and instability in supportive housing don’t come from tenants — they come from poverty, trauma, and the unregulated toxic drug market.

“Unions have addressed dangerous workplaces for decades through safety protocols,” says Pete Woodrow of Surrey Union of Drug Users (SUDU). “Why isn’t that approach good enough for supportive housing?”

So instead of removing tenant rights, why not:
✅ Fund adequate staff training and safety supports
✅ Ensure secure, affordable housing across BC — not just “temporary” beds
✅ Regulate the drug supply to reduce harm and chaos
✅ Support Indigenous-led housing models rooted in land, healing, and autonomy

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💬 Coalition Voices

This call to action is supported by:
Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS)
CRAB Park/AYX Community Group
Kilala Lelum
Our Streets
Our Homes Can’t Wait
Pivot Legal Society
Police Oversight with Evidence and Research (POWER)
Surrey Union of Drug Users (SUDU)
Tenant Resource & Advisory Centre (TRAC)
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU)
Vancouver Tenants Union (VTU)

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🌱 Reflective Questions for Readers:

• What does “home” mean to you — safety, stability, or control?
• Would you feel safe if your landlord could evict you at any time, without cause?
• What would reconciliation look like if Indigenous tenants led housing decisions?
• Can we imagine a BC where supportive housing truly supports — with security, dignity, and care?
• What can we, as community members, do to protect those most at risk?

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🕊 Call to Action

Let’s stand together.
📣 Demand that BC:

• Stop plans to remove RTA protections.
• Restore rights stripped in 2024.
• Work with tenants, not against them.
• Recognize that housing is safety — not surveillance.

🏠 Because every person deserves the right to a stable, secure home.
That’s what justice looks like. That’s what reconciliation should mean.

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🔥 Share & Speak Up:

👉 Share this post
👉 Tag your MLA
👉 Ask them: Why are you stripping rights instead of expanding them?
👉 Demand #HousingJustice

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📌 Hashtags for Reach:

#TenantRights #SupportiveHousing #BCHousing #HousingJustice #TruthAndReconciliation #RTA #PivotLegal #TRAC #VANDU #VTU #EndHomelessness #HumanRights #BCPoli #CommunityCare #StopEvictions