From the Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network
Last night at a mass meeting at the local community centre, dozens of tenants from four high-rise apartment buildings in East Hamilton committed to going on rent strike on May 1st.
Tenants from the Stoney Creek Towers (50 Violet Drive, 77 Delawana Drive, 11 Grandville Avenue, and 40 Grandville Avenue) have decided to take this action in response to their landlord, CLV Group’s recent application for an Above Guideline rent Increase (AGI), on behalf of the buildings’ owner, InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust. Tenants will continue to withhold their rent until their landlord meets their demands: a total withdrawal of the AGI application and the completion of long-standing repairs to their units.
When combined with the government-permitted annual guideline rent increase (1.8% in 2018), this AGI application translates into a total rent increase of almost 10% over two years. A rent increase of this size would threaten many long-standing and low-income tenants with displacement, including immigrant tenants, elderly tenants, and tenants living on fixed incomes. With rents skyrocketing across Hamilton, many low-income tenants are being displaced from the city altogether. We will not allow that to happen in this case. We are going to fight and we are going to win!
The Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network calls on fellow Stoney Creek Towers tenants to join the strike. We call on tenants across Hamilton to support the strikers as they stand up to a corporate landlord and protest the laws and institutions that allow for the displacement of working-class people from their communities.