44 VTU members attended our February 21st general meeting. Here is a summarized version of the minutes. 

Item 1 - Territorial Acknowledgement & Community Agreements

Item 2 - Defend Broadway Campaign Update

Item 3 - Special resolution on Municipal Policy Demands for 2022 - Presentation and Discussion

Motion: BE IT RESOLVED THAT the membership of the Vancouver Tenants Union supports confirming that the following policy demands are our top priorities for municipal governments:

• Use municipal powers to implement vacancy control (rent control tied to the unit)
• Use municipal powers to stop renovictions (evictions for renovations and repairs)
• Stop displacement caused by demovictions (evictions for demolition of a suite)
  • Tenants have the right to move back into new suite at the same rent
  • Landlords top up a tenant’s rent while the new suite is under construction
• Make Tenant Relocation & Protection Policies universal - applicable to all tenancy situations
• Use municipal powers to end “no pets” clauses
• Support the demands of CRAB park residents as stated in their 2020 demands letter: 
  • building 10,000 units of dignified social housing,
  • returning land around CRAB park to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and build a healing lodge

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the membership of the Vancouver Tenants Union supports the following municipal policy demands in addition to the above:

• Implement progressive property taxation policies to reduce real estate speculation and fund non-market housing
• Crack down on slumlords with robust enforcement and fines for violations of municipal standards and maintenance bylaws 
• End street sweeps of unhoused people's shelters and belongings and instead arrange for adequate housing 
• dissolution of the Memorandum of Understanding on Support for Unsheltered Vancouver Residents that enables government sanctioned harassment of unhoused people
• Create a public facing landlord registry, including a requirement to list the historical rents on units
• Build more deeply affordable social housing and co-ops across the city
  • Absolutely no more private, for-profit developments on public or city-owned land and no sales of public lands to private entities
  • Give municipal government a first right of refusal to buy private rentals and convert them into social housing or co-ops
  • create a directly city controlled and transparently administered land trust for social/co-op housing with currently available city-owned land
  • Mandate a minimum humane unit size for new developments to account for different stages of life and different family compositions

Motion passes (In favour: 27, abstain: 2, opposed: 0)

Item 4 - Announcements (20 mins)

• Report back on Stipend Policy
• Updates on bylaw changes
• Fairview chapter – chapter launch on March 13th over Zoom from 11:30-2pm. Will send a zoom link for that. If you are interested email: [email protected]

Meeting Adjourned

Live minutes are recorded at each GM and condensed for the website. For more detailed minutes any member may contact us: [email protected]