46 VTU members and guests attended our September general meeting, which was moved onto Zoom due to poor air quality in Vancouver. Here is a summarized version of the minutes. 

Item 1 - Territorial Acknowledgement & Community Agreements

Item 2 - Organizing Conversations Presentation and Group Exercise

Item 3 - Special Resolution for the Vancouver Tenants Union to join the #StopTheSweeps Coalition

• Presentation + Discussion
  
  
• Special Resolution:
  
  WHEREAS the City of Vancouver has moved to decamp residents tenting along Hastings St. - in the middle of a pandemic, a toxic drug supply crisis, and housing affordability crisis during successive summer heat waves - in violation the City’s own Memorandum of Understanding on decampment and in violation of basic human rights according to BC Human Rights Commissioner;
  
  WHEREAS members of the Vancouver Tenants Union’s Constitution and Basis of Unity defines our members’ determination to be in solidarity with unhoused people and to oppose displacement;
  
  WHEREAS The #StopTheSweeps Coalition has been working tirelessly to implement a block stewardship program to find community-led solutions, including those related to fire hazards.
  
  BE IT RESOLVED THAT the the Vancouver Tenants Union joins the #StopTheSweeps Coalition
  
  
• Motion passes: 37 in favour; 0 opposed; 1 abstention 

Item 4 - Presentation and Motion on Former Housing Minister and current BCNDP leadership candidate David Eby

• Presentation + Discussion
  
  
• Motion:
  
  BE IT RESOLVED THAT VTU working groups publicize and educate Vancouver renters about potential future Premier David Eby’s anti-renter statements and interactions with our union and allies, and the anti-renter policies and efforts enacted by him
  
  
• Motion passes unanimously

Item 5 - Neighbourhood chapter updates

• Fairview:
  • Balfour Tenants Collective has been organizing to fight their demoviction. They are located just South of the Broadway Plan zone and are asking for the same tenant protections as Broadway Plan tenants are supposed to get. City council approved their demoviction at a public hearing with no amendments to offer tenants these protections. Tenants are continuing to organize on their own.
    
    
• East side: Organizing around maintenance related issues in a few buildings

Item 6 - Open floor for announcements

• Rent.Strike.Bargain campaign circulating a petition to build momentum for collective bargaining rights for tenants to raise the profile of the campaign. Please contact RSB if you'd like to help circulate the petition
• Demovicted member is looking to start a peer support group to give advice and help to tenants who fall under the Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy and would like to share all the documentation they've collected on their experience. Will work with communications working group.

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]