The Anti-Poverty Committee demands that the BC Liberals spend their estimated 2 billion dollar surplus on immediate housing for all in need.
There is no such thing as a ‘housing crisis,’ there is only a political crisis. There is more than enough money to provide every poor working and unemployed person and family with decent housing. But while the politicians consider us their surplus, they amass billions of dollars made at the expense of our poverty.
We demand that not one more cent be spent until every person is housed!
Our proposed breakdown of how the Liberals must spend our $2 billion surplus:
SOCIAL HOUSING NOW!
We demand that the BC Liberals immediately begin construction on no less than 2000 units of fully subsidized social housing a year. This will cost $200 million a year and $10 million per year in operating costs.
It’s important not to be fooled by the Liberals claims of building social housing. What they aren’t telling us while we pat them on the back is that the little money they are spending on housing is federal health money. What they want us to believe is social housing is in fact assisted living for the elderly. Gordon Campbell makes is grandstanding on the backs of seniors.
The fact that the government itself admits that providing social housing is less expensive then the consequences of homelessness, and yet refuses to do so speaks to the truth that this government is a brutal one.
If driven by cost efficiency, as the government and tax-fanatics often excuse themselves, we would not be warehousing people in shelters but in decent homes. Under this capitalism our suffering is not an economic fall-out but rather a calculated surplus used to exploit us further by keeping wages and employment down. We say no more!
RENT REPARATIONS
Currently under the Liberals latest housing plan humorlessly titled ‘Housing Matters,’ rent subsidies have been made available to a very few working people. Under this deceitful plan persons or families can only receive supplements if no one in the family is on income assistance and only if every member of the household has ‘full citizenship’. The cut-off for subsides is fixed so that, for example: a single mother with 3 kids can only get a $200 subsidy for an apartment that costs less than $800 a month!
Housing minister Rich Coleman’s former job was working for landlord associations, so with his expertise in slumlording he knows full well how astronomically priced even the worst hovels in this province are.
We demand that rent reparations be paid out to all low-income renters. There are more then 65 000 households in BC paying more then half their income on rent. We have paid too much for too damn long! Bring in a rent freeze and compensate anybody who’s currently being bled dry by paying over a third of their monthly income into shelter. Housing rights are our human rights!
RAISE THE DAMN RATES ALREADY!
Welfare rates must be raised to levels that people can live decent dignified lives. To raise the rates 50% is $500 million. What else can we say about that…!
PAYBACK TIME!
The BC Liberals have successfully disempowered poor people’s ability to fight back by destroying our community services. Almost every string of our social security net has been cut. Our communities have been slashed and burned by funding cuts and altogether closures of the few places we felt safe.
We demand that every service that fell under the Liberal blade be reinserted. That the $200 million stolen from social programs and services since 2001 be paid back with interest!
Stop sending our community to jail or deporting them because there is no more legal aid! Stop the eviction factories from throwing families out into the streets because they can not legally challenge the landlords! Stop abusing us because there is no access to a Human Rights Tribunal! Stop stealing our children because there is no care! Stop kicking us in the teeth when we are down – or we will stop you!
AND SO MUCH MORE…
These simple demands barely cost 2/3 of our surplus. In fact we are fine with not taking this money that has been saved at our expense; we would much rather have the health of our communities restored with the money that is currently being squandered by the police, prisons, corporate subsidies and the damn Olympics.
Our government’s priorities are clear. Profit before people. Based on this calculation they are unfit to govern. Because they will not house people we must do so by whatever means. Our government will not give unless forced. We will only get what we organize to take.
