Organizing Communities, Changing Lives

ACORN Canada Year

End Report

January 2011
 Organizing Communities, Changing Lives: ACORN Canada Year End Report

Executive Summary
In 2010 ACORN Canada engaged 560 new full members
and 4709 associate and provisional members.

To date we have built a membership of 35,000

members across the country. These are low and
moderate income people committed to transforming
communities and impacting positive social, economic
and ecological justice in their community.

Across the country we held 206 events with 1501

ACORN members. That’s 4 events every single week,
52 weeks a year. These events have focused on
building community leaders and strengthening
community capacity to create change on the issues
that matter to our constituency.

January 15th, 2010

 Organizing Communities, Changing Lives: ACORN Canada Year End Report

Table of Contents
Campaign Highlights & Victories

Living Wages

National Affordable Housing Strategy

Inclusionary Housing for Ontario

Toronto Tenant Organizing

Other Housing Campaigns

Disability Rights Group

Free Tax Sites Report

January 15th, 2010

 Organizing Communities, Changing Lives: ACORN Canada Year End Report

Campaign Highlights
Living Wages

On April 26th ACORN Canada made history by helping secure

Canada’s first Municipal Living Wage Policy. Thanks in part to
the hard work and organizing efforts of ACORN Canada
members in Metro Vancouver, and the work of our coalition
partners, New Westminster Council voted unanimously to
pass this groundbreaking record. The policy will guarantee
direct city workers, and private contractors doing work on
municipal grounds, a wage of at least $16.74 per hour. Below
are some highlights from that campaign along with an
ongoing campaign for municipal living wage in Ottawa.

Throughout the start of 2010 BC ACORN focused on holding a Living Wage Forum in New
Westminster. Over 80 people came out to hear speakers from ACORN Canada, Councillor Jamie
McEvoy, the CCPA, and Living Wage for Families.

In January, Ottawa ACORN members and other community allies held delegations at the city’s
Community and Protective Services committee which passed a vote to send our living wage
campaign as part of the city’s proposed Poverty Reduction Strategy to council in February. Over
30 members attended.

In September, Ottawa ACORN members held a Living Wage Forum at City Hall, with over 100
people in attendance.

Mechanicsville members and members from across Ottawa hosted a press event at Cycle Logik
in December, asking business owners to sign onto the living wage campaign. Owner Ian Fraser
signed onto the campaign and encouraged other business owners, regardless of how big or
small, to support the campaign and hang our sign that says “I Pay a Living Wage”.

January 15th, 2010

 Organizing Communities, Changing Lives: ACORN Canada Year End Report

National Affordable Housing Strategy

In 2010, ACORN Canada worked closely with a number of

allied organizations and coalitions to support Bill C-304, a
private members bill that would call on the Federal
Government to create a National Affordable Housing Strategy
in consultation with the Provinces and Municipalities. Below
are highlights from this campaign.

On July 8th BC ACORN held a successful action with 40

members and allies outside the office North Surrey MP Dona
Cadman.

Also on July 8th Ottawa ACORN held a press conference at MP

John Baird’s office in support of Bill C-304 for a National Housing Strategy, receiving city wide
press coverage.

On Oct 20th Ottawa ACORN members joined several allies marched from Ottawa City Hall to
Parliament Hill as part of the Day of Action for a National Housing Strategy. We were joined by
Canada without Poverty, The Red Tents Campaign and others. We received excellent media
coverage and build strong partnerships with other national organizations.

Inclusionary Housing for Ontario

Inclusionary housing policies are municipal ordinances that

give developers of new housing stock trade-offs in exchange
for the creation of new affordable housing units. This year,
with support for the Wellesley Institute, ACORN Canada held
a number of leadership trainings and events aimed at
educating out membership about the advantages of these
policies.

On March 20th as part of a forum on housing in Toronto,

ACORN members called on the provincial government to bring in changes to the planning act to
allow municipalities to enact inclusionary housing policies.

On May 6th, ACORN Canada members from Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton met at Queen’s Park
in Toronto for a provincial lobby day. Throughout the day the members went to meetings with
their elected representatives, and urged MPPs to support measures to build affordable housing.

January 15th, 2010

 Organizing Communities, Changing Lives: ACORN Canada Year End Report

Toronto Tenant Organizing

Throughout the year Toronto ACORN has held a steadfast

approach of challenging and winning incremental changes
and improvement to Toronto’s Multi-Unit Residential
Apartment Building Audit and Enforcement Program (MRAB-
AEP). This program was won following a multi-year landlord
licensing campaign that exposed the dramatic shortcomings
of the city’s old reactive inspection program.

Toronto ACORN members took on the MRAB-AEP and won a number of victories, including $100
million worth of improvements to Toronto’s low-income rental housing stock, and restructuring
the program to prioritize building inspections in high priority areas.

On August 12th, Toronto ACORN members held a large ‘Tenants Vote’ assembly in St.
Jamestown, to bring housing concerns (including changes to the MRAB-AEP) to the attention of
the Toronto mayoral candidates. There were 80 participants as well as several Mayoral and
Council candidates.

Other Housing Campaigns

The March 20th Housing Forum in Toronto involved both

municipal and provincial politicians and attracted 100
participants; it produced two recommendations: for the
provincial government to amend sections of the Residential
Tenancy Act to include stronger enforcement on landlords,
amendments to the Planning Act to allow for mandatory
inclusionary zoning; and for municipal improvements to the
MRAB-AEP program.

On September 10th ACORN in New Westminster (BC) held an action to stop the ‘reno-viction’ of
some ACORN members. The main demands were calling on the Provincial Government to
change the Residential Tenancy Act to prevent landlords from doing this form of eviction and
demanding the primary target stop all evictions.

Guildford ACORN Tenants Association held a rally on Nov 30th outside of Wall Financial
Corporations Maple Place Apartments where many ACORN members live. The rally was
demanding repairs be made inside of units and in common areas of the complex as well as an
immediate stop to all harassment by management.

In June, Ottawa ACORN won a tenant hotline for the community to escalate calls to by-law
infringements in the area, ensuring faster enforcement from the city. Our members received
national press coverage on the victory.

January 15th, 2010

 Organizing Communities, Changing Lives: ACORN Canada Year End Report

Disability Rights Group

The DRG is a member-driven initiative, founded by BC ACORN on February 18th. This year they
have gained headway on the Community Volunteer Supplement campaign, which won the
support of the provincial NDP.

Free Income Tax Sites

The FITS Project is not simply a tax preparation program, but

a strategy to create a storefront and a community presence
for ACORN's economic justice efforts. We prepare taxes for
low and moderate income families and link them with
unrealized benefits and underutilized services such as the
GST credit, CCTB, the Canadian Employment Credit, and
financial literacy classes.

The cornerstone of this work is our targeted outreach campaign. ACORN Canada outreach staff
and trained community leaders go door-to-door talking with families and asking a series of
questions to determine whether families filed taxes, meet the criteria for other benefits
eligibility, and/or used a commercial tax preparation service or a rapid refund loan, and at what
cost.

City Taxes Back Years Estimated Savings versus Total Returns Plus
Prepared Taxes Prepared Corporate Tax Preparers Savings
Metro 1800 666 $162,000.00 $2,533,152.00
Vancouver
Ottawa 663 140 $59,670.00 $923,681.00
Toronto 100 28 $8,800.00 $1,498,406.00
Total 2563 834 230,470.00 $4,955,239.00

January 15th, 2010