Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/10/2020
1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Categories
We are a group of folks who are interested in strengthening tenants’ rights in the city and the province through discussion, education, advocacy, organizing and direct action. We strive to be an active group, engaged in mutual aid and building community power around this issue.
We will definitely touch on all reasons that housing has become unaffordable – we need a NS living wage, increases to IA, better employment laws in NS, need to eliminate capitalism etc – BUT the immediate focus of the group is on building community capacity around Tenants’ Rights and Housing in HRM and NS. This focus is a spectrum and will include the issue of Homelessness as it is experienced by people in our communities.
While we hold these discussions we must be mindful that we are all searching for housing in Mi’kma’ki, the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. The group is based in K’jipuktuk (Halifax). It’s important that while we all struggle with housing, we acknowledge how ongoing colonization efforts and white supremacy create further barriers to housing for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour). We also acknowledge that “unlike the common colonialist definition of homelessness, Indigenous homelessness is not defined as lacking a structure of habitation; rather, it is more fully described and understood through a composite lens of Indigenous worldviews. These include: individuals, families and communities isolated from their relationships to land, water, place, family, kin, each other, animals, cultures, languages and identities. Importantly, Indigenous people experiencing these kinds of homelessness cannot culturally, spiritually, emotionally or physically reconnect with their Indigeneity or lost relationships.” (Jesse Thistle / Aboriginal Standing Committee on Housing and Homelessness, 2012)
No cops. No landlords. No white supremacists.
Solidarity!
Michelle
On behalf of the Halifax Tenants’ Union
