On the 25th of March, John Horgan’s NDP government outlined their plan for dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic. The government’s plan was swiftly condemned by Lekwungen territory-based tenant advocacy organization Victoria Tenant Action Group, or VTAG. VTAG’s statement described some of the issues with Horgan’s proposal, most notably the complete insufficiency of their rent subsidy of $500 per month which would cover only a third of the average monthly rent in Greater Victoria.
I wanted to find out some more about VTAG’s issues with the government’s plan, so I reached out to VTAG member Ben Baird. Ben made it clear that not only is the $500 subsidy too little, but it is also too late. As it turns out, renters will only be able to even apply for the subsidy in mid-April, more than a month after the crisis hit BC, and the subsidy won’t even kick in until the beginning of May. The government would have been within its power to delay or cancel rent for the month of April, yet it did nothing. Renters have been struggling with a pre-existing housing crisis for years prior to COVID-19, and the meagre subsidy won’t be adequate to address the financial hardship of tenants living under excessive rent burdens, Ben says.
VTAG’s statement, released on March 27th, called for an immediate and full suspension of rent, mortgage, and utility payments, as well as further clarification around evictions the government has said will be allowed in so-called “exceptional cases.” Elaborating on these demands, Ben says that VTAG has called for a blanket rent suspension because it is the only solution that isn’t too little or too late for renters in BC. Ben gave his personal opinion on the call for mortgage payment suspension (though he made clear that opinions within VTAG may differ), saying that he sees small homeowners as different from big landlords. In his view it is divisive to the working class to call for a moratorium on rent but not on mortgage payments. On the topic of the “exceptional cases,” Ben explained that while the initial announcement was vague, the NDP government has made it clear that “problem tenants,” threats to a landlord’s investment, and health and safety concerns will be considered exceptions. In Ben’s view, any eviction that takes place in the midst of a public health emergency is itself a health and safety concern.
VTAG’s statement describes the NDP as “betraying its roots as a social democratic party.” I asked Ben what their response to this crisis has done to his faith in the NDP as a progressive force. While clarifying that he isn’t a scholar of NDP history, Ben did say that he is inspired by the party’s roots in the prairies. Despite this history and many years of voting for them, in January of 2019 Ben stopped voting NDP for good due to their active participation in the invasion of Wet’suwet’en. He sees their climate program as a failure, and the passing of UNDRIP followed by an armed invasion of sovereign indigenous territory as a gross betrayal. He says he will no longer be supporting them with his vote.
To conclude, I asked Ben more broadly what kinds of changes he would like to see in the housing sphere. He says there are diverse views within VTAG, but he personally believes social housing to be a desirable alternative to private ownership and rental tenure. He believes taxpayer funded government housing needs to be expanded and that we need more diverse forms of cooperative tenure. He also believes we should introduce collective ownership of apartment complexes. He emphasized how clear the pandemic has made the instability of Canada’s current housing model.
Ben and VTAG are not alone in their loss of faith in the NDP. In my organizing with the YCL I have time and time again met those who have come to understand the fundamental flaws and limits of a bourgeois social-democratic party. Over these past few years, the NDP has demonstrated in the spheres of indigenous rights, environmental justice, workers’ rights, crisis response, housing, and more that their loyalty is to the Canadian bourgeoisie, and that their supposedly working class politics are a mere pretence.
VTAG’s full statement can be found at the following url: https://www.facebook.com/1799605883387741/posts/3517357474945898
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