Dozens of low-income tenants will be rallying TODAY at NOON in front of CITY HALL to demand accountability. ACORN members will be having a Landlord License Scavenger Hunt where they will search for their landlord’s license, but only find rats, bedbugs, and mice instead!
The HRM M-100 Housing By-laws are meant to ensure that tenants live in safe and healthy homes. However, our currently complain-based bylaw inspection process favors derelict landlords. So Nova Scotia ACORN members are demanding that our municipal government implement landlord licensing – a policy so simple it’s remarkable it hasn’t been explored until now. Much like restaurant owners need to be licensed and inspected regularly to ensure they are meeting minimum standards, landlord licensing would ensure tenants are not living in slum conditions by requiring annual inspections.
“Bedbugs, cockroaches, mold…these have all become the norm. My building doesn’t even have a sprinkler system,” says Bonnie Barrett, Chair of Nova Scotia ACORN. “With landlord licensing tenants would have protection against slum landlords.”
Nova Scotia ACORN is an affiliate of ACORN Canada, a national anti-poverty organization with over 50, 000 low and moderate income members organized into 20 neighborhood chapters in 7 cities across Canada. We fight for tenants rights, regulations on money-lenders, and a living wage.
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