HALT is a non-partisan community action group demanding that all levels of Canadian government address our current foreign money fuelled housing crisis.
Sign our petition demanding the BC government address this issue at Change.org
What We Believe:
- The BC government is avoiding the elephant in the room by focussing on peripheral issues rather than root cause, which is the unchecked flow of foreign capital fuelling our unsustainable housing crisis.
- That the BC government is conflicted in their interests as they are financially backed by numerous developers and real estate companies. Their campaign fundraising manager is Bob Rennie, “the condo king”, who believes that all the answers are in building more condos and guess what, he does not believe foreign capital is an issue. Wonder why?
- That “it’s not supply, stupid!”. The emphasis on supply as the answer serves the developers, but development has been happening at a record pace, so if supply was the answer, we wouldn’t be having this problem today. Condos tend to replace more affordable housing and many are sold to offshore buyers anyway. New supply is even sometimes marketed offshore before being made available to local buyers. The recent trend in house prices in Vancouver moved lock step with the devaluation of the Canadian dollar.
- That this housing crisis is driving people out of Vancouver and that this impacts the diversity and richness of our city by making it impossible for people of varying income levels to afford to live here.
- That this is an economic problem and not a racial problem. This issue impacts everyone in Vancouver and HALT rejects the smokescreen of racism to try to curtail conversation about addressing this problem which impacts everyone.
Check out our resource page for more links to articles and information about these issues.
What HALT is doing:
HALT is actively advocating for governments at all levels to address these issues. We are active in social media and have been featured in media locally and nationally. We also have launched a petition demanding that the BC government take action on foreign capital and party funding by corporations, many of whom are directly involved in real estate and development.
Our Open Letter to those who play the race card in the Vancouver housing affordability debate was published widely as a response to articles attempting to claim that racism is behind the efforts to address these issues. We’ve spoken with CKNW, CBC and The Globe and Mail on the topic. We are also active in the comments section across all media when articles are posted about these issues.
Please check out our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. You can also join the VanPoli Facebook group to join the discussion about all things related to Vancouver politics, particularly housing.
We are planning a huge protest in September where we hope to bring together all like minded groups and supporters to show the government that these issues will be the number one topic for the upcoming election. STAY TUNED FOR MORE INFO!
haltvancouver.org 