OCRAP Taking To The Streets Once Again

But the strange thing is there is not one mention of that stalwart defender of the downtrodden.....John Clarke. Has he been removed from a leadership position?

Vote by crowbar
OCAP heads to Miller’s door, pushing for City takeover of vacant buildings
By MIKE SMITH

I'm not saying David Miller's house isn't nice. It's just not as mayoral as I'd expected. But, then, all the lights are out. Oh, and it's surrounded by police, as Ontario Coalition Against Poverty supporters cap a bracing night of break-and-enter with a visit to the mayor.

It's November 9, four days before an election that's seen little talk of poverty. As OCAP's Mike Desroches puts it, activists have spent the evening "voting with their crowbars," occupying a building long abandoned (eight years) across from High Park.

This is part of a campaign for a "use-it-or-lose-it" bylaw that would prevent developers from sitting on property while folks freeze.

"We will fight Miller as the mayor who promised to build housing but didn't," declares OCAP organizer Sarah Vance. Really? Vance has always been a gifted speaker, but I wonder if someone packed the wrong rhetoric.

Miller certainly hasn't turned out to be the anti-poverty advocate some hoped for, but 900 affordable units this year and an Affordable Housing Office are nothing to sneeze at.

Of course, compared to the overall problem thousands of households on the affordable housing waiting list it's just a start, and a late one. No time for a laurel nap.

But little as well for old posturing. "We got a 2 per cent raise on our bloody welfare rate, now we're casing your houses for the other 38," chants the crowd. All this speaks to a complex reality, in which the province holds assistance and housing dollars while developers hold properties and the city deals, sagely or savagely, with the consequences.

Sewage is rising