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Please SIGN the petition for the House of Commons "HUMA" Committee  to IMMEDIATELY summons landlords with their DATA regarding net operating income, profits and strategy to appear before the "HUMA" Committee.  State in the COMMENT the landlord(s) you would like to be summoned!  You don't have to be a tenant of a landlord to SIGN the petition - anyone in CANADA can SIGN the petition as predatory financialization of housing is HARMFUL to communities - as per the presentation of the Federal Housing Advocate on May 9, 2023 - WATCH on "ParlVU".

• "HUMA": House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.
• Canada's five largest REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS** have said that they will be "active participants" in the Reviews in their letter dated October 31, 2022 to the Right Honourable Prime Minister Trudeau.  **Canadian Apartment Properties REIT (CAPREIT)​;  Boardwalk REIT​;  Killam Apartment REIT​;  InterRent REIT;  and Minto Apartment REIT.  See that they are working together at: https://foraffordable.ca/. 
• The grocery store CEOs were summoned to the House of Commons to address accusations of profiteering:  CEOs of Loblaws, Sobeys agree to appear before parliamentary committee investigating food prices, if asked - Toronto Star - February 17, 2023.

WATCH the short VIDEO:  'Housing is a human right':  Albertans rally for better housing supports - CityNews - May 7, 2023.  (See photo ABOVE. If a black bar appears in video, you can remove it by turning captions off - CLICK "CC" at bottom right of video.) "Organizers demonstrated how rent keeps rising above inflationary cost in what they are calling a 'predatory' financial housing system."  See the  Alberta Cares! Alberta Rallies for Housing spearheaded by Pastor Mike Van Boom of Edmonton Interfaith Housing Society and Anne Landry  - a Calgarian for HOUSING is a HUMAN RIGHT (CLICK "View Details) - as the lead contact for the Alberta Cares! Calgary Housing Rally that was held on Sunday May 7, 2023.

The Federal Housing Advocate is now speaking of "Canada's housing emergency".  See about Calgary's growing housing emergency in my (Anne Landry) OPINION in the Kerby News 50+ - May 2023 Issue, page 17.  In Alberta there are few protections for renters - whether they are existing or NEW tenants.  As per the Alberta Residential Tenancies Act landlords can raise rents by as much as they wish one time per year.

Research before the Federal Housing Advocate reveals that Corporate investment in housing is linked to unaffordable rents, evictions, and long-term care deaths.  The research also confirms that financialization of housing is having the greatest impact on disadvantaged groups, such as vulnerable seniors, low-income tenants, people with disabilities, members of Black communities, recent immigrants and refugees, and lone-parent families.

Rents continue to rise faster than wages and faster than operating costs of landlords!  Homelessness is surging all over Alberta and across Canada!

• If landlords' operating costs are approximately $500 per month per rental unit or LESS, why are rents double, triple or MORE?  
• If landlords' operating cost increase is approximately $20 per month rental unit per, why are rent increases 10 X or MORE?
• Landlords with headquarters in Calgary, ALBERTA include:  Boardwalk REIT​;  Mainstreet Equity Corp.​;  Avenue Living; and Calgary Housing Company (The City of Calgary).
• What about Aimco​, Chartwell​, Extendicare​, Revera and others?

A Review of Financialization of housing, RENT GOUGING, RENOVICTIONS and MORE started in the House of Commons "HUMA" Committee on Tuesday May 9, 2023.  The Federal Housing Advocate  - Marie Josée Houle -  requested the Committee to call industry witnesses to account for their practices that undermine housing affordability, security of tenure and habitability and to come with DATA about their strategies and their profit margins. 

My name is Anne Landry.  I am a Calgarian for HOUSING is a HUMAN RIGHT! (CLICK "View Details").  Perhaps YOUR STORY is similar to MY STORY.  This year, it seems that I am AGAIN being rent-gouged by Boardwalk REIT for $185 (17.4%) per month in two instalments – I loss my $65 per month rental incentive on January 1, 2023 and my rent increased by $120 per month as of May 1, 2023.  The Alberta Residential Tenancies Act only allows rents to be increased 1 time per year. See MY STORY in January 2020 in The Globe and Mail in which virtually the same rent increases occurred to me:  In Calgary, a builder emphasis on rental puts pressure on existing tenants – but Boardwalk REIT backed down then.

For the past more than 25 years I have rented the same 1 Bedroom and Den Apartment from Boardwalk REIT in the Beltline in Calgary.  I have a disability (post traumatic stress). I have been unemployed in my career since the 2015 recession. I will soon be of retirement age.  I have paid Boardwalk over $300,000 in rent over the past more than 25 years – I want my investment protected - I would like to age-in-place in peace and dignity in my apartment and community where I have long lived.  I have had to spend much time, effort, cost and stress – often in the media -  trying to ensure my apartment is AFFORDABLE, the terms of my lease are UPHELD and my apartment is SAFE.

It is MORE than TIME for HOUSING is a HUMAN RIGHT!  IT'S THE LAW.  LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND!

Canadians have the right to adequate housing as per the National Housing Strategy Act, 2019 and International Law (United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and as upheld in the highest courts in CANADA - see  [2020 SCC 5 (CanLII) | Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya | CanLII]  - “International human rights norms …(are) moral imperatives and legal necessities”.

The right to adequate housing includes:  affordability; accessibility;  security of tenure – including protection against forced evictions, harassment and other threats;  habitability – safe and healthy; availability of services, materials, facilities & infrastructure;  location to provide access to key services;  cultural adequacy. See the Right to Housing 101 by the National Right to Housing Network.

Of course, RENT CAPS – HOUSING is a HUMAN RIGHT! See COVID-19 and The Right to Housing:  Impacts and the way forward - A/75/148 – Mr. Balakrishnan Rajagopol, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing.

LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND!

• Allocate sufficient resources.
• Halt forced evictions.  End sweeping of encampments;  house the homeless.
• Provide subsidies for renters & small landlords.
• Ensure no one pays more than 30 per cent of household income.
• Constrain private equity firms as landlords.
• Consider rent caps and protect renters (with landlord licensing, DATA tracking…)
• In order to address effectively marginalization and discrimination in relation to housing, data disaggregated by race, gender, caste, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity must be collected and shared publicly.
• And MORE!

So please SIGN the petition for the House of Commons "HUMA" Committee to IMMEDIATELY summons landlords with their DATA regarding net operating income, profits and strategy to appear before the "HUMA" Committee.  State in the COMMENT the landlord(s) you would like to be summoned! 

We can do this together!  Thank you!