Mourning loss of affordable housing in London

Members of London Acorn hold a mock funeral procession for affordable housing on April 18, 2024. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)

A mock funeral procession wound its way through London to lament the loss of affordable housing.

Members of London Acorn chanted slogans and called for urgent action from all levels of government to prevent the loss of affordable housing units.

“Affordable housing is decreasing but it doesn’t have to,” said Nawton Chiles as people marched through the SOHO neighbourhood. “The messages for the city [is] we are very supportive of their actions against renovations and we hope that they continue and make it very strong. The messages is also for the province who has gotten rid of rent control for buildings built after 2018.”

 

Acorn is calling on the provincial government to have rent control that

• Applies to all buildings (not just those built prior to 2018)
• Include vacancy control to stop significant rent increases on vacant units
• Ban AGIs (Above Guideline Increases) that circumvent existing rent control measures by passing the costs of capital expenditures onto tenants

The funeral procession toured SOHO and Hamilton Road to highlight housing that’s been lost to renoviction or neglect.

Participants in the funeral procession shared eulogies of their lost homes.