The Red Tent Campaign is a coalition of housing advocacy organizations and individuals, including the Right to Housing Coalition in Manitoba. On April 19 there will be a Red Tent Day of Action to draw attention to the critical housing shortage in Canada. Actions will take place in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

In Winnipeg the action will take the form of a March for Housing, culminating in a press release. The march will convene at the corner of Kennedy and York where there will be brief speeches pointing out a few of the issues that housing has to compete with for federal funding.

Timetable:

• Assemble at 10:00 A.M. at the corner of Kennedy and York
• March to IRCOM, corner of McDermot and Ellen, (look for the Red Tents!)
• Press conference at IRCOM with speeches by folks experiencing precarious housing
• Presentation of the Red Tent housing platform
• Presentations of the housing platforms of the major political parties by party spokespersons

Right to Housing Coalition will be sending a questionnaire to each party in advance of April 19 to determine their position on housing and homelessness. The questions read:

1. Do you support the adoption of a fully-fun ded national housing strategy which respects provincial jurisdiction?
2. Do you support maintaining the existing federal subsidies for social housing units in order to ensure that these units remain accessible to low-income households?
3. Do you support the continued and long term investment by the federal government in social housing? If so how much do you believe the federal government should be spending annually on creating new social housing, in light of the Red Tent Campaign recommendation to invest 2 billion annually?

In its most recent periodic review of Canada’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights characterized the state of homelessness and inadequate housing in Canada as a “national emergency.” Darcie Bennett, campaign coordinator with Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver which founded the Red Tent Campaign, stated “Despite warnings from the U.N. in 2007 that our housing and homelessness situation had become a crisis, we have seen little to no action from the federal government in coming up with a solution. It is time that all the parties weighed in and told the Canadian public just what they will do if elected”.

For more information on the Red Tent Day of Action and election questionnaire contact:
Clark Brownlee - clark_brownlee@mts.net or 488-1786
 

Red Tent is a joint campaign effort of more than 20 housing and homelessne ss organizations, including: Pivot Legal Society, CWP Advocacy Network, ACORN Canada, Impact on Communities Coalition, the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, et le Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), Right to Housing Coalition Manitoba