CALLING ON MAYOR CHOW TO SUPPORT THE CALL FOR SOCIAL HOUSING AT DUNDAS AND SHERBOURNE.

230 Fightback is determined to prevent KingSett Capital, a major developer, from building a 47 storey luxury condo tower at Dundas and Sherbourne, right in the heart of a poor, working class community in desperate need of housing that its residents can afford to live in.

For years, people in the Downtown East have called for social housing to be built at 214-230 Sherbourne and the creation of yet more upscale housing at this location would be a terrible blow and a huge injustice.

Olivia Chow was elected on a promise to address real housing needs in this city. In upcoming months, vital decisions will be made with regard to 214-230 and we have called on her to put the needs of a low income community before the profits of developers. We have asked her to support social housing at this location and to publicly call on KingSett to open negotiations with City Hall to ensure that this happens.

We have written to Mayor Chow and even taken a delegation to her office to try and find out whether she will oppose KingSett’s plans. To date, we have received no clear indication of her intentions.

The struggle that is going on at 214-230 Sherbourne is a test case when it comes to the fight for housing that meets the needs of communities in this city. Surely a Mayor who agrees with this and who is ready to stand up to the developers would be anxious to support our demands. We are also quite certain that many of Olivia Chow’s supporters will be anxious for her to do the right thing in this matter.

We will continue to fight to stop KingSett’s destructive plans and to demand that Mayor Chow support our efforts. In the days ahead we will be asking for those who agree with us to take action in solidarity with the fight for social housing at Dundas and Sherbourne.

Thanks,

230 Fightback