Last night 230 Fightback, Toronto’s Homeless Union, No Demovictions, 135 Isabella Tenant Association, Shelter Housing and Justice Network, Regent Park Neighbourhood Association and Friends of Chinatown Toronto, stood outside the Royal York Hotel in the cold and rain for more than two hours confronting Toronto’s business elites as they arrived for a gala to honour Jon Love of KingSett Capital. Some of these gala guests paid up to $25,000 per table to attend!

Our message to Jon Love and his admirers was loud and clear – WE WON’T BE PUSHED OUT.

More than 70 people picketed the event. Speaker after speaker condemned Jon Love and his developer friends, who are speculating and buying up properties in poor neighbourhoods across the city, thereby contributing to one of the city’s worst housing crises and the displacement of poor people from their communities.

Last night, while gala guests were arriving in their limousines, hundreds of homeless people in Toronto seeking refuge from the cold were turned away from shelters. Last night, during the gala’s cocktail hour, hundreds of tenants across the city worried and stressed about the eviction they were facing as a result of demovictions, including residents at 135 Isabella, which is owned by KingSett Capital. Last night, while gala guests wined and dined, the abandoned properties at 214-230 Sherbourne, after sitting empty for more than 15 years, sat empty for another night in the middle of a housing crisis.

The message on our picket signs was clear. The city must meet the most basic emergency needs of its homeless population. No one must be turned away from shelters. Expropriate 214-234 Sherbourne. End demovictions. Build housing for people, not for profits.

All levels of government must contribute to building not-for-profit affordable social housing for its people. Local politicians have refused to take on developers, but we’re not afraid to take them on! Last night was an important start in building a movement against these heartless developers whose only motivation is profit.

We aim to mobilize and fight back against this greed.
To Jon Love and his rich business friends we say: HANDS OFF POOR COMMUNITIES!