Come out to City Hall, on Thursday, March 21! The developer KingSett Capital bought up the property at 214-230 Sherbourne well over a year ago, with the intention of building a luxury condo tower. 230 Fightback challenged this, confronting KingSett and demanding of City Hall that social housing be built there instead.

Under community pressure and, with the prospects for its investment not looking as solid as it had hoped, KingSett agreed in principle to sell the property back to the City. A delegation that we took to the office of Mayor Olivia Chow was told that she agrees with the idea of building housing on the site that will meet the needs of the community but it was clear that there was no firm plan of action to ensure the developer turns over the site.

KingSett is looking to get a high price for the property and cover the costs of its failed speculative venture at public expense. We are calling on the City not to accept this and to use its powers of expropriation and other measures to make sure the developer makes the site available.

KingSett has extensive dealings with City Hall and many of its profitable ventures are done in partnership with the municipal government. There must be no business as usual with KingSett while it sits on a location that is desperately needed for housing for the hard pressed Downtown East community.

This conflict with KingSett clearly shows the disastrous results of a system of providing housing that is controlled by developers and speculators. Olivia Chow was elected on a platform that featured real action to deal with this city’s housing crisis. Above all else, that requires giving up cosy dealings with developers and acting to meet the needs of communities.

Come out on the 21st and help us deliver that message loudly and clearly to Mayor Chow and the City Council.