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Shelter, Housing and Homes

A Social Right

Arnold Bennett




Tenant populations in North America are in rapid decline with the trendy new rise of home ownership and condominium conversions. In Montréal where tenants make up an unparalleled 70% of the city centre population, Bennett and Québec tenant federations have united people of all classes, ages, languages and ethnic origins in the common cause of social justice, forcing governments to reinvent the law to provide them better protection. Since 1990, they have developed a housing hotline and weekly tenant advice clinics in five neighbourhoods.

Bennett has been at the centre of housing issues in Montréal for over 20 years. While on Council, he worked to strengthen the city's Housing Code, lobbied for changes to Québec's housing legislation and fought against loosening the restrictions on condo conversion.

This useful book, the result of much hands on experience, provides tools for understanding how any city can be made to work for its tenants.

Arnold Bennett also works as a translator. In 1989, he was nominated for the Governor General's translation award for The History of the Labour Movement in Québec. He has also translated Aboriginal Peoples.

URBAN STUDIES

193 pages, index

Paperback ISBN 1-55164-042-2 $19.99
Hardcover ISBN 1-55164-043-0 $48.99
L.C. No. 95-79357

Prices are in Canadian dollars in Canada and U.S. dollars elsewhere.
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@TITLE = Shelter, Housing and Homes @1PARA = This book's intention is to bring together documents, previously published in limited quantities, in a single volume to make them available to researchers, activists and the general public. @1PARA = It begins with an anecdotal and partial history of the fight for housing in Montr‚al, particularly since the 1960s, on the provincial and municipal political front, in the courts, and in the neighbourhoods. The facts and analysis are from the editor's experience as an observer and direct participant. Documents show the evolution of the main arguments behind the lobbying and community organizing efforts of the Qu‚bec tenant movement over the past decade: for a housing policy that serves the people who need it most; for mandatory universal rent control; for social housing; for a R‚gie du logement that works the way it should; and against cuts in social programs. @1PARA = Contained, as well, is a comparative analysis of the existing Ontario and Qu‚bec systems, with a review of their perspective histories; a review of the current debate in Ontario, based on documents supplied by the Federation of Metro Toronto Tenants' Associations and the Federation of Ottawa-Carleton Tenants Associations; and a chapter by Vanessa Geary and Leslie Stern of the Tenants Rights Action Coalition on rental housing issues in Vancouver. @1PARA = The book ends with a ten page appendix that lists web site address for tenant information throughout Canada and the United States. @PAGE = 236 pages @ISBN = Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-042-2 $19.99 @ISBN = Hardcover ISBN: 1-55164-043-0 $48.99 @CONTENTS = Table of Contents @AUTH = Part I: Qu‚bec 1 | A short (anecdotal and partial) history of the fight for housing in Montr‚al @AUTH = Arnold Bennett 2 | For real rent control @AUTH = RCLALQ 3 | For a Qu‚bec housing policy @AUTH = RCLALQ 4 | The R‚gie du logement: Autopsy of a fraud @AUTH = RCLALQ 5 | A critique of Montr‚al's Housing Code @AUTH = Arnold Bennett 6 | Housing and poverty in Qu‚bec: An indictment @AUTH = FRAPRU/PROUD 7 | The reform of the Civil Code: important changes for tenants @AUTH = Arnold Bennett @AUTH = Part II: Ontario and British Columbia 8 | Dispatches from the housing front: Ontario tenants take on the Harris government @AUTH = Arnold Bennett Rent control is necessary in Ontario @AUTH = Dan McIntyre, FOCTA Tory alternatives to the Rent Control Act @AUTH = Howard Tessler, FMTA A brief with respect to possible new tenant legislation @AUTH = FOCTA Eight myths about rent control in Ontario @AUTH = Tenant Advocacy Group, FMTA, and CLEO 9 | A comparative study of apartment rent control laws in Ontario and Qu‚bec @AUTH = Alexander X.S. Sabharwal 10 | Rental housing trends in the City of Vancouver @AUTH = Vanessa Geary and Leslie Stern Appendix: Tenant information on the Internet @1PARA = @1PARA = So study these documents. Use them to fuel your community action and your knowledge of the issues. Inform your neighbours and start putting pressure on the politicians. And if you detect some movement, keep on pushing! @1PARA = Arnold Bennett @TITLE = SHELTER, HOUSING, AND HOMES @TITLE2 = A Social Right @AUTHOR = Arnold Bennett -how to fight for a comprehensive housing policy -the link between housing & poverty -the case for universal rent control -the fraud of regulatory boards -new trends in legislation Tenant populations in North America are in rapid decline with the trendy new rise of home- ownership and condominium conversions. In Montr‚al where tennants make up an unparalleled 70% of the city centre population tenants have political clout unequaled in North America. Arnold Bennett and Qu‚bec tenant federations have united people of all classes, ages, languages and ethnic origins in the common cause of social justice, forcing governments to reinvent the law to provide them better protection. For the first time in English, Montr‚al housing activist Arnold Bennett tells the story and documents the fight of Qu‚bec's two tenant federations: People's Rights Over Urban Development (PROUD), and the Regroupement des comit‚s logements et associations des locataires du Qu‚bec (RCLALQ). Arnold Bennett, a Montr‚al City City Councillor for 12 years (1974-1978, & 1982-1990), has been at the centre of housing issues in Montr‚al for over 20 years. While on Council, he worked to strengthen the city's Housing Code, lobbied for chagnes to Qu‚bec's housing legislation and fought against loosening the restricitons on condo conversion. Since 1990, Bennett and his organization, "xxxx", have developed a housing hotline and weekly tenant advice clinics in five different neighbourhoods. Quote: "Housing plays a crucial role in the fight for social justice, because it literally hits people where they live." @PAGE = xxx pages @ISBN = Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-042-2$19.99 @ISBN = Hardcover ISBN: 1-55164-043-0$48.99 Publication Date: Social Work/Urban Studies