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Today, December 6th, over 30 ACORN members braved the frigid cold and rallied outside city hall right before the 2024 Ottawa City Budget vote to demand a significant allocation of $40 million for affordable housing! Co-Chair of the Central Ottawa ACORN Chapter Pascal Kakule was a dynamic force at the forefront of this rally and advocated for the crucial need for city councillors to act now and increase the affordable housing fund in the city budget to finally create some meaningful impact on the lives of Ottawa tenants. Read more here!
ACORN Kenya hosted a successful training session on the basics of community organizing for unions and NGOs at the Kariobangi Social Justice Center in Nairobi, and are planning the 2024 African Organizers Forum, slated for early next year. Members are also generating a report to ask the governor to include all the community schools in the urban settlement of Korogocho in their school food program, which would be a major win!
The Empowering Women in WPC Conference held at the YMCA in Mumbai, which addressed the various concerns of women in leadership, and ACORN India and SOSVA held a women waste picker collectives training meeting. Important campaigns in Dharavi continued for youth, including hygiene programs for menstruating young people, art education, and healthy nutrition programs.
ACORN’s Huddersfield group is set to officially launch following a successful fight to keep a family in their home. This summer, ACORN members in Huddersfield prevented the eviction of a newborn baby and her family from eviction! Alex and Jenny were expecting their third daughter, when they were served a Section 21 ‘No-Fault Eviction’ the same week their baby was due!Prior to that, they had made numerous complaints to their estate agents about faulty electrics, leaks, lack of heating and widespread damp, which lead their eldest to become hospitalised with asthma for a week!
Their repairs were not resolved, and shortly after a Kirklees Council report was submitted, Alex and Jenny were informed the landlord would be selling the house.A dozen Huddersfield residents, of all ages, marched down to Alex and Jenny’s agents to demand an extension to their tenancy, while 5-day old baby was settling in, and the most urgent of repairs seen to!In the 3 months of sustained action, the landlord sorted the most critical repairs, agreed to let them stay, and even attempted to increase their rent by 15% – which was quickly prevented! Eventually, Alex and Jenny managed to find a new home for their family, and left with their full deposit returned, totalling £714 won back.
To learn how we can fight for a better deal for ordinary people in Huddersfield, come along to our official launch event on Saturday, 14th October. RSVP here.
ACORN Canada took to the streets, organising a national day of action in 9 cities to put an end to sales of apartments to predatory landlords! And Ottawa ACORN are celebrating a massive victory in Manor Village. After 2 years of organising, they were able to force Smart Living Properties to withdraw their eviction notices and allow all tenants to stay in their homes!
OnEstEnsemble organized a protest with the eco-union of residents near the SOSUCAM sugar cane plantations. These residents’ crops of cassava, peanuts and yams were destroyed by SOSUCAM’s planes spraying pesticides. The residents gathered the destroyed crops and displayed signs in protest, demanding compensation.
Residents of the sugarcane plantations of the Somdiaa group, subsidiary of the French giant Castel, have been forced to uproot their production of cassava, peanuts and yams, destroyed in their fields by spraying pesticides by the company planes. Several have gathered to protest, and planned to pour their destroyed production in front of the Sosucam headquarters.
The victims demand that the company compensate them for the huge loss.
Organized in the eco-syndicate Riverains Ensemble, the peasants were already asking through a petition to stop air expansion, banned in France.
In a proactive move, the Committee of Géants has taken steps to assert its concerns. On Tuesday morning, a group of residents from the Géants Square decided to pay a visit to the local office of their social housing provider, Actis. Their purpose: to hand-deliver a letter to the responsible party, reminding the housing provider of its responsibilities in light of the consistently poor quality of services in the area .
FIVE THOUSAND people in temporary accommodation!
ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED council properties lying empty in Edinburgh.
SIX HUNDRED of these vacant properties are concentrated within the Lochend/Craigentinny/Restalrig community itself.
Last month, our affiliates at ACORN Birmingham demonstrated solidarity as we stood alongside our two members, Hetal and Tejas. They currently reside in a city center building and have recently received Section 21 ‘no fault’ eviction notices. Subsequently, it was revealed that the entire building was slated for sale, necessitating the eviction of all tenants in the process.
