[van-announce] S Q U A T! NPA Your Time Is Up! {Oct22}

[Anti-Poverty Committee]

{please forward}


                        S  Q  U  A  T  !

           NPA YOUR TIME IS UP!   BUY IT OR GUARD IT!

Every night thousands of poor people are forced to squat in abandoned
buildings, parks, alleys or anywhere else hidden from the police.

On October 22 at 4pm, marching from Pigeon Park (Carral & Hastings), the
Anti-Poverty Committee calls for your solidarity to support a SQUAT!

NPA YOUR TIME IS UP! One year ago the NPA was elected with the promise to
purchase one building a year and convert it into social housing. We demand
that they do so immediately!

Come out and use your presence to defend those inside who are fighting for
the right to sleep in peace! Let the city know they have to BUY IT OR
GUARD IT!!



-backgrounder-

With the election of the NPA, social cleansing in the DTES has escalated.
Hotels have been purged of poor tenants and the buildings razed to make
room for condos. With more yuppies come more cops. And with increased
policing comes further displacement. People with no homes find no peace
running from police - because it is illegal to sleep in parks or alleys.

The wrecking balls of Olympic gentrification that are demolishing people's
homes in the DTES are an extension of the bulldozers of colonization that
destroy indigenous land. With this understanding we fight colonization in
our neighborhoods to support the struggles of communities throughout
unceded British Columbia.

The central demand of this squat is that the city must begin purchasing
back the hotels they have closed. We are not so naive as to believe that
city officials will betray their class interests and sell out the condo
developers. Rather we believe that with the power of a united movement we
can force the city to fulfill their election promises.

Throughout and following their election campaign, the NPA endorsed the
Homelessness Action Plan.  Among other things, the plan would have the
City purchase at least one SRO building a year and convert it into social
housing.

Since Mayor Sam Sullivan pledged his support for the Plan his council has
overseen the closure of a dozen hotels, the eviction of hundreds of
tenants and the removal of the Homelessness Action Plan itself!

At the time of the Homelessness Action Plan's public introduction and its
various 'community consultations' APC was present to voice our mistrust of
the city and to make suggestions to the community on how best to proceed
with a realistic policy at a grassroots level

We stressed that the only recommendations worth exploring with in the plan
where those buried in appendix B (the fine print of the fine print).
Appendix B is where the suggestions made by homeless persons themselves
are found. Their recommendations to ease the homelessness catastrophe whre
immediate squatter rights, rent control, tent cities and less policing of
poverty.

With the understanding that we can not rely on the capitalist system that
creates the conditions of poverty to end homelessness we wholeheartedly
affirm our support for those recommendations and demand that the action
plan be reinstated with those solutions set as policy.

Because the city refuses to take action on converting buildings we will!

We will help SQUAT a vacant building that has been closed by the city in
their campaign of Olympic gentrification. We expect that their response
will be to spend exorbitant amounts of money policing the building (that
they have promised to buy) and arresting homeless activists (whom they
have promised to house). It's our hope that your presence outside the
building will prevent the police from responding in their usual violent
manner.

NPA YOUR TIME IS UP!        BUY IT OR GUARD IT!         HOMES NOT GAMES!



-- 
The Anti-Poverty Committee is an organization of poor and working people,
who fight for poor people, their rights and an end to poverty by any means
necessary.  For more information on the Anti-Poverty Committee's on-going
campaigns, visit http://apc.resist.ca/home.  Contact us by e-mailing
apc at resist.ca or phoning 604-682-3276.

If you are able to donate financially to our legal defense or other
campaigns, deposits can be made directly into our account at any branch of
Vancity (account is listed under 'Anti-Poverty Committee).  Cheques or
money orders made out to the APC can be mailed to P.O. Box 1, 12 East
Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1N1.

                           UNITED WE WILL WIN!