DNC Monthly General Meeting Minutes, September 8th, 2012

DNC Monthly General Meeting Minutes, September 8^th, 2012 held at 111 West Hastings

Chair: Ann Livingston,  Minutes: Jada Martinson

Opening by John Skulch

Ann apologizes about the glitches with the venue. We are getting the meeting started late because a rumor went out that the meeting was cancelled. People may have been turned away. DNC was told we can no longer use the Dodson Hall at the Dodson Hotel on Hastings for our meetings. We appreciate if anyone had ideas for venue space that can fit about 100 people. Please get in touch with DNC

Irwin Oostindie welcomed DNC members to W2 Media Café. W2 is people-powered, mostly run by volunteers who care about making positive change happen. 

Meeting AGENDA

1. Opening/ welcome new members (John Skulch, Ann)
2. DNC purpose (Roland) and How to join the DNC (Ann)

Committee Reports

3. Street Market (Roland, DJ)
4. Police Committee (Ann, Rob)
5. Shelter Committee (Roland, Jacek)
6. LAPP (Rob)

Guests

7. Vancouver Renters Union

Tristan Markle, Maria Mallstam, Kim Hearty

8. Poor Man’s resource Society

Tina Marie Tomashiro

9. Discussion
10. Announcements
11. Closing

*Motion to accept agenda made by Rob Morgan and seconded by Fred. Charles abstained. Motion Carried

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1. John Skulch opened the meeting.
2. Ann explains that quorum is present. The tiny stipend of $3 is to be distributed at the end of the meeting. Our meeting goal is to have a discussion about being a renter in the downtown eastside. There are a lot of issues about various renter situations in the DTES due to tenants in Special Needs Housing and SROs believing they have no tenant’s rights. We hope that the Vancouver Renters Union will help us get informed and organized. There is a table to join the DNC and VRU at the back.  

Roland read the DNC Constitution

3. Street Market Report

• Street market issues were discussed at the DNC board.  
• The City Permits expired over a year ago and the City has been bringing complaints to the Street Market Committee and we kept holding the Street Market. We now are fully legal with permits as of yesterday. Permits are for one month to be renewed each month. There are two Permits; 1 to vend in the park and another to block Carrall Street. We’ll keep renewing the permit every month
• We don’t have the resources (workers and money) to hold a Market more than one day  a week
• There has been an ongoing attempt by the City to move us to a small lot on Hastings Street. We are in ongoing negotiation. We can’t set up a viable market in that lot (empty lot right beside Pigeon Park Savings). Even the PHS garden lot on Hastings isn’t as good as Pigeon Park for a Market. Pigeon Park is perfect because it intersects and brings together Gastown, Hastings Street and Chinatown - we want to solidify it.
• We had a series of meetings with the City, there are some issues with the east side of Carrall, and we will try to resolve it. We put the signs up not to vend on the east side of Carrall, if it works great, if not we will keep working on solutions.
• We have weekly meetings to talk about the street market issues as the Street Market Committee. We also welcome street venders and volunteers to come each Saturday at Jacobs Well at 239 Main Street at 9 AM sharp to secure volunteer positions, to suggest improvements and to resolve market conflicts.

DNC Member comments that there are many DTES people who are vending there but there are outsiders setting up who aren’t from the neighbourhood and who may not need the money. It’s upsetting

Roland agrees it is a concern; we need to come up with a long term plan on how to deal with this. Venders will come from all over because it is a good market

Ann suggests we may create a street market membership that you have to have to have priority to vend as a way to ensure the spirit of market which is to protect DTES people from bylaw tickets. The Street market will not give up the social justice origin of the DTES market. To control who vends in the Pigeon Park/ Carrall Street space, the City needs to come up with some real money to help us make it a great market as it will take some properly paid staff to do this. The Market Committee the volunteers and the venders work to solve all these things. Please let us know what you think the issues are and tell the interim coordinator. The venders will have their own meeting this fall and we plan to meet before the market opens on a cold miserable Sunday.

DNC Member asks if the street market was formed for the downtown eastside?

Ann agrees and points out that the market is already very labour intensive and underfunded, so we need help from the City as in funding especially if we ensure each vender is a “member” of the street market, and then we can limit the people on site to DTESers. If these DTES vender members have some control the space then they can solve some issues together with the volunteers. Keep bringing your ideas to these meetings and to the DNC Board which meets most Thursdays from 5:30 to 8 or  9…. at 239 Main St. There is also a street market committee, talk to Dave Murray, Roland, Jacik or Ann. Wendy is ill, she’s had to step back from her work on medical leave for a number of months. She has heart issues and is to avoid all stress. It is not easy to get Wendy to take a break so please help her stay away until she is cleared to return.  

Roland explained that there has been some tension between the Sunday Street Market and the illicit drinkers in Pigeon Park. It is important that we ensure that the street market is not anti-illicit drinkers. Drinkers are welcome at the street market

DJ explained an incident about 2 weeks ago where a girl started spitting on venders, and flashing younger boys and that’s not why we’re there. We didn’t want to call the police, but we had to.

4. Police Report

Ann explained that there is a group called Vancouver Copwatch that meets at her house on Fridays. For about 5 years the DTES residents and DTES service agencies were having a tough time getting the police to even meet with the community. So the DTES has the VPD setting priorities for enforcement and deployment without input from the community. Many BEAT Enforcement Team (called the BET) VPD members will not even talk to cop watchers. Seems the VPD will only meet with agencies involved in Sisterwatch. So we have no input to VPD which is unfair and frustrating. If you have police incidents, we offer people emotional support. We also want to ensure DTES residents know that there is a certain behaviour the police should adhere to. If they do not, please approach Copwatch and Jenn Allen will help, and follow through

Rob recounted a police incident last Welfare night at 9pm. Two officers grabbed him from behind, did a 2 man take down (knee on back, knee on head) and crushed the rock he had purchased, ran his name over the registry and then let him go. He asked why they were doing this to him and they said they were told to get the Indians off Hastings Street. Jen helped him identify the police office and file a formal police brutality complaint. Rob is grateful for support from VANDU and the DNC.

5. Shelter Report

Roland explained that the shelter committee formed in January this year because people have no rights in shelters. If the staff screws with you, there is no complaints procedure and the Shelter committee formed to understand what action could be taken. Through Freedom of Information, he got the budgets for many shelter to understand just how much BC Housing money is coming into these shelters. Many are $100 per bed and BC Housing could buy you a condo for that! The shelter committee uncovered a horrible shelter system and is building a campaign against the lack of oversight, and against the “shelter shuffle” where people move from shelter to shelter for years. Seems the shelters do not publicize the fact that there are not enough social housing available for shelter residents to go and that shelters are getting 10 times  the welfare rate have people in shelters! It is unfair that shelter operators could use this information to build a good campaign and do not. If a person advocates on behalf of someone in a shelter they call the police to remove them from their property! Independent advocates should have the right to help people who are in shelters. The shelter committee is fighting for basic rights of people in homeless shelters

DNC Member - suggests we need media support to communicate these shocking facts to the public

As part of the shelter committee’s campaign, we might put together a fact sheet and get the media to take some of the bullets. Roland feels strongly that you can’t just treat people like cattle.

6. LAPP

The Local Area Planning Process has begun and many workshops have been held in August and September including Our Homes, Our Livelihoods, Our Places and Our Well-being.  Rob Morgan is working on a Racial Profiling Sub Committee which is meeting upstairs here at W4 at 9:30 AM on Tuesday Sept. 10^th 

A whole bunch of information is presented but not a lot of people are attending.

7. Vancouver Renters Union (VRU) Presentation

Tristan Markle, Maria Mallstam, Kim Hearty made a presentation with power point presentation and a skit.

(VRU’s Mission is “to organize all Metro Vancouver renters into a union capable of determining housing rights, rents, and stability through collective bargaining and political action, including petitioning, picketing, and rent strikes, as well as through conversion of the city’s housing stock to resident-controlled, not-for-profit cooperatives.” Vancouver rents are severely unaffordable. Rents continue to rise faster than incomes. Individually, there is little renters can do to get rents under control. But together, united, we can get them under our control. The renters union is a vehicle for safeguarding against unjust rent increases and for collective bargaining with landlords. Vancouver renters are in a precarious position, and are displaced by the market far too often. Through the renters union we can organize for long-term renter security. United we are strong, divided we compete against each other and are exploited. Rents will be high, and tenure security will be poor, if each renter stands on their own. But together we can gain sovereignty over rights and rents. The Renters Union recognizes that some renters are more marginalized than others, and seeks to ensure that there are no second-class renters.)

VRU started organizing in January of this year and have done a lot. We started this union because 55% of people of Vancouver are renters. 20% of these people pay more than 30% of their income on rent. The DNC is one of the best resident organizations in the community and although we work across the City, the epicenter of the crisis is the downtown of eastside where we are seeing people evicted from their units. When people try to fight this, they don’t have the resources to fight through the legal channels. There are some organizations that will give you information about your rights but if you need someone to represent you, we do that, and there are advocates. We go building to building, door to door, working to organize unions inside their buildings. It’s kind of like a trade union, if you bargain together, you can get bargain collectively, fight rent increases together, go on strike together, and we’re working on this. We have ambitious goals; we need lots of help and have had some successes in Mount Pleasant. Maria is from Sweden and there are renters unions there. If landlords want to make renovations, they would have to consult with the tenants because they will be using tenant’s money to do the renovations. The landlords have to be accountable, because we are the ones paying the rent; they need to be accountable to us. You can also file formal disputes with the renters union. Even in Vancouver there is a long history of rent strikes. People forget, and they don’t get media attention. The (SROs) single room occupancy hotels tenants should have the same rights as any other building; even if they are publicly or privately owned and run. Guest’s fees are completely illegal in SROs and we would work with you to challenge hotels that still charge them. The precedents have been set; there have been some legal cases where people have fought the guests in building, and won. You can contact us if you wan t to organize your building. A lot of these housing providers are trying to control the tenants by saying they are special needs facilities and you can successfully dispute your tenant agreement you signed agreeing NOT to have overnight guests for instance.

DNC Member points out that we’re looking at a City with less than 1% vacancy rate

Maria and Tristan point out that when you do things as a group, you are more powerful and can win.

DNC Member states that there is organized bullying in the housing system and sometimes you get people living on the same floor as you who undermine the efforts of the tenants to get organized. They are working “with the landlords” and won’t get together to form a union

Ann thinks we should try one building because success breeds success

DNC Member points out it should be mandatory that the landlords change the locks of the units when a new person move in

DNC Member asks how many people do you need in a building to make a union? At least half?

Rob recounts organizing in the Washington Hotel where the tenants had dinners and lunches together and that started working for us until I was offered an apartment at Woodward’s which I took

Tristan says there is no framework for tenant unions right now, yet and that’s why we’re here

Ann says in rent strike, tenants put their money in a separate bank account and refuse to pay the landlord but when you’re on welfare, welfare sends the rent directly to the landlord and that makes a rent strike almost impossible. But if everyone doesn’t pick up their welfare cheque, then welly can’t pay the landlord. It is interesting that even in the social housing landlords are putting strike breaking tenants on certain floors so they can’t form a union. I live in a co op and the Co-ops are creating more rules so they can kick out subsidized members because the subsidy $ is dried up and the people on subsidy are a new burden even thought they paid for decades. Also welfare in the DTES has a policy change in January 2012, and they pay the landlord directly and NEVER pay the welfare recipient who then pays the landlord. So you are never allowed to write your own cheques to pay rent

12. Poor Man’s Resource Society

Tina Marie Tomashiro is organizing at Woodward’s to standup for the rights of people in the downtown eastside She has an Open house every Sunday, unit 608, in WWDs every

She is also putting together a survey of all downtown eastside businesses who are working with downtown eastside residents.

She is hoping to organize people who can follow through and protect people and points out “I can’t fight my own rights unless I have other people with me”

Both Tina and Roland were disappointed that Pivot did not help with legal issues for people in shelters or help tenants being certified and taken to hospital psych wards. Welfare continues to pay rent.

Tina points out the Rain city building she visits doesn’t demand picture ID to visit a friend and the workers are polite and kind.  So not all NGO’s are shitty. She also remembers that an agreement was made with the woodsquatters that tenants are allowed to form a tenants Council in Woodward’s!  But Tina has been unable to get permission to use the common room in Woodward’s on the 10^th floor to hold meetings of such a tenant’s council so uses her room.  We can start from here.

Ann instructs people to please sign up with VRU and DNC if you want to form a tenants union in your building

Rob just moved into the Woodward’s and feels confident he can build a union there.

Rob is a member at-large on the LAPP, I have a low-income seat on this committee and because of an incident in Pigeon Park where 2-3 cops went to Pigeon Park and kicked-out all the natives. Someone got their badge numbers and now we are asking them about racial profiling. I’m part of the LAPP; we’re going to have a racial profiling meeting on Tuesday Sept 10^th at 10am

Announcements

Irwin announces the 10^th anniversary celebration for Woodsquart is on in the Atrium at Woodward’s for 90 days

Irwin is aware that Ivan specifically wasn’t happy with DNC meeting in W2 space and will invite Ivan here to debate it so the air is cleared

Ann was instructed to announce the Sunday Annual Triage BBQ at 1:30 PM

The meeting organizers Ann Livingston, Les Murray, Roland Clark and Jacek Lorek were thanked for the making the coffee and cookies and for donating the ingredients.  

Motion to adjourn meeting.

Lorna Bird closed the meeting with a moment of silence.