On March 4, 2026, Minister Christine Boyle proposed sweeping new legislation to further erode the rights of tenants living in supportive housing, fundamentally undermining the legislative process and vesting virtually unfettered decision-making power in the hands of politicians and contracted housing providers.

Unceded and stolen Coast Salish lands – On behalf of an informal coalition of organizations and collectives in the DTES and Chinatown communities (“the Coalition”), we are sounding the alarm on the massive human rights implications of the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 – which, so far, the City of Vancouver has refused to adequately address.

A Street Guide for Your Rights & Responsibilities as a Tenant in SRO & Supportive Housing.

The City of Vancouver recently approved a temporary Bylaw in the lead up to the FIFA games in summer 2026. The Bylaw imposes sweeping restrictions, which the City promises it won’t actually enforce to punish residents’ ordinary activities. But how can we be asked to rely on the City’s own goodwill, especially when it has done nothing to assuage fears that FIFA will follow the playbook of past mega events by perpetuating displacement, dispossession, and harm for Vancouver residents?

MEDIA ADVISORY When: Monday October 16, 2023 at 8:30 AM Where: 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver, BC - Smithe Street entrance Who: Our Homes Can’t Wait (OHCW) members, Pivot Legal Society (PIVOT), and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA)

If BC is to implement provincial tenancy laws, those protections must be afforded to all renters, and courts must be attuned to the adverse impacts of carving out whole communities from tenancy rights that they are legally entitled to.

This fall PIVOT & OHCW will be at BCCA intervening in a case that will impact the applicability of RTA on people residing in non-profit, “supportive” housing. Learn more about this case by reading second part of a three-part blog series.

Pivot and OHCW will be at the BC Court of Appeal this fall intervening in an appeal of a judicial review of an RTB decision that found a tenant’s rental housing building, operated by Elizabeth Fry Society, to be transitional housing and therefore exempt from BC’s Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) – leaving the tenant without any legal protections under provincial tenancy laws We know that racialized communities, people on social assistance, sex workers, drug users and other marginalized communities, already face systemic barriers in accessing and maintaining permanent housing, and being carved out of the RTA’s protections would negatively impact housing and tenancy rights for marginalized groups

The City’s enforcement of this bylaw is constitutionally suspect, as it is being undertaken without due consideration of the human rights and social conditions of Hastings Tent City Residents.