City Council candidate Sean Orr demands B.C. government roll back the rent hike

August 19, 2022 

City Council candidate Sean Orr demands B.C. government roll back the rent hike 

With tenants at risk of 5-6% rent hikes next year, VOTE Socialist's candidate demands government restore Rent Freeze

VANCOUVER, B.C.: With a decision on next year’s rent hike rate expected in the coming weeks, Vancouver City Council candidate Sean Orr is calling on B.C. NDP leadership candidates Anjali Appadurai and David Eby to voice support for rolling back the expected 2023 rent hike. 

“Billionaires like Chip Wilson have seen their fortunes balloon in the past couple of years, but somehow it’s always workers and renters who are supposed to tighten their belts to fight inflation,” says Sean Orr, who is running for city council with the support of Vancouver’s newest elector organization, VOTE Socialist. 

Under the current B.C. rent hike formula, which ties annual increases to inflation, tenants could face a 5% or 6% rent hike next year. And there is no rent control at all when a tenant moves out and a new one moves into the unit. 

“The B.C. government protects a landlord's investment by tying rent to inflation but offers public sector workers a pathetic 1.5%. And we wonder why we are in crisis mode?” says Orr. “Our government’s priorities are backwards. I guess that’s what we can expect when so many of our MLAs are landlords.” (SOURCE: https://readpassage.com/politician-landlords/)

Sean Orr is also calling on the candidates to be the next B.C. Premier to support vacancy control, a form of rent control that many tenants’ rights groups advocate for and that used to exist in B.C. 

“Vacancy control, in which rent control limiting rent hikes is applied to the unit of housing not just individual tenancies, also needs to be applied in Vancouver and across the province,” says Orr.  

The municipal government in Vancouver has applied vacancy control to a percentage of units in some mixed-income rental developments and has attempted to apply it to SRO housing units. 

VOTE Socialist’s platform includes a number of local policies for stricter rent control. In addition to applying all possible measures locally, Sean Orr is committed to using his seat at City Hall to be a megaphone for those demanding changes to tenancy law that require provincial government action. 

“The pandemic isn’t over and B.C. has the highest excess deaths in the country. And the dire consequences of the housing crisis are clear for all to see. We need to bring back the rent freeze for at least another year while wages catch up to inflation.” says Orr.  

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