WHO THEY ARE
Katarokwi Union of Tenants (KUT) is a group of people dedicated to improving the state of housing and rental tenure in the Katarokwi-Kingston region.
Through increasing awareness via locally-produced media, direct action, conducting research, public outreach, assisting tenants in their situations, and challenging our political institutions, we strive to make our neighbourhoods more affordable, equitable, just, and accessible for the working class and marginalized/dispossessed peoples.
Thousands of local Kingstonians are paying more than 50% of their income towards housing, some living homeless. KUT is working to create an inclusive housing landscape, and building a voice for people’s rights.
If you have any questions, need help with a tenancy issue, or have a story to tell please send us a message and one of our members will gladly be in touch.
Interview with the Tenant's Union
What is your group's objective?
To eliminate homelessness, to have everybody in decent housing.
What are your biggest wins as a group to date? What are you most proud of, in this organization?
I don't know if it's a big win, but kind of exposing people who are in power in the city, who, what their interests truly are when it comes to rents and tenants. Is it truly for the tenants or is it for their own personal gain? So like when you all found out about Jordan Murali and things like that, exposing the truth. Exposing corruption of politicians and city staff is what puts pressure on them to provide housing solutions even if they're inadequate and how we are ahead of other small cities (we have ICH and and new warming centers and shelters) because of that.
We'd like to take some credit for a lot of shelters being open, and for the encampment not being cleared. We called for people to come out and defend tents on a few occasions and people came out. Cops would have had to confront us. We have an alternative housing policy developed.
We supply homeless people with food, clothing, batteries and other things. We're supplying them with materials to read and treating them as human beings.
How can the community support you?
Food. We need cooks, to feed the people, we need volunteers to go with us into buildings and talk to tenants about bugs, if we had more volunteers that we could go door knocking into social housing units, and mobilize those people to push the Social Housing Administration to democratize and to start asking for money. What needs to happen is there needs to be a mini revolution within social housing to overturn the current administration and replace it with tenants who will fight. We also want social media savvy people that have ideas about how to get a word out and donations and kind all that stuff, like anything.
Contact the Tenants Union:
+1-613-328-1938
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