Tenants Association launches in the NWT

The Tenants Association Northwest Territories, a new organization which will advocate for tenants’ rights and help renters navigate the legal system, officially launched this week.

Representatives can be reached by email or through the group’s social media page.

The non-profit’s priorities are to protect tenants from illegal evictions and landlord retaliation, ensure major repairs are completed on time, and advocate for rent stabilization.

Founder Lisa Thurber, who spoke to Cabin Radio about the association in December, was born and raised in the Northwest Territories and said her own experience with the housing in the territory compelled her to organize.

“I was raised and I have lived in inadequate, overcrowded housing for most of my life,” said Thurber. “If I can’t, as an educated Aboriginal female, manoeuvre a department to get fair and adequate housing and repairs to housing, then how can a normal person living in poverty do it?”

Thurber has worked with a number of organizations to form the Tenant’s Association, from Ontario-based Keepers of the Circle and the Women’s National Housing and Homeless Network to equivalent rental associations in other provinces.

“I’m hoping within the next couple of weeks we’ll be able to do a wider media campaign, and set some solid dates on opening our virtual office which will include a hotline and an email,” said Thurber. “We will help you fill out those complaints to the rental office, we will help you gather evidence.

“We are ready to start gathering tenants together. We will be campaigning, we will be going from door-to-door, and we will be fighting for tenant rights.”