The Vancouver Tenants Union: A Fight for Housing Justice
- Eric Su
- Feb 18
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 29
Vancouver is a city where more than 50% of households are renters, yet tenants remain among the most vulnerable to displacement, rising costs, and landlord exploitation. The Vancouver Tenants Union (VTU), founded in 2017, has been at the forefront of tenant advocacy, using direct action, community organizing, and political pressure to demand housing justice. From fighting renovictions to supporting local tenant collectives, the VTU has become a critical voice in Vancouver’s housing movement.
Recent Actions by the Vancouver Tenants Union: Tenant Power in Action
The Mount Pleasant Chapter has been at the center of one of the most high-profile tenant fights in recent history, as the 1177 Tenants Collective launched a powerful campaign against a landlord attempting to demolish their homes to build foreign luxury condos. The campaign escalated over time with tenants sending letters of demands, launching a community campaign with large banners and public events, building support through media coverage including multiple articles and radio interviews, and mobilizing the community to send hundreds of letters to city officials and the landlord. After building pressure, the tenants secured a meeting with the landlord, and further escalated by organizing a phone zap, where tenants and supporters continuously called the landlord’s business for a week. The campaign demonstrated the power of organized tenant action in fighting against speculative real estate projects that threaten affordable housing.
Another major campaign was the Broadway & Carolina Campaign, where VTU members mobilized against proposed developments along the Broadway corridor that threatened to displace thousands of renters under the guise of urban renewal. The campaign focused on strategic targets, engaging existing networks to increase community participation while ensuring organizers were well-trained and provided with the necessary materials. The campaign maintained a structured timeline with clear escalation tactics to keep up pressure. Similarly, eviction defense has been a crucial focus for the West End Chapter. In 2023, the chapter organized a general meeting on eviction defense, held a major rally under the banner of “Plan A No Way,” and strengthened its local organizing through group chats, postering efforts, and media outreach. These efforts helped tenants resist landlord pressures and navigate the legal complexities of eviction defence.
The Broader Fight for Tenant Rights: How Vancouver Compares to Other Cities
The struggle for tenant rights in Vancouver reflects broader trends in global housing activism. Many countries have formalized tenant unions with legal powers to challenge landlords and regulate rent increases. In Sweden, for example, the Swedish Union of Tenants negotiates binding rent agreements with landlords, preventing excessive rent hikes and ensuring housing stability. Germany’s Mieterschutzbund provides legal support and advocacy for renters facing eviction. In contrast, British Columbia’s tenant protections remain fragmented and weak, with VTU members regularly battling against renovictions, caretaker evictions, and demovictions. While VTU continues to fight for stronger rent controls, cities like Burnaby have already implemented policies requiring landlords to top up rents for displaced tenants, a model that Vancouver has yet to adopt.
What’s Next for VTU? A Look Ahead
The Vancouver Tenants Union has ambitious goals for 2025, including strengthening tenant organizing in the West End and Mount Pleasant, expanding direct action tactics such as bailiff blocking, postering, and mobilization, and continuing their fight against renovictions to ensure the city enforces its promises. One of the key legislative fights ahead will be pushing for vacancy control, which would eliminate the financial incentive for landlords to evict tenants in order to reset rental prices. At the same time, VTU members acknowledge the challenges they face, including apathy among tenants who feel unions cannot help them, limited participation in public outreach activities, and internal struggles with onboarding and sustaining engagement in projects that are not specific to individual buildings.
One campaign to watch is the ongoing fight against luxury development at 105 Keefer, where VTU has been actively resisting a proposed high-end residential project. With increasing public pressure and tenant mobilization, the outcome of this campaign could set a precedent for future tenant activism in Vancouver.
The Vancouver Tenants Union remains one of the most influential forces in Vancouver’s housing movement. Through direct action, political advocacy, and tenant solidarity, VTU members continue to fight for housing as a human right while rejecting the idea that homes should be treated as commodities. With key battles ahead against demovictions, rising rents, and unjust evictions, the work of VTU is far from over. However, their recent successes show that when tenants organize, tenants win.
