Street Kin Struggles
Over the years, Red Braid has organized nearly a dozen tent cities in as many communities. We believe tent cities have a dual character – as survival spaces in a dangerous world where unhoused people have half the average life expectancy of the general Canadian population, and also as spaces of political transformation where working class and Indigenous people can realize their collective political agency. Out of these spaces, political leaders emerge with visions that transcend their immediate conditions.
But in recent years, tent cities have faced increased repression from police and co-optation as outdoor shelters by frontline worker. We need diverse tactics to struggle against supportive housing, laws, and bylaws, which criminalize and institutionalize our street kin, and to fight for universal housing for all working class and Indigenous people so that nobody is homeless, evicted, or forced to endure miserable conditions.
Updates and Events
Vancouver RV encampment refuses to obey city-ordered eviction
Residents of east Vancouver's Slocan RV-city are refusing the city's displacement attempt and calling a rally on May 26th to defend their community.
Schoolhouse Squat Legal Defence Fund
We are fundraising $9,600 for the Schoolhouse Squat legal defence fund. Donate to help us recoup the costs imposed by the criminalization of direct survival actions in a growing poor people’s movement, and enable us to keep fighting to build the power we need to end homelessness!
Surrey Bylaw Officers Steal from the Homeless, protestors say
On March 1st, bylaw officers seized Shiloh Cheyanna Ghostkeeper’s belongings, including the tent, bedding, and warm clothes she needs to survive winter nights on the streets of Surrey. The community is organizing to stop the street sweeps.
Coquitlam Bylaw evict couple from their riverside cabin
Coquitlam Bylaw told Sharon and Sid they would come today, January 21, to throw away their belongings and that tomorrow, Wednesday, January 26, their home will be bulldozed. Sid and Sharon do not want to leave their home in the midst of the double crises of Covid-19 and homelessness.
Save Surrey’s first and only street-run centre!
We need your help to keep the Whalley Centre open! We have to raise $1000 in monthly donations or $12,000 in one-time donations by December 31st to have the financial confidence we need to renew our lease and pay rent for the next year.
Whalley People’s Resource Centre Founding Statement
The Whalley Centre is run by and for the community: people surviving on the streets, warehoused in shelters, and incarcerated in supporting housing. The founding declaration explains the need for a street-run space in the face of police repression, government neglect, and social worker control.