Liberal MP, Dennis Mills, called the OCAP office today (Friday, December 5) to report that the abandoned house, at 558 Gerrard, taken over by OCAP on November 8 will be converted into housing.

Today, Mills received a letter from Gerry Phillips, the Chair of the Management Board of the Ontario Cabinet, removing the last bureaucratic obstacle to the plans to renovate and open the building. The lease under which the Province held the property from Bridgepoint Health (the owner of the property) stipulated that it could only be used as part of the nearby Don Jail. The Province has now agreed to sever that portion and turn the building back to the hospital authority - which has in turn agreed to the creation of housing.

Financing for the new project has been secured and the Laborers' International Union and the Canadian Auto Workers have undertaken to provide skilled labour and resources. The Wooodgreen housing agency has undertaken to operate the building.

Mills had promised to obtain the place as housing on November 8 when he arrived at the OCAP housing action. The police were refusing to back down from their impending attack on those inside the building and the supporters gathered outside, so Mills made a pledge to win housing at the site within a month or resign from the Parliament. On that basis, people left the building, to allow him time to honour his undertaking.

The victory we have won is important in that it points the way forward. Those denied the right to housing must organize to win it and be prepared to take it, if governments refuse to act. 558 Gerrard is an important first step but 2,000 people a month are evicted in Toronto, 70,000 sit on a years' long waiting list for housing and the homeless shelters are overflowing. At the same time, dozens of buildings are left empty as so many monuments to greed and irrationality. No prizes for guessing what we plan to do next!