Protesters representing dozens of organizations gathered on Parliament Hill yesterday to ask the government to recognize that housing is a right.

The Red Tent Campaign, held on the Canada Day of Action for a Federal Housing Strategy, rallied support around private member’s bill C-304, which will get its third reading in the House of Commons today.

The bill, introduced by NDP MP Libby Davies, is an act to ensure secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing for Canadians.

The bill is very basic, said Davies. “It called for a national housing strategy and it calls on the federal government to work with provincial, municipal, First Nations and non-profit housing providers to develop a national strategy for housing. We don’t have such a thing.

“It’s a huge issue for millions of Canadians, so this bill is very fundamental in addressing what is a huge deficit in this country in terms of housing.”

In most big cities including Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, homelessness is a crisis, said Davies.

“We’re hoping this bill will make it through.”

“It’s one of the most important pieces of legislation that has come along in a long while,” said Julia Beazley from Street Level – the national roundtable on poverty and homelessness.