Save housing units

The news out of Toronto Community Housing Corp. (TCHC) hasn’t been good in 2017. First, the corporation announced it would have to close 600 social housing units this year that are beyond fixing and a further 400 next year if funding to repair them isn’t secured.

Now it appears that matters are much worse than previously thought. As the Star’s Jennifer Pagliaro reports, a database supplied to this paper indicates fully one half of all the corporation’s developments will be in “critical” condition within the next five years without additional funding for repairs.

It’s a cost that should be borne by all three levels of government. But so far pleas from Mayor John Tory for the federal and provincial governments to kick in $864 million over 10 years — one third of the $2.6 billion repair bill — has netted him nada.

The situation is unconscionable. TCHC is being forced to shutter units at a time when there are 181,000 people languishing on the wait-list for subsidized housing in Toronto.

There is some hope that the federal government will step up. The Trudeau government recently committed to funding $11.2 billion in affordable housing spending over 11 years. Still, it is not yet clear how much, if any, will be available to TCHC for repairs and how soon. Needless to say, timing is of the essence. But at least Ottawa has begun to take some responsibility for Toronto’s affordable-housing crisis.

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government, on the other hand, does not appear to be compelled by the loss of affordable-housing units. That’s despite the fact that 100 of the corporation’s 364 developments (comprising 2,100 buildings) were downloaded onto the city by the province more than a decade and a half ago without reserve funds to cover the repairs.

Though the province had been providing $150 million a year to compensate for that fact, in 2013 they unexpectedly announced they were phasing out even those payments.

It’s no wonder Mayor Tory has had enough. On Tuesday, he urged residents to lobby their local MPPs for money to fix the decaying housing units.

The case for urgent action is clear. The TCHC units are home to 110,000 people — 94 per cent who live beneath the poverty level. And if their welfare isn’t reason enough for Ontario’s self-described “social justice premier” to act, the economic benefits of fixing the housing stock should be.

A 2015 study by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis found that allowing the corporation’s units to keep deteriorating and be shut down would lead to higher health-care spending, rising crime and a host of other social costs.

At the same time, the study found, investing in repairs would create thousands of jobs, spur private investment, and generate billions of extra dollars in federal and provincial taxes.

For both social and economic reasons, the provincial and federal governments must commit money for much-needed repairs before this crisis deepens.

Half of Toronto’s community housing will be in “critical” condition within five years without funding for repairs