Tory urges residents to press for repairs
Mayor says he was forced to assume Wynne will not help fix social housing crisis
Mayor John Tory is urging residents to lobby their local MPPs and Housing Minister Chris Ballard for the provincial funds required to fix crumbling social housing units.
“The time for action is now, in fact it was before now, because repairing social housing is a moral, economic and a social imperative,” Tory told reporters on Tuesday in response to a Star story that detailed the state of disrepair across Toronto Community Housing’s portfolio.
“They have so far refused to commit to their share of the over $2.6-billion repair bill,” Tory said, despite the fact data shows the province off-loaded more than a third of the developments on the city in 2001 without adequate maintenance funding and with many already in various states of disrepair.
After repeated requests for the province to step forward and no new money announced in the 2017 provincial budget, Tory outlined Tuesday that he’s been forced to assume Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government is unwilling to contribute.
“That is not fair and that is not right. We need a provincial partner if we’re ever going to properly and completely address this challenge.”
Wynne was travelling in Sudbury on Tuesday. Her office did not immediately respond to questions.
Ballard’s office, responding to questions from the Star, did not make any commitments to the repairs plan, in keeping with earlier statements.
“It is my firm belief that by working together, we can deliver important action to ensure every family has an affordable place to live in the city they call home,” the statement read.
Tory, who has not met officially with the premier since their falling out over road tolls in January, said Wynne has provided no funding solutions in their conversations.
That is despite, Tory noted, as the Star reported, that except for one, every single provincial riding in Toronto will be home to developments in a critical state of disrepair by 2021 if more funding isn’t secured.
He called the thousands of units at risk of closure “unacceptable.”
“This isn’t about crumbling buildings. It’s about the people who live in those crumbling buildings. It’s about people. This is about families who deserve a decent place to live and the numbers paint a very grim picture indeed,” he said.
“It will cost us,” the mayor said, noting it would require fewer dollars to adequately house people then it would in related strains on the justice, health care and emergency systems, as well as damage to the economic well-being of the city.
Greg Suttor, a senior researcher at the Wellesley Institute who focuses on housing policy, said the loss of social housing would have broad impacts amid an ongoing housing crisis, including an “affordability squeeze” for those forced to seek out private market rental options.
“We also know people sacrifice other things to pay the rent — groceries, medicine or recreation,” he said.
That instability can see families on the move more often, which is bad for children in school, Suttor said. And it can have a domino effect with some pushed into homelessness.
The Star’s view: It’s time to save Toronto’s housing units, A12