Act now to save city housing

Re Historic Guild Inn reopens, May 18, and Half of TCHC properties could hit ‘critical’ status, May 23 Many years ago, after I attended a corporate event at The Guild Inn, it was taken over by the City of Toronto and subsequently closed down. It had stood forlorn and uncared for over such a long period of time that I was convinced it would eventually become a victim of “demolition by neglect.” I was therefore delighted to read it had been taken over by a private company, restored to its former glory and would once again be available for weddings and events.

Unfortunately, it appears the fate I’d feared for The Guild Inn might now overtake many of Toronto’s social housing units — something that would have a far greater impact on Toronto and its needy residents than neglect of the Guild Inn. I find it absolutely appalling that such a valuable city asset has been allowed to deteriorate to the point where “fully one half of all the TCHC’s developments will be in ‘critical’ condition within the next five years without additional funding for repairs,” especially when there are 181,000 people in the city on the waiting list for subsidized housing.

Former premier Mike Harris’s off-loading of the responsibility for social housing onto the city more than a decade ago was almost criminal, but successive provincial governments have done far too little to correct this aberration, and I agree with The Star that the federal government has a responsibility to do its share as well. All three levels of government need to stop wasting time and get on with repairing the city’s housing stock. Diana Hooper, Toronto