TCHC lists 71 needed fixes
Improving security and repairs can’t happen without $13.73 million in funding
Toronto Community Housing wants to replace outdated security cameras, better manage bedbug infestations and respond faster to elevator breakdowns.
But the bulk of those improvements — 71 have been identified in total — can’t be made unless the corporation comes up with $13.73 million in next year’s budget.
The Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) has identified priorities in security, building conditions and customer service in response to a housing task force struck by Mayor John Tory to identify both problems and solutions with the daily operations and overall management of the housing authority. The action plan, which was demanded by the task force after a 60-day period, was presented at a news conference on Thursday.
“I think that there’s been a good start made today,” Tory told an audience of community and housing leaders along with several tenants in attendance. He said changes have already begun after TCHC reallocated funds in the 2015 budget, including hiring 60 new cleaners, to meet the task force’s recommendations.
“I think there are a lot of things that are being done that are quite tangible in this report, but we need to have the support of these other governments in order to get all this done to make all these investments.”
Both Tory and top TCHC officials indicated there are bigger changes ahead. A final report from the mayor’s task force due at the end of the year is expected to deal with the structure of the housing authority and how it is governed, after years of being mired in leadership controversy.
Tory said he expects “bold” solutions from his team, led by Sen. Art Eggleton.
“The present model is not working,” Tory said. “I think that there’s been enough trouble for enough time that you could conclude there’s a problem with the fundamental structure and governance and financing of this.”
Unless TCHC can secure funding, which has been in scarce supply for repairs and improvements in recent years, the latest priorities are at risk of being added to a growing list of unfunded projects identified by the housing body.
Tory and TCHC officials said they will continue to lobby the provincial and federal governments to reinvest in housing, including funding a third each of the $2.56-billion backlog of capital repairs over the next 10 years.
“Most importantly, they’re helping to drive lasting solutions . . . This is real change at Toronto Community Housing,” TCHC interim CEO Greg Spearn said of the plan Thursday. “But we need funding to do them.”
Throughout the report there are several mentions of “subject to funding” — including hiring 94 new security staff.
Both Tory and Spearn said an ongoing challenge has been problem tenants and criminal activity in some of their buildings — what Tory called “like a cancer.”
Several of the initiatives are aimed at a more “aggressive” eviction strategy, but Spearn admitted they still don’t have the legal powers necessary to put that plan in motion. Tory said he has spoken to Premier Kathleen Wynne on that topic.
Though he said he is looking positively at the likelihood these changes will be realized, Tory said he was surprised some of them weren’t already in place, including a partnership with Crime Stoppers. Those who live in TCHC and who have advocated for changes such as better security — including more cameras — say there has been a pattern of disappointment.
“Historically there’s a really good reason to lack confidence in the implementation of this report, the way it was delivered, manufactured without tenants behind closed doors in a series of confidential meetings,” said housing advocate Susan Gapka. “The task at hand is to develop trust with the other stakeholders and to bring tenants into the process with the vigour and exuberance that the managers wrote this 60-day plan with.”
With an upcoming federal election and the city budget process, it remains to be seen whether these promises will be realized.