Tenants voice concerns to mayor
Chow listens as advocates tell her what’s broken in the city, from transit to shoddy renovations
“We don’t have a space to chill,” one 23-year-old man explained to Mayor Olivia Chow.
Young people need place to relax, smoke weed or drink, play a sport or make music, he said, noting many of his mistakes in his younger years stemmed from being bored.
The man was among 150 tenant advocates from across the city who gathered in a YMCA auditorium on Thursday evening to tell the mayor what they see as the biggest problems in the city, and what they would do about it.
There are the buses that blow past stops as people stand there helplessly as they on them to get to work.
And the Toronto Community Housing Corporation buildings plagued by violence, broken elevators, rampant pest infestations, poor quality renovations and accumulating pigeon poop.
“You are the ones who live there, you are the experts … you are the ones who know which services work best for you,” said Chow to the group, committing to doing similar events in the future and reporting back on progress.
“There are lots of thing that are not going right but they were still really hopeful that things could be fixed,” Chow said after the event, organized by TCHC and her office.
At one table, a group of women shared the challenges they face in the city from bus stops that move without warning, leaving seniors stranded, to lack of francophone services and teachers — a problem highlighted by the lack of an available translator.
Denise Turney said she is proof that advocacy can work. Her TCHC building at 3479 St. Clair East had two elevators replaced after they kept breaking down. The building went from having four security cameras to 81. The intercom system that allows residents to buzz visitors in finally works. Now her attention is focused on getting the recreation room, closed during the pandemic, renovated and finally reopened.
“We haven’t received any updates or notices as to when renovations will recommence,” she said, adding that this is where tenant meetings and community programs used to be held.
Opposite her, Natalie “Rare” Chattargoon, a social worker and creative, shared a positive story. A city program opened doors for her to pursue photography and videography, which she’s turned into a side hustle. But she also found herself ineligible for a music-related program because she was one year older than the cut-off age of 29. She’d like to see the city dedicate more resources to arts funding and consistent programming, but also extend the eligibility age for youth programs to be as high as 35.
Several tenant representatives shared concerns about worsening security in their buildings and said there is a need for an increased presence from TCHC security who actually know the residents who live there. People are sleeping and urinating in stairwells and hallways, some said. Others shared they have been stabbed or narrowly escaped being stabbed.
Chattargoon said if she were mayor, she would put more funding into supportive housing and into the burned out and overwhelmed case workers who help get people get into the housing they need. There was broad support for expanding the Toronto Community Crisis Service, which recently began recruiting for 100 new positions.
Chow hopes that some of the tenant representatives will be able to have similar sessions with the thousands of residents they represent and bring that feedback back to her and the TCHC, just as she in turn will report on what is being done in response.
“We want them to have a sense of power in their building,” Chow said. “The mayor wants to hear more.”