Toronto Community Housing Corporation – Housing Sell Off
Prepared February 14/12
TCHC proposal to sell off 675 single family, stand-alone social housing units. The decision has been delayed several times. It is currently scheduled for debate at a special Executive Committee meeting on Friday Feb 17th.
Councillor Ana Bailão, chair of the City’s affordable housing committee, is said to be preparing a proposal that the issue be forwarded to a small task force in order to develop a better strategy and report to council in the fall.
TCHC says that the backlogged repair work now stands at $750 million, up $100 million from last year. TCHC estimates that net proceeds of sales will be $269 million to $336 million
and it needs proceeds from the house sales to address the repair backlog.
TCHC recently sold 30 homes (20 sold to an Aboriginal housing provider agency)
The Sell-off will ultimately require approval by City Council and then the Province (for all but 30 of the units).
Ontario Housing Minister has expressed concerns about the idea.
Issue:
A sell-off will uproot families from mixed-income downtown neighbourhoods and move them into less-central high-rises.
It would directly impact 2,000 people.
There are already 80,000 on the social housing wait list, and the available primary rental properties went down 30% last year.
The sell –off would lose the positive outcomes, including better health outcomes, from mixed income housing.
This is a short-sighted solution that will not fully address dis-repair issues and will cause bigger (more expensive) problems later on.
There are other options to address the repair issue: partnering with co-ops, low-income home ownership, and other financial options. For example, the Wellesley Institute suggests that the province should close the gap between what they pay social assistance recipients for their social housing units and the actual housing cost (this gap was $77 million in 2008). The large annual cost of utilities for these homes could be reduced with energy efficient repairs.
To get involved in stopping the sell off of TCHC Housing and other housing issues, email tostopthecuts@gmail.com
References/For more information:
Wellesley Institute Backgrounder on the sell-off: http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/TCHC-Housing-Sell-Off-Backgrounder1.pdf
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1129521–tchc-launches-aggressive-push-to-sell-off-674-houses
http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhallpolitics/article/1130126–mayor-rob-ford-set-to-compromise-on-sale-of-675-tchc-houses?bn=1
Tenants for Social Housing website: http://tenantsforsocialhousing.com/