Mayor Tory voices concerns about Toronto Community Housing

In his letter to the MPPs, Tory described the situation prevailing in the Toronto Community Housing (TCH) units in their respective ridings.

Tory said that at the City Council's meeting last month his colleagues had voted unanimously to inform MPPs about the current and future state of TCH units in their riding.

City Council had said that all MPPs should also be made aware how an unfunded TCH capital repair plan would impact constituents in their riding, including some of the most vulnerable residents.

In his letter, Tory urged each Toronto MPP to contact Chris Ballard, Minister of Housing or raise a question to this effect in the Legislature.

He said that all levels of government should come together and fund the backlog of housing repairs.

Proper investment from all three levels of government is required urgently, said Tory, to prevent the decline of these homes into further states of disrepair, which would ultimately lead to the closure of these units by the City of Toronto in the wake of Toronto’s rising demand for housing.

Tory said that the City Council had approved a 10-year capital repair plan in 2013, which outlined that all three levels of government would contribute a one-third share to the state of housing repair backlog totalling $2.6 billion, according to media reports.

Since that time, said Tory, the City of Toronto has contributed about $1 billion to the repair plan from City-derived sources.

Media reports quoted Tory as saying that the federal government had promised, in its most recent budget, a considerable amount of funding for housing and repairs but the provincial government had failed to provide any funds for this housing crisis.

The only scanty fund it provided was restricted to energy retrofits.

In addition to writing to individual MPPs, Mayor Tory also sent a separate letter to Minister Ballard to inform him of the need to fund housing repairs, according to media reports.

Tory pointed out that without immediate support, the City of Toronto would see about 400 units to be at risk of closing this year and 600 units will be at risk of closing in 2018.

This will imply that 1,900 of the City’s most vulnerable residents would be at risk of losing their homes in two years, reports said.

The 10-year capital plan will come to an end in 2023, said Tory, which will endanger more than half of Toronto Community Housing's portfolio.

This would imply closing of around 7,200 units while roughly 24,000 units will be at immediate risk of closing and risking more than 45,000 people to lose their homes, he said.

More than a third of the units in critical and poor condition were downloaded by the Province with no money in the bank, leaving the city of Toronto in debt, alleged the Mayor.

The decision of the Wynne government to eliminate Toronto Pooling Compensation – which would have eased the social housing burden borne by Toronto -- further aggravated the grave situation, reports said.

Tory pointed out that Toronto has 110,000 individuals living in social housing, which would, by itself, be the 24th largest city in the Province.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Image: John Tory Twitter