Bureaucracy in the making
On June 13th, City Council asked Fiona Crean – already working full-time as the City’s Ombudsman – to act as Toronto Community Housing’s eviction monitor. At the same meeting, Council called for a Commissioner of Housing Equity to hear tenant complaints. And then on June 26th, Councillor Mihevc brought forward a motion to add reviews of subsidy calculations to the Landlord Tenant Board’s duties.
Will these changes help TCHC tenants stay housed? I’m not so sure. Read more…
It’s not Ford’s fault!
It’s not David Miller’s fault either. It’s not the fault of Toronto Community Housing’s present Board of Director, the previous Board, or the Board before them.
I’m talking about the scathing Toronto Ombudsman’s Housing at Risk: An Investigation into the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s Eviction of Seniors on the Basis of Rent Arrears. The report examined the files of 79 seniors evicted from TCHC in 2011 and 2012 and found, “a pattern of callous and unfair treatment of many seniors, including at least one case in which a tenant died shortly after eviction.” Read more…
Housing policy in three city blocks
What are the policy solutions that could keep downtown Toronto affordable for the next generation?
That’s the topic of my Jane’s Walk, “Where will the next generation live?” It’s a two-hour tour along the street I live on, and a couple of others – ordinary, working class streets that are rapidly becoming unaffordable to anyone making less than $100,000 a year. Read more…
The OTHER budget announcement
You don’t often get a chance to see affordable housing headline any budget. So it was welcome news to learn the Federal Government proposed to extend their Investment in Affordable Housing.
The budget promises $253 Million per year across Canada for the next five years – the same amount as the program expiring in 2014. To give a sense of scale, similar funding levels between 2011 – 2014 allowed Toronto to budget for 137 new rental apartments, 200 affordable ownership homes, renovations to 1200 privately-owned units and time-limited housing allowances for 3,850 households.
It’s a welcome contribution. But it won’t change Toronto’s housing landscape. And unless the rules change this time round, it won’t fix Toronto Community Housing’s buildings either.
What might? A bit of arcane provincial business that could make or break Toronto Community Housing. I’m referring to the recommendations of the Social Assistance Review. Read more…
Where will our kids be able to live? Update!
A year ago, this blog asked, Where will the next generation live? On March 5th, about 100 people came together to help answer that question.
The occasion was the Ralph Thornton’s Centre’s Community Matters Town Hall that asked, “Can downtown housing remain affordable for the coming generation?” Read more…
Peggy Birnberg: A wise and knowing heart
Minutes after the news that Peggy Birnberg had died last Friday morning, the emailed tributes began to circulate. Friends and colleagues called her strong, thoughtful, compassionate and fair – “a force,” “a gentle but insistent advocate,” a teacher, mentor and leader.
There are many people who knew Peggy better than I did. In fact, the most frequently used phrase among the emailed tributes was, “she was a good friend.” This blog is for the people who didn’t know Peggy, and especially young people hoping to make their mark in the world and perhaps seeking a different leadership model than the ones we are often presented with. Read more…
Kathleen Wynne: spendthrift? Or just the opposite?
In last week’s Globe, Kathleen Wynne was reported to have a “slew of big-ticket policies” in mind, including a national affordable housing strategy.
Does that make her a “can’t say no” spendthrift – the Big Government proponent that the Globe and some of its readers seem to fear? Perhaps just the opposite. Read more…
Condo boom? Why not an “affordable housing boomlet?”
I just learned that half of North America’s construction cranes are in Toronto this year. So why aren’t they building affordable housing?
They could be. Read more…
Opening the Window 