Why isn’t anyone building co-ops anymore?
Minutes after I posted my “Why does social housing look like that?” entry two weeks ago I got an email from Jon Harstone, one of the very few people still developing social housing.
“Thought I’d share a couple of photos of Local 75 Housing Co-op,” he wrote. “The building is celebrated worldwide as an example of great Canadian architecture.”
Celebrated indeed! This striking 11-storey co-op at 60 Richmond East won Teeple Architects an Ontario Association of Architects Design Excellence Award in 2010 and a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence in 2007. The LEED Gold building offers 85 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom units.. On the ground level there is parking for 40 bicycles, 9 privately-owned cars and one Autoshare car – a true downtown building.
But there’s another reason to celebrate 60 Richmond East. It is the only co-op built in Toronto since 1995. Read more…
Bill Bosworth: Game-changer
Like most of us who work in housing, I’m still reeling from the news of Bill Bosworth’s sudden death last Thursday morning. How could someone so full of life die? And how can someone whose life was so bound up in the future not be there to enjoy it? Read more…
Why does social housing look like that?
Close your eyes and think of social housing. What comes to mind?
For most of us, it’s the social housing built in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s: Blake Boultbee, Jane Finch, Teesdale or Thistletown. You know the look: uniform, segregated and often, unappealing.
I think many people assume social housing was built this way purely to save money. But this is not so.
Social housing was designed to be ugly on purpose. Read more…
A conscientious objector in the culture war
Public libraries vs Tim Hortons. Riverdale Farm vs The Ex. The people who depute at City Hall vs the people who work and pay taxes.
If I had ever thought the Core Service Review was about saving $700+ million, I know better now. What we have here is an attempt to kindle a culture war.
I refuse to be goaded into the fight. Read more…
Finding the Third Way
This week Toronto citizens will be lining up at the City Council’s Executive Committee to speak for or against a raft of proposed budget cuts. The debate has been framed as an either/or battle: raise taxes to cover a $700+ million budget shortfall, or cut services.
Toronto Community Housing’s $600 million-and-climbing capital backlog has likewise been framed as an either/or dilemma. The right says cut services: sell off 900 houses, trim operating budgets and forget about community development. The left says wait for the federal or provincial governments to step up to the plate.
Is there a third way – one that doesn’t depend on either selling out TCHC’s tenants or waiting for senior governments to act? According to a recent publication by the Social Housing Services Corporation, the answer is yes. Read more…
Multiplying neighbourhood investment
Last week, TCHC’s outgoing Managing Director mused about “taking the community out of Toronto Community Housing.” This week, Toronto’s City Councillors are discussing which services we can cut.
I wonder whether we are taking the wrong approach. What if TCHC set its sights higher, rather than lower? What if the City asked, “How can we multiply the value of the money we have?” rather than “What can we do without?” Read more…
Keeping the “community” in Toronto Community Housing
In last Friday’s Globe, Toronto Community Housing’s outgoing Managing Director Case Ootes said,
“Fundamentally, TCHC should be a landlord. That’s it. The social services should be provided by the province . . . In fact, I have a problem with the name Toronto Community Housing Corporation. It should be Toronto Housing. Creating communities is an organic process – it can’t be mandated by government.” Read more…
“Be your own champions”
“The public wants you to succeed. Don’t be defensive. Be your own champions.”
That’s the message participants gave incoming Toronto Community Housing board members at last Tuesday’s Rethinking Public Housing: New ideas for the TCHC Board. The event was hosted by openingthewindow.com and the Centre for Social Innovation to generate fresh thinking on social housing.
We got lots.
Exiles on Main Street
In the past two weeks, Opening the Window has described two versions of “social housing paradise:” Chicago Housing Authority and Montreal’s Benny Farm.
I don’t know much of the history of Benny Farm, but it seems to have been quite successful for 50 or more years. This seems to have been something of an exception, though. We’re all much more familiar with places like the Chicago Housing Authority which failed miserably, like much of the public housing in other large US cities and, of course, in places like Regent Park and other urban public housing in Canada.
Why did it happen?
Canada’s social housing paradise: a memoir
One summer afternoon in 1947, my mother left work early to show me what would be our new home: Block B in Benny Farm in N.D.G, Montreal. At war’s end we had been evicted from our rented flat and lived the next two years in different temporary premises.
At seven years of age, I sensed my mother’s relief at being able to show me a place that would be ours and I was determined to love it. The three-story red-brick apartment building with a big muddy courtyard in front – heavenly.
For the next 15 years I did indeed love it. As did hundreds of others who also moved in over the next year as buildings were completed. Read more…
Opening the Window 