In a rare move, three former Toronto mayors have co-written a letter urging Mayor Rob Ford and city council not to sell off nearly 700 Toronto Community Housing homes, most of which are single-family dwellings.
John Sewell, Art Eggleton and David Crombie say they’re concerned about the sale of the so-called “scattered houses’’ and the implications for the families currently residing in them.
The 675 homes — with a combined market value of at least $222 million — are spread across the city, many in well-established neighbourhoods. TCHC wants to use money from the sales toward covering a $650 million repair backlog for its rundown buildings.
The plan is to have residents in the houses typically moved into multi-unit public housing buildings. TCHC voted in favour of the sale during a raucous public meeting in October, where scores of residents currently living in the single family homes — and their supporters — decried the proposal. A report on the plan is set to come before Tuesday’s executive committee meeting.
The sell-off is a “strategy that should not be pursued,’’ the ex-mayors write.
“The scattered units, which promote (a) healthy income mix, are being sold off to repair the very structures which segregate low-income families,’’ says the letter, which is also addressed to Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing.
During their terms, the mayors say, they learned that “segregating low-income housing, as occurred with the public housing program in the 1950s and ’60s, did not create a healthy city.’’ Everyone is better off when households with different incomes live in a way that allows their lives to “intersect on a daily basis,” the trio write.
The sale “clearly will not lead’’ to an increase in affordable housing units in the city, and doesn’t provide a long-term financial solution to addressing the repair crisis facing Toronto Community Housing, they add.
The mayors call for a new federal/provincial social housing funding arrangement that addresses the need for ongoing repair of the city’s aging housing stock.
“It seems to us that they’re rejecting the principle of integration, and we want to say that’s the wrong course to take,’’ Crombie said in a telephone interview Thursday, adding that he is pleased, however, with the mixed-income model behind the revitalization of Regent Park.
TCHC wants to see for-sale signs start going up this summer for 70 vacant homes, but others would be listed over a few years on a staggered basis, when the market is favourable.
Council has already agreed to allow TCHC to sell 47 homes, about 20 of them to a native housing organization at below-market rates.
But the massive sale currently on the table has stirred intense debate.
Councillor John Parker, an ally of Mayor Ford and a member of the TCHC board, defended the proposal, saying the properties sit on land with “high intrinsic value.” The profit from their sale, he said, is needed to fix properties that can be restored at relatively low cost.
“It’s hard to justify to our residents that their units are going unrepaired when we’re sitting on that kind of value and not putting it to work for their benefit,’’ Parker argues.
But Councillor Adam Vaughan, a Ford critic who doesn’t sit on the TCHC board, opposes the “rush to sell,” adding that low-income home ownership models such as rent-to-own need more serious consideration.
He added that this week’s scenario, in which city councillors coalesced to vote 23-21 against a raft of Ford-proposed cuts to the city budget, could happen again on the TCHC proposal.
“I think the reasonableness and cooperation that was shown among councillors (this week) opens this discussion up to a result that will help residents living in our neighbourhoods who happen to be TCHC tenants,’’ Vaughan said.
Original Article
Source: Star
John Sewell, Art Eggleton and David Crombie say they’re concerned about the sale of the so-called “scattered houses’’ and the implications for the families currently residing in them.
The 675 homes — with a combined market value of at least $222 million — are spread across the city, many in well-established neighbourhoods. TCHC wants to use money from the sales toward covering a $650 million repair backlog for its rundown buildings.
The plan is to have residents in the houses typically moved into multi-unit public housing buildings. TCHC voted in favour of the sale during a raucous public meeting in October, where scores of residents currently living in the single family homes — and their supporters — decried the proposal. A report on the plan is set to come before Tuesday’s executive committee meeting.
The sell-off is a “strategy that should not be pursued,’’ the ex-mayors write.
“The scattered units, which promote (a) healthy income mix, are being sold off to repair the very structures which segregate low-income families,’’ says the letter, which is also addressed to Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing.
During their terms, the mayors say, they learned that “segregating low-income housing, as occurred with the public housing program in the 1950s and ’60s, did not create a healthy city.’’ Everyone is better off when households with different incomes live in a way that allows their lives to “intersect on a daily basis,” the trio write.
The sale “clearly will not lead’’ to an increase in affordable housing units in the city, and doesn’t provide a long-term financial solution to addressing the repair crisis facing Toronto Community Housing, they add.
The mayors call for a new federal/provincial social housing funding arrangement that addresses the need for ongoing repair of the city’s aging housing stock.
“It seems to us that they’re rejecting the principle of integration, and we want to say that’s the wrong course to take,’’ Crombie said in a telephone interview Thursday, adding that he is pleased, however, with the mixed-income model behind the revitalization of Regent Park.
TCHC wants to see for-sale signs start going up this summer for 70 vacant homes, but others would be listed over a few years on a staggered basis, when the market is favourable.
Council has already agreed to allow TCHC to sell 47 homes, about 20 of them to a native housing organization at below-market rates.
But the massive sale currently on the table has stirred intense debate.
Councillor John Parker, an ally of Mayor Ford and a member of the TCHC board, defended the proposal, saying the properties sit on land with “high intrinsic value.” The profit from their sale, he said, is needed to fix properties that can be restored at relatively low cost.
“It’s hard to justify to our residents that their units are going unrepaired when we’re sitting on that kind of value and not putting it to work for their benefit,’’ Parker argues.
But Councillor Adam Vaughan, a Ford critic who doesn’t sit on the TCHC board, opposes the “rush to sell,” adding that low-income home ownership models such as rent-to-own need more serious consideration.
He added that this week’s scenario, in which city councillors coalesced to vote 23-21 against a raft of Ford-proposed cuts to the city budget, could happen again on the TCHC proposal.
“I think the reasonableness and cooperation that was shown among councillors (this week) opens this discussion up to a result that will help residents living in our neighbourhoods who happen to be TCHC tenants,’’ Vaughan said.
Original Article
Source: Star
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