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Toronto's Worst Landlord: Itself!

Image Courtesy: The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

OCAP returned to city Hall last week, but this time they didn't shut it down. They brought a photographic display of some of the worst homes they'd seen as part of their campaign to get Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) to make necessary repairs. Some of these photographs are very disturbing : this is how people live because the city won't pay for repairs?

John Clarke, of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, said, "It's fairly representative of the areas covered by Toronto Community Housing (TCHC). The worst landlord in the city of Toronto is the city of Toronto."

"That statement says it all. We did this at this nice city hall, how tenants of this city are living and the conditions they face as part of a challenge to the situation." The response to that is I don't know any situation where someone can say they are absolved from their legal responsibilities by virtue of the fact they just haven't got the resources to meet it. If you drive around with no breaks in your car you can't tell the cops that Fred owes you five thousand dollars so your car will have to stay without breaks. The simple fact is this is municipal housing and the municipality has other priorities not the least of which is the police budget. That's not to say that the provincial government isn't enormously culpable it is. The landlord has to be held accountable. The city of Toronto has to be held accountable. If this is how tenants are living and the higher level of government hasn't stepped in, then there must be as a priority resources are freed up so that the legal responsibilities of the landlord are met. We have for example a police budget that grows precipitously year by year by year, that would be our personal preference of the place to go to look for the resources necessary. I think it's going to be a lot more effective to house people than to club them over the head in the final analysis.

Kelly Bentley, TCHC tenant spoke of her experiences, "My unit is fairly okay because I continually put money into my unit, that a lot of people can't afford, not that I can afford it. I personally do not have issues, when you do have a problem. See these ceilings, I had that in my apartment. I called the maintenance guy and he said, 'it's not in the budget'. So I ended up buying my own plaster and fixing it myself, which is a feat in itself because you have to be professional to do things like that properly. The maintenance system is just not working. People are not getting their stuff fixed, but more importantly even when they do try to go through the process they find that their maintenance numbers are being lost you are supposed to be given a number every single time. They don't come, they say it's not in the budget, you get this over and over treatment of passing the buck. There is an irony in this picture with the kitchen."

Image Courtesy: The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

"That kitchen is a new kitchen, but they won't fix the hole. They'll pass by problems that are immediate and buy new fridges and new stoves that might not be used. What are going to do when all these buildings are condemned? They are not putting money into new housing, they aren't building new housing? Where are these tenants going to go?"

"Every time you call and lodge a complaint they are supposed to give you a number. Sometimes they don't even do that, in my community they won't even give you a number they just have the guy come. Usually he comes really quickly usually within a hour and he'll look at it and say 'it's not in the budget' or 'I'll get back to it'. You can't get a number to track it. They aren't using the tracking system properly. People who are going through this system will stop calling.

Toronto City Councillor Gord Perks walked by the display and was asked for his comments. Gord Perks said, "A National Housing Strategy is needed. The provincial government needs to get back into affordable housing. A $300 million backlog was inherited after amalgamation. Harris came along and cut us off at the knees. You can't invest money you don't have. Canada needs a national housing strategy. We have to keep the pressure on."

TCHC must make these repairs. No one should live as these photographs show that they do.