New York Times

June 16, 2002

Amid Prosperity, Toronto Shows Signs of Fraying

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

T ORONTO, June 14

A shantytown is swelling on the shores of Lake Ontario, practically
 in the shadow of Canada's richest banks. The 80 residents have squatted on five
acres of
undeveloped land that is soaking in mercury and lead.

Dogs rummage through garbage. Outhouses donated by charities have a stench.
There is no
running water, save for a single hose shared by everyone, and no electricity. In
the winter, people
warm themselves over wood stoves.

The first baby was born in the shantytown last month, but was taken away by
government
authorities because the parents used drugs and lived in a shack.

"I don't have a clue how people could live like this in Canada," said a
21-year-old resident named
Michael, who gave only his first name. But he himself recently moved into Tent
City after losing
his welding job. "Rents are just too high in Toronto," he said.

Toronto, Canada's premier city for business and finance, is still considered a
model. Like other
cities across Canada, it generally managed to escape the urban blight that
afflicted industrial cities
in the United States in recent decades.

But signs of fraying are becoming evident here, even though Canada's economy is
strong,
property values are rising and housing construction is booming for the rich and
upper middle
class.

The poor have been left behind in an otherwise bustling housing market. City
officials estimate that
6,000 people are now homeless in Toronto, double the number of a decade ago.
Panhandlers
have also become more plentiful outside Toronto's fashionable stores and hotels.

Less than 1 percent of Toronto's low-income housing units stand vacant, and
apartment rents
have risen 35 percent in five years. The number of units that can be rented for
$455 a month or
less has decreased by nearly two-thirds since 1998, city housing officials say.

At the same time, welfare payments fell by 21 percent since 1996  because the
Ontario
provincial government was running deficits and cut spending on things like
housing, welfare and
transport for austerity.

An influx of immigrants, a relaxing of rent controls and a slashing of federal
and provincial public
housing budgets all account for the shortage of low-cost housing. While
Toronto's chief
administrative officer, Shirley Hoy, says, "We've got to fix this because the
number of people
spilling into the streets is growing," the solution will not come easily.

This city built almost 24,500 units of public housing from 1984 to 1996, but
fewer than 100 units
in the next five years. The waiting list is long and growing; in shelters, the
number of beds is up
sixfold in three years, to 4,100, and occupancy is 95 percent.

With 106,000 households in Toronto now spending more than 50 percent of their
incomes on
rent, families are doubling up in single-family homes or are forced to choose
between buying food
and medicine or paying the rent.

There is a joke that Toronto is like New York, except it is run by the Swiss.
The subways are
squeaky clean. Public parks are safe late into the night. But the emergence of
Tent City and
growing homelessness suggest that the quality of life in Toronto, as in many
other Canadian cities,
is beginning to fray under financial and demographic strain.

Cuts in federal and provincial funding over the last 10 years have left Toronto
and other cities
increasingly reliant on property and business taxes to finance crucial services
at a time when large
companies and the wealthy have been migrating to the suburbs.

Toronto, with a population of 2.5 million, suffers in particular because it must
have a balanced
budget according to provincial law, and it does not have the right to issue its
own bonds. The
federal government is encouraging immigration to spur population growth, and
that means
Toronto and other cities must take on new responsibilities for education, child
care, health and
housing services



? sometimes in multiple languages.

The signs of stress are growing. With the city 10 years behind in its plans to
repair roads and
bridges, potholes are more common. The grass is growing higher before it is cut
in the parks.
There is more litter on the streets. And air quality is declining, as the city
sprawls and bus and
streetcar service has been cut back, lengthening the lines of people waiting to
commute.

"Toronto is at the early stages of erosion as a model city," said Jack Layton, a
City Council
member and the past president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. "The
question is, are
we going to notice it and do something about it in time?"

The trend in governmental policies may be starting to swing back. The federal
government agreed
last month to give Toronto and other cities more than $400 million in new
housing funds over five
years, but Toronto officials say it is a pittance considering the city's needs.

"We have no housing growth strategy to deal with population growth," said Sean
Goetz-Gadon, a
senior housing official in the Toronto government.

For Jackie Kendell, an ebullient 32-year-old, time has already run out. She is
homeless, and she
spends her days panhandling, rolling cigarettes and playing with her Rottweiler
around her
ramshackle shack in Tent City.

A year ago, Ms. Kendell and her boyfriend, Doug, were on welfare, paying $240 a
month to rent
a tiny apartment in a boarding house. Then came the knock on the door. The house
had been
sold, and most residents were evicted. Ms. Kendell said that she and her
boyfriend could not find
an apartment they could afford, and that no homeless shelter would allow them in
with their dog.

So they turned to Tent City.

"Our dog is our pride and joy, my life, so there was nowhere else to go," said
Ms. Kendell, who
admitted to deadening her pains with daily marijuana smoking. "But there is no
future here."


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