City asked to sell off high-value public housing
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 | 8:26 AM ET
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/11/20/tto-housing.html? 
ref=rss

Toronto's public housing authority is being asked to sell off some of  
the expensive single-family homes it rents to low-income families.

Some of the houses are estimated to be worth more than $500,000.

Toronto Community Housing owns hundreds of houses in the city, one of  
which is worth almost $1 million.

Coun. Case Ootes says keeping the properties just doesn't make sense.

"If you were to sell that property you could provide three families  
with $1,000 a month in subsidies. This does not make sense in terms  
of managing our assets in a cost-effective way to provide social  
housing to people that need it," he said.

Ootes said the money could help cut the huge waiting list for public  
housing, as well as the repair backlog, which is estimated to be  
hundreds of millions of dollars.

The houses were mostly acquired in the 1970s for far less than  
they're worth today.

Derek Ballantyne, the CEO of Toronto Community Housing, said there is  
value in letting low-income people stay in what have become  
expensive, trendy neighbourhoods.

"The fact that gentrification has pushed prices up … doesn't lead us  
to the conclusion that low-income people do not deserve to live in  
vibrant, mixed-income neighbourhoods and should be condemned to  
living where real estate values are low," he said.

Ballantyne said the entire public housing stock is being reviewed,  
and once that's finished some of the higher-valued houses could be sold.

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