Don't cannibalize TO's affordable housing stock
Nov 19th, 2007 by Michael Shapcott
Toronto City Council will consider a plan to sell about 500
“scattered” affordable homes that are owned by the city on November
20, 2007. The sponsors of the scheme say that that some of the
millions of dollars that would be generated from the sale could be
used to re-house the 500 households, and the rest could be put into a
repair fund to help deal with the estimated $300 million repair
backlog at Toronto Community Housing Company. The problems that
Toronto is facing in keeping up with a huge maintenance bill for the
90,000 social housing units that it either owns or administers are an
inherited mess. When the federal government downloaded most social
housing programs starting in 1996, and the provincial government
followed suit in 1998, they dumped the responsibility for these homes
on Toronto without giving the city the financial resources to pay for
years of wear and tear.
Municipalities across North America are facing huge problems due to
years of funding cuts and downloading by senior levels of government.
Some have been forced to adopt a strategy similar to that proposed by
Toronto: Cannibalize the existing stock to cover the unfunded
liability. At a time when the need for truly affordable housing is
growing, the Toronto scheme – like others elsewhere – would lead to
fewer homes.
Here are four reasons why cannibalizing existing affordable housing
is a bad idea:
First, Toronto desperately needs every affordable home that it can
get. The city’s waiting list for affordable housing is growing
longer, and fewer people are being housed. Only about one in every
100 new homes built in Toronto in the past five years has been truly
affordable. For more details, see the quick facts below.
Second, the 500 homes that some councilors want to sell are scattered
in neighbourhoods throughout the city. Mixed-income neighbourhoods –
like the St. Lawrence community – are dynamic and healthy.
Segregating the poor in some neighbourhoods, and reserving the rest
of the city for wealthier households is a bad idea.
Third, conversion of part of the Toronto Community Housing Company’s
portfolio has been tried in the past, and has been successful when
the homes are converted to co-op or non-profit management. The Sonny
Atkinson Co-op (formerly Alexandra Park) is a recent example of a
successful conversion. Selling off affordable homes to the private
sector means that the asset is lost forever to the city. Buildings
and land are scarce commodities in Toronto and appear bound to
increase in cost. Selling off a long-term asset for short-term gain
doesn’t make sense.
Fourth, there is an urgent need for larger-size affordable homes.
Low, moderate and even middle-income families are having extreme
difficulty finding a good place to call home. Canada Mortgage and
Housing Corporation reports that three-bedroom and larger apartments
have a low vacancy rate and the highest rents in Toronto. The homes
that councilors want to sell are ideal for larger families.
Quick facts:
Only about one in every 100 new homes built in Toronto in the past
five years have been truly affordable – that’s slightly more than
2,000 new affordable, supportive, transitional or alternative homes
out of almost 200,000 new homes built since 2001.
The number of Toronto households in core housing need has grown from
176,300 in 1991 to 269,700 in 1996 to 295,500 in 2001. These are
households living in homes that are unaffordable, inadequate and/or
unsuitable. This number is expected to increase when the 2006 census
numbers are released in the spring of 2008.
In 2005, 403,000 households were living below the poverty line in
Toronto – slightly more than one in every five families. The average
low income gap was $9,600 annually.
The number of Toronto tenant households facing eviction reached an
all-time high of 30,768 in 2006 – that’s an average of about 123
families facing eviction every working day of the year. About one-
third of households evicted in Toronto go directly to homeless
shelters; another one-third join the ranks of the “hidden homeless”
by staying temporarily with family or friends; and the remaining
third are able to find another home.
Toronto’s affordable housing waiting list is growing ever longer.
There were 63,791 households on the list in 2004; 66,556 in 2005 and
67,083 households in 2006. As the list grows longer, the number of
households that are housed annually is shrinking from 5,386 in 2004
to 4,871 in 2006. If the city maintains the same pace in coming
years, then a family that signs onto the list in 2007 cannot expect
to be offered a home until the year 2021.
The city’s homeless shelters are crowded: Hostels had 1,403,881 bed-
nights in 2005, up from 1,363,593 in 1998. The number of families in
city shelters, after falling to 700 people in 2005, has increased by
almost 25% in the past year.
http://wellesleyinstitute.com/dont-cannibalize-tos-affordable-housing-
stock
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