This letter was presented to the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s Board meeting by CUPE Local 79 President Ann Dembinski in writing and in person by deputation. Dembinski warns about the impact of selling off the stand-alone units, which would displace hundreds of tenants and families.
Norman (Bud) Purves, Chair
And Members of the Board of Directors
Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC)
RE: TCHC Board Meeting, October 21, 2011 – Agenda Item 1, Stand-alone Units Portfolio
The premise of selling off 706 homes runs counter to TCHC’s policies of avoiding the creation of social housing ghettos by integrating tenants into mixed neighbourhoods. These ‘stand-alone units’ or ‘scattered housing’ as they are being called – are a vital part of TCHC’s commitment to ‘city building’ and the growth of healthy, sustainable communities across Toronto.
Selling off community housing is a step backward when all the studies, consultations and evidence have proved that mixed-income communities benefit everyone. These are not just buildings or real estate assets to be sold – these are homes. This drastic change in policy direction will impact thousands of tenants and neighbourhoods all across the City.
If these ‘stand-alone units’ are sold, it will devastate hundreds of family units. Evicting people and placing them into packed apartment towers is not the direction that TCHC should be taking social housing. This shift in policy will only serve to marginalize and isolate people.
Housing is a basic human need. Everyone deserves to live in dignity – which is why playing with peoples’ lives and threatening the roof over their head is so alarming.
At the same time TCHC is considering selling off these homes and dooming tenants to vertical poverty, the Corporation is being lauded for the revitalization of Regent Park based on the concept of mixed-income housing. Is this a deliberate policy change by TCHC, to be in the real estate business, rather than social housing?
CUPE Local 79 represents over 350 full-time, part-time and seasonal staff working at the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). Housing is a basic human need. Our members are the front-line workers in the provision of affordable housing. In the current economy, the jobs that CUPE Local 79 members do, and the services they provide, are more critical than ever. Some of our most vulnerable citizens and families are struggling with shrinking resources, inadequate pensions, scant employment insurance benefits and limited social assistance. The challenges and stresses are daunting.
A home is more than four walls and a roof. A neighbourhood is more than streets and buildings. A community is not a geographic area on a real estate map. Toronto put in place housing policies that are intended to fight poverty, promote equity, and provide support for seniors, new Canadians, students and people with disabilities.
The discussion at the TCHC Board meeting today should be about the value of helping house the people of Toronto, not real estate values.
Yours truly,
Ann Dembinski
President
c.c. Len Koroneos, CEO, TCHC
Mayor Rob Ford
City Councillors
Premier Dalton McGuinty
Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing