Deterioration By Leaps And Bounds

The Toronto Community Housing Corporation (T.C.H.) faces a $98 million hole in the budget. The recent council-approved budget requires all agencies and departments to find 2.6 percent in savings. This will definitely impact on the quality of life of the T.C.H.'s tenants. Much of the revenue for T.C.H. comes from rents, most of which are geared to the tenants' incomes. $200, million is provided in city subsidies annually, which covers just less than a third of the budget.

As tenants' incomes and revenues don't increase by leaps and bounds, it's not easy to operate the T.C.H., since operating expenses have increased by leaps and bounds. The cost for hydro within the T.C.H.'s 2,100 buildings has increased 43% since 2012, water costs are up 39%.

The 2.6% reduction in the subsidies is about $5 million in additional pressure, that, with the $96 million existing gap, will certainly mean homes will be boarded up this year and next. The City Council is short $1.7 billion which was expected from the Provincial and Federal Governments and has yet to materialize.

Lack of funding will necessarily cause lack of repairs. One of the worst hit is the Grassway Community at Jane and Firgrove. According to the Vice President of Management at Grassway, Sheila Penny...."People will soon be living in the air. They'll be living in nature". Crumbling brick exteriors, deterioration caused by water damage, has left 22 units uninhabitable. Backyards have been quarantined because of construction fencing being strewn with danger signs. To put it bluntly, lack of money means homelessness or living in a dump.

This has nothing to do with the Toronto City Council and its appointed administrators being incompetent, corrupt or indifferent. Some might be, that wouldn't be a moot point. Capitalism is a market economy, meaning goods have to be sold for a profit in the market. From profits come taxes, some of which pay for the administration of daily life in our cities. If the market goes down, as they all do, given the boom/ slump nature of capitalism, then obviously the taxes will not be forthcoming, the present situation in Detroit being a perfect (if one can use the word) example.

Politicians may do what little they can, but they cannot come up with an answer, because, within capitalism, there isn't one. 

John Ayers.