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Election report card: Housing

Any way you stack it, Toronto’s housing system is in crisis.

There are now more than 92,000 households on the waiting list for public housing, nearly 30,000 of them seniors. Toronto Community Housing, the city’s social housing provider, is facing a repair backlog of $2.6 billion, a sum the city simply can’t afford to pay on its own.

Rents in the private housing market, meanwhile, are perilously high. According to the latest city data, 43.5 per cent of households are devoting more than 30 per cent of their income to rent, a level that the Canadian Mortage and Housing Coroporation considers unaffordable.

Ensuring that its citizens have access to decent housing is arguably the city government’s most important job. Which mayoral candidate has the best plan to make sure all of us have a sturdy roof over our heads?

Doug Ford

The platform

Ford has argued that the city shouldn’t build any more affordable units until the repair backlog at Toronto Community Housing has been addressed. He hasn’t put forward a plan to pay for repairs, however, and last year joined his brother Mayor Rob Ford in voting against requesting provincial money for the backlog.

Last November, the Fords were the lone votes against a $15-million pilot project to build 71 affordable homes on prime waterfront land Doug argued that it wouldn’t be fair to other social housing tenants to allow some on the lakefront.

Most famously, in a display of populism that Pablo Escobar would have been proud of, in December Doug doled out $20 bills to residents of an Etobicoke housing project.

The good

While $20 won’t fix your leaky faucet or patch the hole in your wall, it will buy you two 50-packs of Timbits!

The bad

The city not building any new housing until all its existing units are fixed is like a hospital saying it won’t accept any new patients until all the current ones are cured. And while Doug talks a good game about being one of the “common folk,” he’d rather condemn tenants to a life of squalor than have the government actually play a role in improving their lives.

The score

Abysmal. Doug’s paternalistic approach to public housing is no policy at all.

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John Tory

The platform

Tory has said that the “best thing” the city can do to help out community housing tenants is provide them with better jobs and transit.

He supports the creation of new housing stock along the lines of the revitalization projects in Regent Park and Alexandra Park, where the government is partnering with private developers to build new mixed-income neighbourhoods.

He also says new affordable housing should be erected on existing public lands, including infill development on TCH property and new development on Toronto Parking Authority lots where garages could be put underground and affordable units placed on top.

Tory claims he is better positioned than the other candidates to secure a 10-year contract with the province to fund housing.

The good

Though it has been justifiably criticized for displacing some tenants, the Regent Park model has been relatively successful. That Tory wants new affordable housing on public property signals that he wants the city to take ownership of the housing shortage.

The bad

While Tory has spoken about housing during the campaign, he has yet to release a full platform on the issue. Is it a priority?

The score

Fair. Tory essentially suggests following existing city policy and pressuring the province for funding, but he’s offered no significant new solutions.

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Olivia Chow

The platform

Chow promises to create 15,000 new privately owned affordable rental homes over four years by issuing a guideline that 20 per cent of units in new residential towers be affordable. She says she would offer incentives to builders to meet that target by deferring development charges on the affordable units for 10 years.

She would also introduce new zoning rules for existing towers to allow for ground-level commercial activity and more public space, which she says would improve the lives of tenants in decades-old, often isolated apartment buildings.

In order to improve the maintenance of private rental housing, she wants to increase inspections and fines for landlords who don’t keep up with repairs.

Chow has suggested creating a separate governance model for seniors housing, a possible first step in breaking up the Toronto Community Housing agency, which many housing advocates believe is much too large to address the day-to-day needs of tenants. She has also mused about creating new housing specifically for LGBTQ seniors. Like Tory, she believes the province needs to shoulder its share of housing costs.

The good

Chow has provided specific targets and mechanisms by which to achieve them. Her proposal to rezone towers is backed by housing experts, and the idea of a separate agency to address the unique needs of seniors is sensible.

The bad

Even with the incentives she proposes, there is no guarantee that the ambitious target of 15,000 new affordable units can be met.

The score

Excellent. Chow’s a long-time housing advocate and has done her homework on the file.

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bens@nowtoronto.com | @BenSpurr

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