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rfmcdonaldFrom Torontoist:
From the Toronto Star:
More, obviously, at each link.
How do you fix North America’s second-largest social housing provider?
That’s the question the six-member TCHC task force appointed by John Tory tried to answer over the past year, and they presented their final report on the matter Tuesday morning. The 83-page report outlines 29 recommendations meant to address systemic problems that have long plagued TCHC, including the short supply of units, lack of funding, and poor living conditions for tenants.
Over the last few years, the city has tried fixing the myriad problems by instating new board members, new CEOs, and a TCHC working group to tackle the $2.6 billion repair backlog, but so far, progress has been slow and minute compared to what is left to do.
So how can TCHC retool—or reinvent itself—to meet the needs of some of the city’s most vulnerable residents?
“The model, as it stands, is not working, and it hasn’t been for some time. We have some deep-rooted historical problems that have a lot to do with structures and old habits,” the mayor said to the room full of media, council members and various stakeholders. “The issues faced by the TCHC are large, and they’re difficult, and they’ve been allowed to accumulate for a very long time.”
From the Toronto Star:
Joakina Fernandes remembers a time when ready help was nowhere near.
Surviving her fourth heart attack last year, the 69-year-old was deeply depressed and confined to the Toronto Community Housing highrise at the edge of Regent Park she calls home.
She credits a team of health and support workers — who have spent more than a year embedded in the building, trying to improve the quality of life there — with helping her recover.
“Since they’ve come here there’s a lot of improvement,” Fernandes said Tuesday. She’s beaming from her usual perch in the building’s community room during a now-weekly drop-in organized by the community agency, Cota. “I’m very good now. I don’t have so much problems.”
A report released Tuesday at city hall, suggesting reforms to how public housing is delivered, holds up Fernandes’ building, 220 Oak St., as a model for how to provide the direct help for vulnerable citizens that has been lacking for years. As the Star reported Tuesday, the sum of 29 recommendations contained the report, if implemented, would be the biggest change in governance since TCHC was formed in 2002.
More, obviously, at each link.
