TORONTO

Mayor John Tory and the Toronto Community Housing Corp. ramped up their efforts Monday to obtain $1.7 billion from the provincial and federal governments to fix the city’s crumbling housing stock.

Tory unveiled TCHC’s $185,000 study — by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis — on the economic impact of the agency’s 10-year revitalization plan outside a TCHC social housing building on Roywood Dr.

“I am going to invest every ounce of energy I have in trying to convince the other governments that they have a moral obligation to participate in the proper upkeep up these buildings and there will be big business benefit to them as it were through increased job creation, increased tax revenues for those governments,” Tory said.

TCHC has created a $2.6-billion, 10-year plan to repair its housing units, but so far, only the City of Toronto has committed cash towards the effort. The federal and provincial governments are being asked to provide $864 million each to make the fix possible.

The report noted the current state of housing stock is dismal and could get worse without investment — only 64% of TCHC units are in “good or fair condition” while 35% are in poor condition and 1% are in critical condition.

“Without an investment in repairing these homes, by 2023, TCHC can expect 91% of its units to be in poor or critical condition, or to have been closed as they reach an unsafe state of disrepair,” the report states.

If the province and federal governments faile to provide needed funding, the report warns that 7,500 homes will be uninhabitable by 2023 while 4,000 homes will be in critical condition by 2019 and 12,000 will be in critical condition by 2023.

“I will not be a mayor who presides over, what I think would be, the irresponsible decision to simply let these buildings get boarded up over time by failure to make the repairs,” Tory said.

Along with the risk of losing housing units, the report concludes the financing TCHC’s revitalizations of neighbourhoods will create jobs, help generate an additional $5 billion in private capital investment and $4.5 billion in tax revenues.

Councillor Ana Bailao — the city’s housing advocate and a TCHC board member — promised there will be a rally at City Hall on April 28, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

don.peat@sunmedia.ca

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