Selling a small number of TCHC’s single-family homes, refinancing mortgages and taking a slice of the land transfer tax will be among the recommendations released next month for tackling the housing agency’s $750 million repair bill.

A special working group struck to deal with the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s problems will further suggest co-operating with a non-profit such as Habitat for Humanity to move some social housing tenants to ownership.

The group’s chair, Councillor Ana Bailão, said in an interview that the city also needs to make specific, “reasonable” demands to the province and Ottawa.

“We have a crisis. We are doing everything we can, and we will present clear strategies to reduce the huge repair backlog,” said Bailão, who will release the group’s report Sept. 17 and present it to Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee Oct. 9.

“We’re going to be bringing money to the table, and we’re going to expect that the provincial and federal governments are going to help us out.”

The working group was formed in March to come up with a sustainable alternative to simply selling more than 600 TCHC houses.

Bailão said consultations engaged more than 600 people, including the 63 per cent of tenants of the “scattered” houses who responded to a survey; participants at an “ideas forum” that engaged the private sector, academics and non-profits; and a packed “suggestions for ideas” town hall.

The group’s members — Bailão, TCHC chair Bud Purves, former Conservative MP Alan Redway and management consultant Jim Pimblett — are soliciting additional information from TCHC and drafting specific recommendations, with deadlines.

She said they will include:

• Selling a “small number” of the 619 occupied TCHC single-family homes. An “in-depth analysis” of each property is being conducted.

Factors include the current number of tenants, the building’s condition, whether it is wheelchair-accessible, the number of bedrooms and size of mortgage.

“We are not looking at the majority of the houses,” Bailão said. “There are scenarios where it might make sense to sell a home. It doesn’t make sense for TCHC to have a home worth $600,000 or $700,000 that has two bedrooms.” She noted that tenants of more than 100 of the homes, some of which are in disrepair, have already requested a move. Council previously approved the sale of 65 vacant homes.

• Working with Infrastructure Ontario to refinance TCHC mortgages and leverage equity from its assets, as the City of Ottawa did. An Ottawa official told www.toronto.ca/affordablehousing/pdf/ideasforum-agendajuly3-12.pdf+&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjhjPB7zUdEeCgGCN8Kp2Tj7kn2QW1ucwX0kup_FqHHhSxcmi6xhBE6D8Od_UfabdUUJYbY8IRTjP2ho-mLISPeC2bZaBBkPcDdQfpD2bKi_pyQb26sfuI2fvdttMGQgBYxuWOF&sig=AHIEtbTudA5bQkDfqBhCTZ-ItXwh6QHZEA&pli=1" target="_blank">the July 3 ideas forum how the move generated $17 million for capital repairs. Bailão said Toronto could generate more, given its bigger housing stock.

“TCHC has mortgages (with rates) that go up to 11 per cent — that’s a lot,” she said. If “you can blend all the mortgages you have much better rates, extend the amortization period and increase the cash.”

• Robert Murdie of York University and the University of Toronto suggested in a research paper that a portion of revenues from the city’s land transfer tax be dedicated to TCHC repairs. Bailão said Torontonians are likely to support such a use of the controversial tax, which raises the cost of buying property. But she wouldn’t want to divert money from social programs or to see the recommendation turn into a council fight over Ford’s pledge to scrap the tax.

• Habitat for Humanity Toronto chief executive Neil Hetherington wrote a letter to the group outlining a plan to help up to 100 TCHC tenants buy their homes. The city would release $3.3 million in provincial and federal funds from a downpayment assistance program. Habitat would match that and develop a “vendor-take-back mortgage.” TCHC would get the market price and buyers would get a balanced, affordable mortgage.

Bailão said she would like to see more people “move through the system” in such a way. The recommendation will be to tender for such a proposal, she said, noting it wouldn’t be fair to arbitrarily pick one non-profit.

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But those strategies and others also being suggested won’t add up to $750 million. The group will recommend the city start moving on its own to close the maintenance gap while seeking help from senior governments — including a national housing strategy.

“We actually have very concrete actions for both governments that we think would be very helpful,” Bailão said. “The working group believes it can only be our way out of this.”

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