There aren’t enough of the mayor’s crocodile tears to wash away the stain, nor are there enough of his fridge magnets to cover it over.

I refer to the death of an 88-year-old man who was evicted by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation.

Pay close attention.

During a press conference the other day, following the release of the ombudsman’s report on the eviction of seniors from public housing, the mayor said he was concerned, and that he was going to fix things.

The mayor was serious when he said this, because he used the words “very, very” to describe the depth of his concern; and he said, “folks,” which is what he does when he wants to underline his meaning.

But he also said, sotto voce and in passing, that the problems cited by the ombudsman, including the eviction of the man who died, happened under another administration.

One little problem.

The ombudsman, Fiona Crean, investigated the eviction of some 79 seniors; these evictions occurred between 2011 and 2012.

Ford was elected mayor in 2010.

In other words, the events reported by the ombudsman happened under his administration.

We should be concerned about responsibility — very, very, folks — but let us be clear about our focus.

If the mayor was referring to the administration of the housing corporation, I remind you that Rob Ford sacked the board of TCHC and fired CEO Keiko Nakamura in the wake of the fire at 200 Wellesley. He replaced Nakamura on an interim basis with his own man, Len Koroneos and, for a time, he made his old ally, Case Ootes, a one-man board of directors.

The new board?

His people, also.

They bear the burden far more than the new CEO, Gene Jones, who is so far off to a rip-roaring start.

A word about Koroneos: on the subject of evictions, he once said, “Good eviction prevention programs cannot be implemented at the expense of rent collection.”

And while Koroneos was saying that, TCHC was busy kicking elderly tenants to the curb.

Let me repeat the details of the case highlighted by the ombudsman: The man owed $45 in 2009; by the time TCHC finished with him, in 2012, he owed $10,000; that amount, by the way, was a fiction. The man died, two weeks after the eviction, in 2012.

The mayor in 2012?

Rob Ford.

For a time, I also remind you, the board of the community housing corporation consisted of one man: Case Ootes, appointed by the mayor.

I attended one of those one-man board meetings at which Ootes moved himself, seconded himself and adopted himself; he was a quorum of one.

In April of 2011, Ootes said — and I heard him say it — that TCHC ought to be nothing more than a landlord, and should not be in the business of providing social services.

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The mayor in 2011?

Rob Ford.

Now let us consider the notion of social services for a moment. There are some 164,000 people — men and women, fathers and mothers, brothers, uncles, cousins, nieces, aunts — living in public housing.

They are in housing because they are vulnerable.

Gene Jones, the new CEO of the community housing corporation, suggested recently that as many as 10 per cent of these tenants may have some sort of mental health issues. They are vulnerable.

The ombudsman said, in her report, that 93 per cent of community housing tenants pay rent geared to income.

They are vulnerable.

There are 26,809 seniors in community housing, paying rent geared to income; 6,500 of these are over 80.

They may be the most vulnerable of all.

Yet Ford’s one-man board, Case Ootes, said that TCHC has no business providing social services.

Who, then?

I remind you now that the ombudsman’s report is a perfectly condensed echo of the LeSage Report, which recommended many measures intended to protect seniors; had that report been implemented at Ford’s direction, on Ford’s watch, by Ford’s hand-picked people, then we would not have this mess.

Pop quiz: whose mess? Answer: where’s my fridge magnet?