ABOVE: Mayor Tory calls on province, feds to help pay for repairs to public housing
TORONTO – Investments in the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s (TCHC) building repairs will result in direct economic and social benefits for the city, according to a new study released Monday.
An economic impact report conducted by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis and commissioned by TCHC also paints a dire picture of the city’s social and economic well-being if further investments aren’t made.
“I believe the moral and business cases illustrated by this study makes a bullet proof case for why the Ontario and federal governments should invest now to repair housing,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory during a press conference Monday morning.
The report cites 7,500 homes will be boarded up by 2023 and 4,000 homes will be in “critical condition” by 2019 if the federal and provincial government does not invest further in Toronto’s public housing crisis.
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TCHC and the City of Toronto have developed and approved a plan to secure $2.6 billion over 10 years to address capital repair needs in 2013.
The plan calls on the federal and provincial governments to invest one-third each, starting in 2016.
The city says its share is already being used to make record levels of repairs in 2014 and 2015.
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“Ontario under previous governments has left Toronto twisting in the wind when it comes to the money being available to make these repairs and not having it born by property tax payers alone,” Tory said.
“Neither of the two governments has yet stepped up to help us do anything to fix these units and poor state of repair that they’re in.”
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The study says lack of public housing funding will lead to “over $1.5 billion in avoidable health costs,” a hike in crime rates and the risk of doubling homelessness in 10 years.
A projected 30-year impact comparison, looking at the risk and reward of a $7.5 billion investment in TCHC, would generate an additional $5 billion in private capital investment and $4.5 billion in federal and provincial tax revenues.
“We are going to renew our commitment to go forward to try to convince these governments of the wisdom of doing this both on the moral basis and business case basis because it is never too late to do the right thing,” said Tory.
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