Public housing on the edge

City agency, faced with latest shootings, laments lack of funding to improve rundown units

By BEN SPENCER


Mayor David Miller helped knock down some of the original Regent Park social housing in early 2006. Construction of new units on the levelled site is well under way -- and urgently needed. (Sun Media files)
The shooter came looking for someone else.

But when he pulled a gun and opened fire last Wednesday, two teens lay on the ground bleeding just a stone's throw away from a playground in Regent Park.

The 18-year-old took a pair of slugs in his chest while the other, just 15, was shot in the legs. Both lived, and police are still looking for the gunman, who fled on a bicycle.

Trouble is a habitual visitor in Toronto's public housing communities and, despite efforts by residents and housing officials, these neighbourhoods are getting worse.

The city's aging, rundown and outdated supply of as -sisted housing for poor and struggling families have long been viewed as magnets for crime, drug dealing, violence, domestic assault and alcohol- and drug-fuelled violence.

There is considerable truth in such characterizations, though for the vast majority of residents in these communities such stigmatization is undeserved.


Clearly, however, decades of government neglect and sloppy management have left Toronto Community Housing (THC) with almost insurmountable problems.

And just as clearly, senior officials within the public corporation say that unless something is done, Toronto's entire public housing program will crumble.

THC is the largest social housing provider in Canada and the second largest in North America, home to about 164,000 low- and moderate-income tenants in 58,500 households.

And, like many in Regent Park, a lot of them are scared.

In the latest tenant survey, taken in 2006, just 29% felt their neighbourhood was safe. Even fewer -- a mere 25% -- felt safe outside their buildings.

MORE POLICE

Not surprisingly, nearly every person surveyed -- 94% -- said more police would make them feel safer.

"We have our challenges, we have our issues, we have our incidents," THC chairman David Mitchell said. "We are working to minimize that."

While resident safety is a day-to-day challenge for TCH, the long-term appears just as much a concern.

Ninety-two days after taking over as chairman of the city-owned corporation, Mitchell is clearly frustrated.

He has already become accustomed to the roadblocks constantly faced by TCH in its pursuit of better social housing -- in particular, government funding.

Mitchell laments a "significant funding shortfall," describing his daily battle to convince provincial and federal governments of the need to fix and replace old, poorly planned housing built from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Derek Ballantyne, TCH's chief executive officer since 2001, paints an even gloomier picture of the agency's financial woes. Should funds continue to run dry, he can see the day when social housing in Toronto falls apart completely.

The figures are staggering.

Aside from the $350 million needed immediately for repairs -- many units haven't been touched in a generation -- another $20 million is required every year to cover ongoing maintenance.

$75M FROM SALE

"Think of it like this," Ballantyne said last week. "If you have a bridge and you stop repairing that bridge, at some point you close the bridge and you don't drive over it any more. Frankly, I don't think that's good for any of us."

Some headway was made this week from the sale of Toronto Hydro Telecom.

On Friday, Mayor David Miller announced he will seek to have the approximately $75 million in city proceeds from the sale invested in the "much-needed repair" of Toronto's public housing.

But given the scale of work required -- nothing short of the levelling and reconstruction of communities in some of the city's most troubled neighbourhoods -- it is a proverbial drop in the bucket.

Earlier this month, the Sun uncovered a semi-detached two-storey house in the east end whose only tenant was a dead pigeon.

TCH said it had no plans to sell or rent the house, empty since last May, until later this year, when it completes a review of its $6 billion worth of property.

At the same time, TCH also revealed it had 1,422 units sitting vacant, while 70,000 low-income women, children and working people wait for affordable housing.

TCH doesn't have enough money to fix them up and is prohibited by regulation from selling them off unless it builds replacement units.

There's no cash for that either.

Ballantyne said budget constraints are taking their toll on everything from security and youth programs to landscaping and "all the discretionary things that make a person's place to live reasonable and decent."

He believes that situation is likely to get worse.

"I don't want to over-dramatize, but if we did not address this problem we would have to take some of the housing out of use," he said.

"You can't ask people to live in apartments that don't meet the basic standards. It's as simple as that."

When it comes to keeping social housing residents safe, the buck stops with Terry Skelton, director of TCH's community safety unit.

Each year she has $13 million at her disposal to spend on security, just one part of the agency's three-pronged approach to improving the safety of its residents.

It has close to 100 in-house safety officers on hand to address immediate community concerns, 88 of whom are special constables certified by Toronto Police.

They are given the power to arrest, transport and release for a range of offences like trespassing, liquor violations and low-end drug dealing.

It spends another $3 million on community development, part of its strategy to help youth stay in school, find employment and lead productive lives.

Finally, a smart planning program that includes a system of closed circuit cameras is used to deter crime and provide evidence for investigation.

Speaking a day after Wed nesday's shooting, Skelton said there was little doubt residents in larger social housing communities have concerns about their safety.

With every gun battle or stabbing in the city's social housing, negative stereotypes become more difficult to shake, she said.

"Stigmas are very difficult to address," she said. "The more people get out in their communities and get to know their neighbours and other families, it does start to decrease the feeling of fear in the community because they know more about what is going on."

The solution, Mitchell insists, is a major public housing renewal program in this city, supported by Ottawa and the province, to begin the process of rebuilding safe, sustainable and liveable public housing communities.

As the new chairman, Mitchell has inherited the sins of his predecessors.

"Toronto housing is safe," he insisted this week. "I would suggest as a city and as a microcosm of that city, tenants feel safe in Toronto community housing."

That statement came barely an hour before the Regent Park shooting.

But for two teens caught in the gunfire and for their families, it's difficult t o see how that's so.