Mayor Rob Ford
Toronto City Hall
2nd Floor
100 Queen St. West
Toronto ON
M5H 2N2

October 21, 2011

Re: Proposed selling of TCHC units

 Dear Mayor Ford,

Our city is facing a serious threat today.  The TCHC Board is proposing the selling of 706 properties across Toronto.  In a city where affordable housing is already scarce, a cut of this size would tear into the very people who need it the most.  We must not allow this to happen.

The TCHC has both a mission and responsibility when it comes to social housing in Toronto.  Neighbourhoods thrive when people of different backgrounds live together—a fact TCHC acknowledged when they replaced an isolated Regent Park with a mixed-income, mixed-use neighbourhood that connected with the larger community.

Selling these homes will not help TCHC meet the goals it has set out for itself.  Displacing 2600 tenants and placing them in existing subsidized units creates the isolated low-income areas that this city has struggled against.  Evicting tenants who pay market-rent can only reduce the funds available to TCHC.

What Toronto needs is better investment in affordable housing.  We must repair existing homes, and build new units.  With 150,000 people in Ontario already on waiting lists, there is clearly a need. Instead of eliminating properties through short-sighted fire-sales, the city should work with the province to develop a comprehensive housing strategy; one that will increase the availability of safe, affordable housing for everyone who needs it.

Sincerely,

Rosario Marchese

MPP Trinity-Spadina