The Biggest Slum Landlord In Toronto - Comrade David Miller

Possibly if he spent as much time looking after his tenants as he does on shutting down gun clubs the citizens of Toronto might benefit.

Space goes to waste City housing vacant

By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA

While 70,000 low-income women, children and working people wait for affordable housing in Toronto, the city's public housing agency has 1,422 units sitting vacant.

Yesterday's Sun reported the horrible conditions at one of the vacant semi-detached two-storey homes in the upper Beach that could still sell for $300,000.

A dead pigeon and rats had been the only tenants at 114 Kingsmount Park Rd. for the past year.

That house, which was cleaned up and locked yesterday by the Toronto Community Housing Corp. after the Sun began investigating it, isn't alone.

While officials from the TCHC couldn't provide a number late yesterday of how many of their units were deemed uninhabitable, figures from December, 2007 suggest there are around 300 units -- apartment and houses -- empty because they are too decrepit. Of the 550 single-family homes the city owns, 50 were vacant late last year for various reasons.

Now, documents from the TCHC show a massive inventory of 1,422 vacant houses and apartments -- some of which are derelict and in desperate need of repair before they can be rented out again. The number of vacant units this quarter is an increase of 14% from last year.

With 58,000 units, it is the second largest public landlord in North America.

The chairman of the city's affordable housing committee and a board member of the TCHC said the vacancies are a "crisis" but they simply can't afford to fix them up right now without an influx of $300 million, which should come from the city, the province, and Ottawa.

"It's absolutely ridiculous that we've got this stuff (vacant properties) and the only things living and breathing in there are the mice, the rats, the pigeons and the mould," Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti said. "It's inexcusable and all three levels of government have got to do their bit ..."

But according to Councillor Case Ootes, having vacancies, ostensibly because the TCHC can't afford the repairs, while people are waiting on a list 70,000 long indicates "mismanagement".

He proposed last fall that the city-appointed and funded TCHC board sell off some of their lucrative properties. He used $800,000 to $900,000 subsidized homes on Ellerbeck St. in the Broadview and Danforth Aves. area as an example. That money could pay for the repairs of the units that they should keep.

But they might need to sell a lot of property to bring the living standards of their tenants up to par, Ootes said.

According to one former property standards officer, the city is by all accounts a slumlord.

What's worse, said the source who asked not to be identified, is that unlike slumlords who are taken to court, the city can't be fined.

Despite seeing feces and urine on floors, faulty wiring, rot, mildew, vermin infestations, and dead rats in the occupied units, the source said orders issued to Toronto Community Housing went into a "state of limbo."