Tenant City

Distilling rental housing policy, tenants' rights and other social justice news for the GTA.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Incomplete downloading ties municipal hands on social housing

Counties seeks changes in social housing regs, Brockville Recorder & Times, 27 Feb 2006
Dorothy Theobald, director of social services [for the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville], made a presentation recently in Toronto to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Gerretsen asking for his support to develop specific proposals.

"We have a very old stock of housing, some of it 60 years old, and there are challenges in maintaining it," said Theobald...

One of the crucial questions that needs to be settled is the debentures currently held by the province on buildings downloaded to the municipality eight years ago, she said. Without local control over those debentures, making capital plans for housing improvements is very difficult, she said.

"It is a barrier to doing other things," said Theobald.

"What we need really is flexibility around debentures. The whole mortgage system should be within the municipality. If we can get that, we can take what we have and reinvest to the best of our ability."

The request parallels a similar resolution by the Social Housing Services Corporation in 2004, which called for the transfer of mortgage administration to municipalities to complete the downloading process.

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