Last week, Marwa Eldardiry and I, student interns at SHSC, went to the City of Toronto Archives. We were there to visit SHSC’s co-sponsored exhibition, “A New Lease on Life.” The exhibit is a pictorial history of public and private rental development projects in Toronto, depicting how the social housing sector has changed over the years.
City of Toronto Archives
As a co-op student from the Corporate Communications program at Seneca College, I am new to the social housing sector. With limited background knowledge in affordable housing, I was impressed with the exhibit’s presentation of Toronto’s history of rental housing. Incorporating numerous illustrations and primary documentation, the exhibit gave me a strong sense of the changes in social housing in over the course of the past 100 years.
Walking in, Marwa and I were welcomed with a large poster explaining: “Although Toronto is known as a ‘city of homes,’ it might just as well call itself a ‘city of renters.’” On the floor, in front of the poster, were two vintage suitcases, which set the tone of the exhibit: renters on the move in 20th century Toronto.
Safer and Healthier Communities in Toronto
A prominent theme that permeated the exhibit was the need to create safer and healthier communities in Toronto. Due to the inadequate living conditions that had been the norm in the city’s past, the city undertook the Regent Park North project in 1947, Canada’s first public housing project. The project marked the start of a public program to end the slums in the city, which emerged in the absence of a public housing system. At the time, this project took a new approach, utilizing the “Garden City” model. The new buildings, designed in an “X” shape, were separated by vast amounts of green space. It was interesting to be able to compare Regent Park’s building planning model, which was a dramatic contrast to the surrounding neighbourhoods. The nearby buildings were side-by-side, with little separation between them. The Bluette’s were the first family to move into Regent Park in March 1949. Alfred Bluette, when first moving in, said that it was, “like walking into a dream.”
However, Regent Park, built exclusively to provide affordable housing, faced criticism as time passed. The city and Regent Park tenants found the project to be ineffective, as it created a social divide, turning Regent Park into a community that became isolated from the city. The inner streets did not connect to main roads and afforded limited access for emergency vehicles and visitors. The area, not being conducive to community building, once again declined.
By attending the exhibit, I learned about the history of affordable housing in Toronto, and how social housing developments have changed over the past century. The exhibit’s examination of Regent Park shows how affordable housing projects in Toronto, and the lessons planners have learned from them, can help pave the way for future developments.
Visit the Exhibition
To learn more about the chronicles of Toronto’s public and private rental developments, visit “A New Lease on Life” exhibition at the City of Toronto Archives.
The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will run until the end of the year.
Watch for Marwa’s blog next week, as she takes a closer look at Toronto’s early development of affordable rental housing.
When renting out your common and/or party rooms, one last thing to remember is that any property belonging to your tenants, the event attendees or organizers is not covered by your corporation’s insurance policy. It is important to make this clear when you are renting these rooms and in any rental contract or agreement. If; however, anything happens at or during the event that results in loss or damage to property belonging to your housing corporation, your policy will provide coverage as long as the cause of the loss or damage is an “Insured Peril” (aka: a covered risk).
We’ve talked about several different aspects of the risks and issues for you to think about regarding common and/or party room rentals recently and our final installment in our series will recap them all. In the meantime, refer to parts 1, 2 and 3 for a refresher or for anything you may have missed.
Party Room/Common Room Rentals Series
If you have ever had to deal with overflowing garbage bins, trash blowing around buildings and related residents complaints, you know that this is not only unsightly – it can also be costly and time consuming. Reducing and recycling are not just trends or nice ideas, they are ways to lower operating costs and improve living and working conditions.
Sioux Lookout recently demonstrated how community-led efforts can help solve big problems. This north-western Ontario town of 5,500 recently became the first community in Ontario to move towards the outright banning of plastic bags, a ban that started with a citizens’ environment committee and a survey by high school students.
Why are plastic bags a problem?
The chemicals used to manufacture disposable plastic bags are toxic to both people and the environment. The phthalates used to stabilize and soften plastic are known endocrine disruptors. Vinyl chloride is a proven carcinogen and can also cause liver, kidney, and brain damage.
Although these bags are designed to be disposable, they are highly resource-intensive to manufacture, process, transport and dispose of – especially given that they’re intended for single use. But even if you re-use a disposable bag, most will still end up in landfill, where they can take up to 1,000 years to break down. Like plastic garbage patches in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the bags may be out of sight, but their negative impacts to the environment, the economy and human and animal health persist long after they’ve been used.
Other Jurisdictions
To date, Sioux Lookout is among only a handful of global leaders in their move to ban the bag.
In March 2002, Bangladesh banned plastic bags in its capital after they were found to have been the main culprit during the 1988 and 1998 floods that submerged two-thirds of the country. Discarded bags were choking the drainage system. Notably, the ban has produced an unexpected positive economic effect: the revival of the jute bag industry. Jute grows abundantly in Bangladesh and requires a lot less energy to process than polyethelene.
Also in 2002, Ireland introduced a PlasTax of about $0.20 per bag. The money raised from the tax is put into a “green fund” to further benefit communities and the environment. The result has been that consumption has decreased by more than 90%, thanks to an intensive environmental awareness campaign, which made the carrying of plastic bags socially unacceptable.
The Power of Community
In the cases of Ireland and Sioux Lookout particularly, engaging the community proved to be critical to the success of the ban and its environmental and economic outcomes.
What does this mean to people in the housing sector? Well, there are many simple and inexpensive actions which you can take to lower costs and complaints in your buildings and improve health, comfort and maintenance. GLOBE’s Community Champions program, recently recognized in the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s recent annual report as a notable initiative, educates and enables the residents themselves to become agents of change in their own communities.
In addition, GLOBE’s soon to be released Sustainability Toolbox is a “starter kit” to identifying opportunities which will provide you with sector-specific examples of improvements that you can make to increase the efficiency of your operations.
To find out more about it, email us!
Helen Looker is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s master’s program in planning and a successful contributor to the joint SHSC/CPRN internship and scholar program. Her main research interest is exurban housing in small town Ontario and senior’s issues in segregated retirement communities. Helen recently took time to answer some questions about her paper The Homeownership Component of the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program: Critical Analysis of Program Objectives.
Research Questions:
Q. Why do you think it is important that research be focused on the effectiveness of the homeownership component of the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program?
A. It is important to critically examine the political reasons for increasing homeownership to low and moderate income households. The implications of the financial burden to such households could result in impaired health, financial instability, and increased homelessness.
Q. Could you elaborate on the impact that increased rates of home ownership has had on waiting lists for affordable housing in Ontario?
A. Market renters represent the majority of the applicants for supported home ownership programs. While their movement out of social housing frees up spaces, it increases the concentration of low-income households in the sector.
Q. Based on your research, how do you foresee the homeownership component Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program evolving?
A. As policies to support home ownership have become the preferred housing option of many North American housing strategies, the program will continue to be a government tool to promote homeownership. This is why efforts must be made to craft policies to help low-to-moderate income households sustain their place on the real estate ladder.
Q. What needs to happen to make the transition from affordable housing to homeownership a more feasible option for lower income tenants?
A. What is needed is a system that provides the financial and educational support needed to promote the transition to a higher income level.
The move from affordable housing to home ownership could be made more accessible by equipping low income individuals with financial literacy, household management skills, employment and educational upgrading opportunities.
Click here to checkout Helen Looker’s paper!
The Homeownership Component of the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program: Critical Analysis of Program Objectives
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