Today I release the first part of my campaign platform……..

Homes for Everybody

When I look out my window in Ward 28, the view is not from a condo, or a century home, but from a public housing high rise in the heart of St. Jamestown. My experiences, those being of a tenant of T.C.H.C building, have confirmed my life long belief in the need for affordable, quality housing for all people. Housing is a right for all in this city, but unfortunately it is not a reality.
The following is some of the ways I believe we can work towards a more just Toronto, and actively pursue the right of housing for all:

Reform T.C.H.C
o Criteria for subsidies and space should be open and transparent so individuals can make informed decisions about their housing, and their lives.
o The T.C.H.C needs to support working families and individuals by making it easier to leave and come back to the T.C.H.C, i.e, the current system can take up to seven years on a waitlist for individuals and families to get back on the system if they leave the system due to increase prosperity. We should not punish those who can work.
o T.C.H.C buildings need to be properly managed, just like private housing corporations. This includes adequate maintenance of elevators, units, common areas and proper pest control. T.C.H.C tenants should not receive second class treatment just because they can afford no better.


Ward 28’s Last Stand
o We must stop the reckless redevelopment of St. Jamestown, like the Regent Park community, which resulted in a decrease of public housing units in Ward 28.
o My pledge is to stand up for an increase of quality public housing spaces, rather than the current trend of making a quick buck off the backs of the poor. Redevelopment should be to the benefit of these communities, rather than to the detriment of them.
o If the city cannot adequately provide housing spots that they once offered, then the city is duty bound to seek alternative measure, which include public subsidies for accommodation in the private sector.

Housing is a Right
o Currently too much money is spent on the homeless and poverty industry rather than funding meaningful programs and services to some of the city’s most vulnerable. I advocate for real solutions, not mere band-aid solutions that ease the city councilors’ sleep at night.
o Shelters cost the city, and ultimately the tax payers, significantly more than the cost of real solutions to the homeless issue. The costs of shelters are not only in their operating costs, but the costs that the spread of disease, such as TB, has on health services.
o City Hall is too obsessed with housing the poor in shelters, rather than addressing the solution that is right in front of their eyes.
o We need to increase city social services presence on the streets and shelters to aid access to needed services, whether it be healthcare, mental health, addiction treatment, job training, and other ways to support the move off the streets.
o Once we start to support the homeless properly, we need to provide housing through public or private meaning. What is ultimately important is that people have homes.
o Emergency short-term housing is needed but it is not solution, nor does it increase the ultimate quality of life issues that face the homeless of this city.
o I realize that these measures cost money, but so do the band-aid solutions that are currently in place. We need to approach this issue with a new view, and with the voice of the homeless as a part of this dialogue.