a tenant revolution, but is anyone listening?

The first thing you notice is getting around the corner to Bleecker St.
In downtown Toronto, the balcony of the apartment building is crumbling and the rusty steel bars are bare because there is no whole piece of concrete.
Catherine Wallace smiled deliberately. \"Ha!
Look at the window, the bathroom.
I\'ll take you to the 14 th floor.
As a \"representative\" of this internal tenant\"
High-rise building for the elderly in the city, Wallace\'s mission is to place 55 Bleecker on the map to repair the towering view, \"proud of the place\" in her words \". \" Pride?
This is not a sentiment usually associated with public housing in Toronto, which is the poorest and most vulnerable place in the city;
It has become a fortress of violence, drugs and corruption.
But years of public apathy, government neglect, and long-term underfunding have triggered a grassroots campaign against politicians who can make changes.
The tipping point appeared in 2002, when all 58,500 provincial, regional and municipal-managed public housing units in Toronto were merged into one entity, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, it is now the second largest landlord in North America after the New York City public housing authority.
It is so big that Mayor David Miller points out that more people live in public housing in Toronto (164,000)
Than on Prince Edward Island (138,000).
When the province handed over financial responsibility for the maintenance of these buildings to the city, many of the buildings where these people live were old and the overhaul was overdue.
In short, the province brought albatross to the city.
But with this huge burden, the tenants have a surprising opportunity: the first chance to complain to a landlord.
Although their living conditions are not up to standard, this has also spawned a citywide network of 390 tenant delegates, basically 390 Kathryn varales, who are now knocking on the door to urge
It happened to be October.
With the support and financial support of housing companies, this network has put the deteriorating state of public housing on the political agenda.
Is anyone listening?
In May, they launched the building that saved us (SOS)
Dump rusty faucets, wet drywalls and broken countertops at the entrance to Queen\'s Park and ask MPPs to pay for them, otherwise they may be \"evicted\" in the election \".
\"How should you be a productive citizen when you wake up and nothing works?
Asked Tracy Izard, the tough man.
120-talk tenant representative
Unit townhouse Sheppard Avenue. and Leslie St.
When it rains, 80 basements will flood.
\"You can\'t invite your friends over if they live in half --a-million-dollar homes.
When you get up, there is a hole in the ceiling and the toilet is not working, how should you go to school, put on that happy smiling face and learn?
Well, you\'re not.
\"Of the 2,200 buildings, more than half are now between the ages of 30 and 40-an age when most major components live longer than normal expectations.
Leaking roof, broken elevator, heating and air circulation system-which means you can smell everyone\'s dinner in the hallway-crumbling balcony, rotten floor, corroded pipes, worn wires, not to mention the old and inefficient refrigerators and stoves in thousands of tenant kitchens.
Over 524 kitchens in Fleming Park
The unit townhouse, built in 1962, lacks cabinet doors and requires new taps or countertops.
For 4 years, there has been no fresh air in Hall 18.
Storey Gilder Crescent High Rise in Scarborough-every fan on the roof is broken.
In four tall buildings in the city center
Jamestown, there are water pipes leaking on every floor. And in a mid-
The rise apartment building in the west of Queen\'s Wharf is located on the waterfront of the city center and the four units are empty because the housing agency cannot afford to get rid of mold.
After the download, an independent study of the condition of these buildings in 2002 showed that the city believed that the province should pay a maintenance backlog of about $0. 23 billion.
The outstanding repair costs are now $0. 3 billion due to inflation and the ongoing construction recession.
But if health starts at home, it\'s a deal compared to Ontario\'s $35 billion per year health level --care bill.
\"We have a large share of low-income people.
Income families in this city, I am very confident that they should have a reasonable place of residence, \"said Derek barantan, chairman of the housing authority.
\"It is the responsibility of the government to make sure they get it.
\"The housing company has launched 10-year $1.
1 billion it is planned to restore the buildings to good repair.
It can fund $0. 8 billion of that through current income and capital loans.
But without the province\'s $0. 3 billion in outstanding funds, the plan could not be completed, leaving the housing company in a state of constant strain
Said barantan.
So far, the city has refused to raise municipal taxes to cover overdue maintenance costs, believing that the province has a moral obligation to address the deteriorating situation and to be richer.
The city, which spends more than $90 million a year on public housing, tries to help address emergency grants and capital borrowing costs, but says it can\'t afford to bridge that gap.
Ballantyne says some of the dilapidated buildings are no longer being repaired.
A whole community like Jane.
Fincher in northern New York, Jamestown in Rex Dale, and Alexandra Park in downtown may need to be razed and rebuilt.
Another 15 people, including Lawrence Heights, need major reconstruction.
However, only 50-year-
The old Regent\'s Park, the country\'s oldest public housing complex, and the nearby Don Munte court are being leveled.
Toronto Community Housing is trying to make money without money to solve other problems.
It has replaced thousands of old refrigerators, stoves and toilets.
The roof of some buildings also began to have new stoves.
However, in most complexes, the main structural work is still financially out of reach.
At 190 Woolner Avenue.
, Every corner apartment on the southeast side of 16-
The high-rise buildings in the west end of the city were soaked in the rain.
However, the housing agency did not carry out structural repair, but solved the problem of wall repair.
\"They send people to paint the plaster every year,\" said angry Ayan Yussuf, who pulled the curtains in her bedroom and revealed the latest solution. The 36-year-
The four-year-old single mother said a storm wet the entire floor and destroyed the family passport that was stored in the next box in her bed.
She accused damp of bothering her youngest child 2-year-
Old Kamal sleeping in the bedroom cribYussuf, a part-
The time homeworker said the building was \"beautiful\" when she moved in 17 years ago \".
There are 6 maintenance personnel and security guards on duty 24 hours a day.
There is now a cleaner and a bunch of surveillance cameras.
Public housing tenants are very poor-immigrants, the elderly, the disabled and single --
Parents\' families earn an average of $14,000 a year.
Some people have mental health problems and addiction.
Other people have criminal records.
Most people can\'t afford to live anywhere else.
Congestion is a common phenomenon.
Tenants say construction staff can exercise considerable authority over who gets what, who gets what, and when gets what.
The agency is currently investigating allegations that house workers have taken bribes from tenants seeking larger apartments in Woolner 190.
In many complexes, this apparent bias contributes to the fatalism of those waiting for years of repair.
\"They told us they would fix it.
\"They just don\'t tell us which year it is,\" Ahrardt said . \"Shorty)
Wettlaufer, 80, lives at the North York townhouse near Leslie Street.
Since opening 37 years ago
His basement is one of the 80 basement that leaks when it rains.
\"We felt good when we first moved in.
\"You can\'t ask for a better place,\" he said, standing in front of his newly planted rose garden . \".
\"But it\'s all gone.
Izzard, the tenant representative, admitted that not all tenants were like Wettlaufer.
\"Some people just have to do some housework,\" she said disdainfully . \".
At 190 Woolner, the tenant has been trying to get public health officials to take action against a blind person for more than a year because his apartment is too dirty and the floor moves because of cockroaches.
In this case, the policy is to provide free pest control and social service support before taking legal action.
But at the same time, other apartments have also been hit by pests.
Meladeen Smith, 77year-
The old pension collector, who lives on two floors below him, said that at first the flood flooded the walls behind her kitchen ceiling and sink.
A repairman repaired the ceiling and reinstalled it.
She said the kitchen cabinets were painted but did not come back to clog the holes.
\"My children and my grandchildren will not come here because of this,\" she said . \" She pointed to a group of cockroaches crawling under the sink.
\"I don\'t want them to do that.
Disgusting.
When the province handed over public housing in Toronto five years ago, former city councillor Brad dujid called it a \"time bomb \".
\"Now the Liberal People\'s Party in the center of Scarborough and the parliamentary assistant to minister of housing John Gleason dujid told tenants that they need to talk to the city, in the budget for this spring, the province provided $27 million in housing to Toronto.
Last month, when Prime Minister Dalton McGinty told municipal leaders that the province would take back some of the social service fees downloaded by Mike Harris Conservatives, housing agency officials held their breath.
But public housing is not on the list.
The tenant representative met with 19 of the 22 Toronto MPPs and the minister of housing.
All said they wanted to spend more money to fix public housing, but few said they had urged their party leaders to take action.
Toronto-private
Regional liberals say the plight of public housing tenants rarely arises when the city lobbied the province for money.
David Miller, mayor of Toronto, said that this is not the case. he has repeatedly raised a maintenance backlog of $0. 3 billion, but has no results so far.
At the same time, Miller said, the city spends $38 million a year on public housing renovation, while the $27 million it receives from the province is actually federal funding related to new housing.
\"It is shameful that there is so much maintenance work backlog when provincial housing is downloaded,\" he said . \".
The tenants were reluctant to sit back when the government quarreled.
So a tenant representative like Catherine Wallace is busy pushing public housing residents to speak.
\"They all have a story to tell,\" said Wallace . \" He listed those pension recipients who bought wet clothes.
The dry vacuum cleaner absorbs water in the flooded apartment, the dehumidifier is used to suppress mold, the air purifier is used to cover up the smell of lack of ventilation, and the chemical spray is used to kill bugs crawling on the walls.
\"People tell you that they put a requisition and did nothing,\" she said, pointing to the wrinkled ceiling tiles along the corridor on the 14 th floor from the leaking roof.
\"But we want to make a difference.
Columnist Joe Fiorito commented on the issues facing public housing in Toronto on Monday and Wednesday.