Auditor General report reveals new home owners are not protected

For most people, their home is their biggest investment, and their financial future rests on its foundation.

When purchasing a newly built home, Ontario families rely on a system that is supposed to ensure builders meet the highest standards during construction, and that their warranty is respected if things don’t measure up.

A recent Auditor General (AG) report reveals that this is not what has been happening in practice.

Over the 15 long years of Ontario’s past Liberal government, complaints from new homeowners grew. They included numerous minor and major defects in new homes, a lack of information on the competence and integrity of specific builders, warranties not being respected and a complete lack of government oversight.

Many of the complaints were directed at Tarion Warranty Corporation, which is responsible for regulating Ontario’s home building industry. Tarion’s board is controlled by developers.  

While complaints from new homeowners were on the rise, Ontario NDP MPPs were raising concerns at Queens Park about Tarion and the various issues with newly built homes. But the previous Liberal government largely ignored them.

In 2018, a successful NDP amendment in committee finally granted the Auditor General (AG) the authority to audit Tarion for the first time in its 43 years of existence.

In a report released this past October, the AG made some concerning findings, including:

-builders did not honour their warranties in more than half of the cases studied;

-nearly 10,000 claims of new home buyers were denied just because they missed Tarion’s narrow and often confusing deadline periods;

-the Ontario Building Registry, which is supposed to provide important consumer information on builders, often does not provide complete information about past builder performance for buyers to make informed choices;

-builders with bad warranty records and allegations of dishonesty and law-breaking continued to get licenses; and 

-Tarion’s senior management was rewarded up to 60 per cent in salary bonuses for maximizing Tarion’s profits and minimizing claim payouts to homeowners.

For more details, the AG’s report can be found at www.auditor.on.ca.

In August of this year, I attended a packed meeting of homeowners in the highly publicized Cardinal Creek Village development in the riding of Orleans. It gave me an opportunity to visit newly built homes with major structural defects, multiple deficiencies, mould and more.  Needless to say, homeowners were furious at a “perceived conflict of interest, burden of proof on homeowners and a lack of transparency from Tarion.” Homeowners spoke of rejected claims and, at best, severely delayed payouts with many still waiting after two years.

This is simply unacceptable. The former Liberal government failed in its oversight of new home building industry, and the current Conservative government has yet to take action.

The time for action is now, and the AG has laid out a number of key recommendations to help fix this broken system. This is a start, but more must be done to fix the anti-consumer culture that has captured Ontario’s new home warranty system. The NDP will keep fighting until Ontario families have consumer protection they can count on when they buy a new home.

Redevelopment of Wilson Station's parking lot - the saga continues

On August 14, 2019 York Centre Councillor James Pasternak hosted a working group meeting to discuss the proposed redevelopment of Wilson Station’s Main Commuter Parking Lot at 50 Wilson Heights Boulevard. The lot was deemed ‘surplus’ land by the City’s development agency, CreateTO, and was selected by Toronto City Council to include in the affordable housing initiative, Housing Now. 

The meeting was organized by the Councillor Pasternak’s office in response to concerns raised by community members related to the loss of parking at the June 2019 Housing Now Community Meeting.   

During the meeting, City of Toronto Planning and CreateTO staff provided an overview presentation. It included: a recap of the Housing Now proposed development; a summary of City Council direction on parking for Housing Now sites; an analysis of existing usage of the parking lot; and three potential parking scenarios being considered in any future development. 

To justify the selection of the Wilson Station lot, City staff presented some helpful data. For instance, they provided the result of a recent licence plate survey, which indicated that of the total 866 parking spaces, only 25% (219 spots) are used by York Centre residents. The remaining 75% are used by folks outside of the community, including the 41% of spots which are used daily by commuters from the Greater Toronto Area. 

CreateTO staff also indicated that rebuilding all 866 spots underground a future development would be unfeasible given their estimate that each space would cost $85,000 ($75 million to build 866 spots). Adding in financing and operational costs, the public would need to pay $35+ per day in order to break even.

City staff revealed that future redevelopments would include one of three parking scenarios for community members: 1) provide exclusive public parking (no dedicated residential parking space); 2) provide shared parking (residential and public parking space); and 3) provide no public parking.

Although only a dozen community members attended the meeting, participants asked detailed questions and provided clear feedback to the Councillor and city staff. I’ve summarized some of the community’s feedback below. 

General Feedback 

• Participants acknowledged that both affordable housing and commuter parking are very important issues and the community should not be presented with options that make them feel like they must choose one or the other. 
• Community members voiced that the TTC needs to be part of this discussion. There were participants at the meeting who would consider taking transit rather than driving to the station, however many people felt that TTC service is unreliable and infrequent.
• Some felt this is a safety concern – especially at night when some have to wait alone at a bus stop.

Process Feedback 

• Participants  expressed that low turnout at the meeting should not be taken as a sign of a lack of concern about this issue. Others in the community are interested and have concerns but were either unable to attend or were not aware of the meeting. 
• Participants urged the Councillor and CreateTO to do a better job at publicizing community meetings, including advertising in the local newspapers; posting a development sign in the parking lot (while has since been done); and handing out flyers at Wilson Station.

Parking Scenario Feedback 

• Participants suggested removing a scenario all together (i.e. “provide no public parking”) since it was considered unreasonable and unfair to the community.  
• Participants urged city staff to keep some or all of the existing surface lot by reconfiguring the development plans or moving the Housing Now site to a new location like Downsview/Sheppard West station.  
• Some community members expressed interest in expanding and improving the parking lot at Downsview/Sheppard West station to accommodate the loss of parking at Wilson Station.
• Participants also offered some creative solutions. Such as, using a permit system to preference local residents in public parking spaces built in future developments at Wilson Station and discouraging the use of the lot from people outside of the area by increasing the cost of parking at Wilson Station (by a couple dollars), possibly as a pilot project.

There was another Housing Now Community Meeting on September 16^th  from 6 P.M to 9 P.M at the Church of Resurrection (1 Tippett Road). I will continue to cover this issue over the coming months – feel free to read my previous articles to learn more.

Lack of affordable housing at York University

Affordable housing has become a major global issue due to gentrification, increasing property values and the sky-high rents. Access to affordable housing movement is popping up in major cities in order to mobilize against the rising housing costs and increasing homelessness. It is easy to talk about creating affordable housing. However, the creation of it is extremely difficult as people or organizations have to pass through red tape, funding shortages, lack of institutional support and bureaucratic jargon.  Affordable housing projects are created through institutional support because private businesses or corporations do not find affordable housing lucrative enough to create. With a full time student population of around 45,095, York University is the second largest university in Canada. Most of these students are commuters, meaning that they do not live on campus and travel from their homes. To combat this issue of affordable housing at York University, the Affordable Housing Committee at York University was established in 2016. The committee advocates and facilitates the creation of affordable cooperative housing on York University's surplus lands. One option to create affordable housing is through an affordable co-op housing model built on surplus lands on the Keele Campus. More than 150 housing co-ops have been established throughout Toronto and many were built through union support. However, very few new affordable housing buildings have been built since the 1990s because budget cuts to their programs. One of the last remaining housing co-ops built was the Harry Sherman Crowe Housing Co-op at York University, which was the result of the efforts of local unions.The Affordable Housing Committee at York University’s mission statement is:“Working to build capacity and partnerships, conduct research and applying for funding towards our goal of creating affordable housing.  We hope to see new affordable housing constructed at York University before 2024.”The committee is made up of faculty, staff, students, alumni, retirees and members of the wider community and is supported by Regenesis, an environmental organization at York. Regenesis believes “in empowering students as initiators of change in addressing today’s social and environmental concerns, through advocacy and service in local chapters”. They “focus on real, comprehensive and practical initiatives and programs to make our campus and our communities, cities and planet more sustainable”.The creation of affordable housing for York University students is vital because several national and international students are paying abhorrent amount of rent to York or private landowners surrounding the Keele campus for their residence. It is vital that we provide options for students to find affordable housing. We as a community should hope for success in the creation of affordable housing at York University spearheaded and led by The Affordable Housing Committee, its supporters and donors.

More cuts: Ford scraps rent control leaving tenants vulnerable

The Ontario PC’s fall economic plan was released on November 15th and it has been received with much animosity. By removing rent control for newly built or converted units, Premier Ford has broken his campaign promise to leave the regulated system alone. Back on the campaign trail, on May 15thto be exact, the Ontario PC party website published Ford’s statement, which said, "I have listened to the people, and I won't take rent control away from anyone. Period," Ford continued, “When it comes to rent control, we're going to maintain the status quo.” It is clear that Ford concealed his motives from the get-go.The scrapping of this legislation is part of the new Housing Supply Action Plan, which protects existing tenancy agreements but puts potential ones at risk. In 2017, the former Liberal government expanded rent control to all units, including those built after 1991. This legislation ensured that annual rent increases would not surpass the rate of inflation.  Rent control is a means to protect occupants from superfluous rent increases. Scrapping regulation legislation will only worsen this issue. Landlords and tenants both have responsibilities and neither party should be allowed to take advantage of each other financially.Increasing rental supply is just as important as ensuring that tenants can afford their rent in the first place. It is understandable why certain neighbourhoods and specific accommodations come with an expensive price tag, but the consensus is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find affordable housing across the province, especially within the GTA. According to Citynews, 47 per cent of households in Toronto spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent. Ideally, that number should be 25 per cent in order for people to afford other necessities of life. In the past, rent control exemptions have not been proven to increase rental supply. People need a place to live, a place that they can afford to call home for more than a few months at a time.Geordie Dent, Executive Director of the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations, said, "I'd like to congratulate our millionaire premier on signing the eviction orders on thousands of tenants going forward." Having no rent control in new units means that landlords hold the position of power and can potentially evict tenants who cannot afford their ever-increasing rents. Affordability is a key component of stabilizing our housing supply. Youth, seniors and those living on a fixed income are the most vulnerable when it comes to finding stable accommodations. The battle for affordable housing and tenant rights goes on, and advocates are ready to defend the cause. Ontario’s Housing Supply Action Plan is set to be unveiled in spring 2019.

Jane-Finch Residents Needed for Neighbourhood Improvement

Toronto is the richest city in one of the richest countries on Earth, but that isn’t so obvious in many of its neighbourhoods. After decades of neglect by local governments, poverty has become entrenched in many areas. In an effort to address this, in 2011 the City started the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020 (an unwieldy name so this article will call it TSNS). The idea is that by 2020, TSNS will improve these poverty-stricken neighbourhoods to the level of the rest of the city. The neighbourhoods were ranked according to five criteria: physical surroundings, economic opportunities, healthy lives, social development, and participation in civic decision-making. Originally called “priority neighbourhoods”, the city now calls them “Neigbourhood Improvement Areas” (NIAs). The City has identified 31 NIAs. Unsurprisingly, Jane-Finch scored the lowest among all of them.TSNS sounds good in theory, but in practice, it’s a heavily bureaucratised way for the City to appear as if it’s doing something to address endemic poverty. TSNS has produced many reports but, without proper investment, poverty will still be widespread in all NIAs. Despite this, participation by residents is still necessary as low interest will be taken as a lack of desire for improvement and will lead to a lack of investment by the City. In response, residents in the Jane-Finch area collectively organized and wrote their own report, Community Response to TSNS. By interviewing Jane-Finch residents, community organizations, social service agencies, and grassroots groups, the Jane-Finch TSNS Task Force identified five main areas of concern: housing and physical surroundings (including public transportation), education, employment, health care, and access to healthy and affordable food. This has led to the formation of working groups on Housing, the Health Care Action Committee, and the Economic Opportunities Committee. An already existing group, the Black Creek Food Justice Network, was invited to deal with issues related to food security, food education, and growing your own food.The Jane-Finch TSNS Task Force meets every other month at Yorkgate Mall’s York University TD Community Engagement Centre. The meeting is held on the third Monday of the month from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Food, TTC tokens, and childcare are provided for all attendees. The working groups meet on the months in between, with varying locations and times. Send an email to jftaskforce@gmail.com for more information, including copies of the reports above mentioned.

Winter cold snap reveals another dimension of Toronto’s housing crisis

When people think about Toronto’s housing crisis they often think about rising rent prices and the growing difficulty to buy a house. However, the increasing unaffordability of the city has pushed many individuals into homelessness. The recent extreme cold temperatures brought Toronto’s growing homeless population to the forefront, and the city’s inability to deal with the crisis entered mainstream conversation.The city’s homeless population, an estimated 5,253 in 2013 (a number that is expected to increase in the 2018 report), is one of the most vulnerable populations in Toronto. At the height of the cold snap, 98% of the city’s shelters were at full capacity, causing a public panic that led to thousands of Torontonians to sign a petition demanding the opening of Moss Park Armoury as an emergency shelter. The petition ultimately resulted in City Council successfully voting to open the Armoury on January 3 which only temporarily helped to relieve the estimated 1000 bed shortage until the end of January.On January 25, Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) revealed the city’s purchase of an Annex building which he plans to turn into a shelter that is expected to provide 90 new beds in April 2018. At a news conference, the councillor stated, "I want to be clear on the issue of shelters, that communities do not have a right to say no to shelters. If they did, we would have no shelters. Communities have a responsibility to work with their neighbours and cities to welcome shelters and to make them work for everybody."Solutions to Toronto’s housing crisis need to address and include the homeless and lower income population. For too long housing has been spoken about in terms of private developments and homebuyers rather than addressing the needs of individuals who are most affected by unaffordable housing. The city needs to invest in more shelters and subsidized government housing to create lasting solutions that make the city inclusive and diverse. Conversations about the housing crisis need to start addressing those whose lives are most affected and at risk by Toronto’s unaffordable housing.