A Tenant's Manifesto on the Final Report of the Mayor's Task Force on TCH(C) (Part Four)

14/2/2017

The fourth item on the list was to "[d]ecentralize [o]perations/[s]trengthen [p]artnerships". For your sake I will deal with these two issues separately. This section will deal with the decentralization issues. Strengthening partnerships will be dealt with in Part Five.

When we discuss decentralization issues we need to discuss the current level of performance. Based on personal experience it is very clear that there is a systemic issue involving Toronto Community Housing (Corporation) staff members following up with tenants ... at all. Never mind, in a timely manner.

A TCH(C) staffer in Stakeholder Relations has yet to respond to a detail outline that a city councilor forwarded to him. Other than promising (via email) to get back to me "in ten days or so" on December 7th, 2016. He even cc'd that promise to the city councilor's office.

Considering, the city councilor forwarded my email to TCH(C)'s Stakeholder Relations, in the first place, should give you some clear indication as to the sheer lack of response from other Toronto Community Housing staffers prior to that point.

During an Operational Assessment Group Meeting in 2015 it was revealed that Toronto Community Housing security does not necessarily respond after a call to their call center. Instead, they wait until they receive a second call about the same incident. Even then, chances are, there was no record made of the first call. SMH Maybe they should be required to supply incident report numbers so that TCH residents have something to refer to when they do call back.

Once Toronto Community Housing staffers have been taught how to properly follow up with tenants (whether that be in person, by phone, or by email) it would be wise to discuss decentralizing both the maintenance and security call center operations during business hours. Within the nine to five time frame calls should be handled by TCH(C) Operating Unit management offices.

This will effectively remove the plausible deniability factor that permeates Toronto Community Housing when it comes to what is happening within those Operating Units. No longer will they say they didn't know about a specific units repeated anti-social or criminal behaviors. Unless of course, it is Toronto Police Services that responds instead of TCH(C) security. (To be discussed in Part Five.)

Once an organizational structure has been defined it would seem advantageous to educate the tenants on each TCH(C) staffer's position, and their respective responsibilities. There has to be at least the illusion of transparency.

Above all there needs to be accountability. Give us some way within the Toronto Community Housing organizational system to lodge complaints. The sooner a person feels heard, the sooner they can move on with their life.

At any point during this time there should also be a recommendation made for either a flexible work schedule or a limitation put on the amount of time an employee can serve in each position. It is believed that burn out is a chronic issue among Toronto Community Housing employees. Take a page from the tech industry. No employee stays at a tech company until they retire. Innovation breeds change. Change breeds innovation.

2 Comments

Rick Keegan

28/7/2017 03:51:49 pm

In my experience as a TCHC resident of over 8 years, the "process" goes something like this: After a tenant tries complaining a few times, gets either the non-response or the double-talk, the tenant stops complaining, the troublesome-tenant statistic appears to decline. Problem solved.

When attempting to complain, it usually goes like this: Call TCHC security, they'll tell you, it's a police matter; call police, police tell you it's a housing authority matter; call housing, housing tells you it's a security matter.

After that, you quit complaining, problem solved.

It looks to me like evictions are the bottlekneck. If trouble-makers could be gotten out, a lot of the other problems would be more manageable. At least, as far as security goes.

Tribunals are scandals because: 1 TCHC paralegals are showing up unprepared to win cases. 2. There appears to be a bias on tribunals in favor of those accused. This is a reversal of a former trend that apparently favored landlords.

I know this isn't exactly to the point of your post. I've been trying to put my attention on the place of greatest leverage. What could you shift and do the most good. Tribunals are starting to get my attention.

Take a look at what is cause for eviction. How many people get evicted for cause? It's a scandal. Nobody has a real excuse, but excuses are like money when dealing with anything TCHC.

The city first does, then doesn't, think legislative changes are needed. Then province chides city, you have all the power you need.

But, anybody who has any power is afraid to use it; they don't want to get in trouble. And, there is trouble, for anyone making any intelligent decision that isn't specifically and strictly mandated. Everyone at TCHC, that I have dealt with, works to rule.

Cheryl Duggan link

28/7/2017 08:20:08 pm

Rick thank you so much for your response.

Lately I have gotten to the point where I actually read all the documents that are submitted as reports for the public portion of the Board of Directors meeting.

In this months documentation there is a quote "The total arrears balanced (rent and parking arrears, retroactive and other arrears) has been increasing since 2013 ... when implementation began on a revised arrears collection process which prioritized eviction prevention." TCHC's focus is on putting tenants into a payment plan rather than out on the street.

Honestly if they just put all tenants on pay direct there would be no more arrears. All those on OW and ODSP could have the money directed straight to TCHC without the pit stop into their bank accounts. I'm not sure if the same option is available for seniors.

So this isn't even a tribunal issue. It's a TCHC internal philosophy that states they have to waste resources to chase down rents at all cost instead of coordinating efforts to get rid of problem tenants.

If they added a little clause to the subsidy agreement that stated the tenant missing two consecutive months rent would invalidate the subsidy and force them to pay market rent then reapply for subsidy. That would certainly straighten out a few of these delinquent tenants.

Right now there are no consequences. Threatening them with having to pay market rent for the same apartment might make them appreciate what they have.

There will not be any significant change until TCHC's starts acting like a landlord. There are very few cases that actually get in front of the Landlord and Tenant Board. And only a tiny percentage of those lead to eviction.

The more I learn ... the more I SMH.

A Tenant's Manifesto on the Final Report of the Mayor's Task Force on TCH(C) (Part Four)

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