TCHC Needs To Do More to Address Tenant Complaints!

By -
On March 17, 2020, Ombudsman Toronto, led by Ombudsman Susan E. Opler, released a report titled “Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) Complaint Trend Data and Related Recommendations”. The Toronto Community Housing Corporation, or TCHC, is a social housing agency that owns and manages subsidized housing properties in Toronto.

The report and response has particularly strong implications for lower-income families residing in TCHC communities such as Regent Park.

Regent Park is one of the oldest and largest public housing developments in Canada. Many of its residents are underemployed new immigrants struggling to find adequate, meaningful work. Though it’s recently transitioned to a mixed-use, mixed-income neighbourhood, a large percentage of people still live in subsidized housing managed by TCHC. In addition to adding rental and market housing, replacing all the TCHC subsidize units with new housing is an important part of the revitalization and the first step towards building a stronger cohesive community in Regent Park. Unfortunately, not all of TCHC properties have the privilege of undergoing a revitalization.

TCHC is Canada’s largest landlord and it manages just under 60,000 units, 50 million square feet of residential space, and 2100 buildings - most of which are over 50 years old. Given the sheer size of this portfolio and chronic under funding, it is not surprising that many of TCHC buildings are unsafe and in desperate need of renovation and proper maintenance. The question is, can resident concerns for safety and their needs for renovation and maintenance be managed better? 

 The Ombudsman surely believes so. When residents have a complaint, they can report it to TCHC management and address the issue internally. Unfortunately, according to Ombudsman Toronto, the process is caught up in bureaucratic red tape and is not well-publicized; many people don’t know that the internal complaint process even exists. This prompts residents to take the complaints directly to the Ombudsman.

The most contentious issue is Maintenance, making up over a third of all cases reported to the Ombudsman. Sufficient lighting, heating, and water are all basic human needs, but according to the Ombudsman, TCHC often fails to address these problems and enforce administrative fairness. Administrative fairness refers to the set of expectations outlined by Ombudsman Toronto when addressing complaints. It includes fair process (access to relevant policies and procedures and reasonably quick service), fair outcome (apply rules consistently and make decisions without bias), and fair treatment (being treated with respect and having clear and accessible communication). Poor communication makes up over half of administrative fairness complaints.

Two major conclusions were drawn from the Ombudsman’s report. First, complaints sent to Ombudsman Toronto were mostly premature--that is, tenants hadn’t exhausted the TCHC internal complaint system before directing their issues to Ombudsman Toronto. Second, TCHC often refuses to communicate or poorly communicates with tenants about their issues. It’s evident that TCHC’s lack of clear and timely communication left residents frustrated, making them turn towards Ombudsman Toronto as a last resort.

To combat these problems, the Ombudsman made two recommendations. The TCHC management board should take steps to publicize its internal complaint system to tenants, staff, and members of the public. In addition, all employees should receive training on how to properly communicate with residents in a “transparent, fair, and timely way”. The board was given until the end of the year to implement these changes. TCHC CEO Kevin Marshman responded to the report, promising to publicize the complaint process with an improved website and posters about in all buildings.

In response to Marshman’s plan, Ombudsperson Opler said: “It’s too early to know how effectively TCHC will follow through on our recommendations, and whether their efforts will result in fewer complaints to Ombudsman Toronto and better service to tenants. Time will tell and we will be watching.”

 To watch the video click here.

 Ombudsman Toronto’s Report on TCHC: Link to report

By Chloё Nguyen-Drury

(Chloe is a youth journalist with the FOCUS Media Arts Centre)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regent Park Portrayed in Film and Television

By -
Image
Toronto has a rich history of being a go-to shooting location for many television and film production companies. Some notable films shot here over the years include Good Will Hunting (1997), Billy Madison (1998), American Psycho (2000), and X-Men (2000). Regent Park has also had its share of showcases in film. This article aims to review the general content of movie dramas and televisions shows shot in Regent and explore their relationship to the community. Clement Virgo is a director, producer, and writer from Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was born in 1966 and moved to the Regent Park area in Toronto in 1977. During this time Regent Park was generally populated by low-income families and as a hot spot for drugs. Virgo is most recently known for his roles in Greenleaf (2016-2018), The Book of Negroes (2015), and The Wire (2002) as Director and/or Producer. His first feature-length film, however, was Rude (1995), which was filmed almost entirely in the old Regent Park. “The film told...
Read more

What Social Inclusion Means to Me

By -
I had moved into Regent Park only a few days before I saw the pink, fuchsia, strawberry, indigo, yellow, green, neck streamers and sparkling robes worn by children, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders as they marched passed my kitchen door. Soon, the nearby Athletic Grounds was blazing with colour. Although it was the first time I heard them, the intonations on the microphone were recognizable, even to me, as prayers. It was Eid, the concluding celebration after Ramadan. It was a beautiful sight. I am a White Jewish senior and I hunted for a stairless condo for years before I chose to live in Regent Park and then only because a relative did business with the new seniors’ building there. “Regent Park?” a friend exclaimed. “You are going to have ethnic problems.”  “Not I.  I come from a long line of fiery leftie activists.” I replied. Stage four and five of revitalizing this post-war subsidized development into a multi-income community was just beginning and I ju...
Read more

Meet Your Neighbourhood Police Officers – PC Mircea Biga and PC Farzad Ghotbi

By -
Image
Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity...
Read more