Toronto Community Housing to radically overhaul its repairs program

“Reset” plan will integrate resident input and save millions of dollars, social housing agency says.

Thestar.com
Sept. 25, 2015
By Jennifer Pagliaro

Toronto Community Housing is completely overhauling how it tackles a $2.56-billion backlog in repairs, in an effort to include resident input and save millions of dollars, the Star has learned.

The new program, dubbed Reset, will prioritize and bundle projects, while actively involving residents in the decision-making process.

“We’re using the capital improvements that have to be made as a catalyst to transform community,” Sheila Penny, TCHC’s vice-president for facilities management, told the Star in an interview. “The ultimate goal is to improve the home that they live in.”

The housing authority faces an ongoing crisis of critical, unfunded repairs, with thousands of units at risk of becoming unusable in the next decade.

Greg Spearn, TCHC’s interim CEO, will make the announcement Friday morning along with Mayor John Tory in the Firgrove Park community near Jane St. and Finch Ave. It’s one of the buildings assessed as a top priority for the new program.

Currently, TCHC awards individual contracts for each of the various types of repairs needed in any one building: windows, boilers, roofing and so on. That results in multiple unco-ordinated crews working independently, with little information provided to residents on what types of fixes will be completed and when.

TCHC now plans to dispatch an architect and engineering team to each building, who will work with its residents to assess the needs of both the building and the community living there — including better security measures such as lighting and retrofitting of common areas.

A single general contractor will be assigned to carry out bundled projects, using a public tender process.

The contractor will co-ordinate construction among multiple trades, Penny said. The housing team will also consult local agencies at the same time, in hopes of improving available programs and services for residents.

“We’re going in, engaging with communities, doing a thorough review of capital, linked to program and service and making sure that residents are informed from day one,” Penny said. “As we put together the detailed drawings and specs for these projects, we want residents at the table so that they understand what we’re doing, how we’re doing it.”

She said bundling projects this way will ultimately save time and money - “conservatively” in the millions of dollars, according to a third-party review.

A co-ordinated approach means there’s potential to save even more by making bulk purchases of common items. For example, she said, TCHC could save an estimated five to 20 per cent of the cost of kitchen cabinets through bulk-ordering.

Since 2013, TCHC has completed nearly 20,000 repair projects using a city fund of $864 million, of which just under $500 million remains. TCHC anticipates completing 5,600 projects in 2016, which will now be organized under the new model.

But regardless of the new initiative, without reinvestment from the provincial and federal governments, repair needs on Toronto’s decades-old housing stock will continue to pile up, Penny said. City council, Tory and housing advocates have called on the higher levels of government to each fund an equal $864 million, one-third share of the cost.

“If we don’t receive the funds, we’re closing buildings down,” Penny said, adding that the housing agency expects the Reset program to help stretch the city’s approved funding. “We either do this, or we’re closing down communities.”

In the meantime, buildings slated for repairs will continue be prioritized based on a calculation of the outstanding repair costs, audits of each of the 2,200 properties in TCHC’s portfolio and consulting frontline staff on community needs.