North Etobicoke community housing project slated for makeover

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A $1.5 billion plan to shift, revitalize and rebuild Toronto Community Housing's (TCH) aging stock will see a North Etobicoke highrise community revitalized, and another highrise sold off and the units replaced.

The plan that will be going to TCH's board of directors later this month was unveiled Tuesday at Toronto City Hall. Costing $1.5 billion and being implemented over a decade, the cornerstone of the plan will be to revitalize 13 public housing communities across Toronto, costing as much as $578 million.

One of those communities is TCH's Thistletown development. The 549 units there will be completely replaced with 150 new rental units and 1,426 market units.

The changes at another site, the badly run-down building at 50 Torbolton Dr., are more profound. The city intends to simply sell that housing, and replace it with new properties to be acquired nearby.

Torbolton is one of three apartment buildings and 45 single family homes TCH intends to sell off- not just to raise cash, but because the repairs required on the buildings are so significant that the city is better off starting fresh.

In the noon-time briefing, THC Chief Executive Officer Derek Ballantyne made it clear that the changes would impact about 5,000 residents all-told. But during the work, the company would cover temporary relocation costs and provide them housing at full-subsidy in the same general area of the city.

Similarly, residents in the single family homes and three apartment buildings will be relocated into new housing that's equivalent, and located near the other homes.

"We don't want to significantly change the distribution of housing," said Ballantyne. "It's not to say that there won't be other development opportunities that might come along, but generally we will replace housing in the same parts of the city."

The revitalization funding would also be bolstered by a move to exempt TCH from paying education property tax, and from the inclusion of market units in the new developments.

The plan would also ultimately increase the amount of affordable housing, by repairing or replacing 300 units that are unlivable at present.