Affordable-housing funding can’t be used to repair TCHC properties

On Monday, the province and the federal government jointly announced a new five-year, $801-million cash commitment to affordable housing in Ontario, but, as the Star points out, the money comes with a bitterly ironic caveat: it can’t be used for the one housing expenditure Toronto needs the most help with. The Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s repair backlog, which the corporation has been seeking $864 million in funding to address, is ineligible for the specific program through which the money is being doled out. The funds will instead be used mainly to build new affordable units. Meanwhile, TCHC residents with crumbling apartments will have no choice but to continue relying on occasional visits from Toronto’s fairy godmayor.