Building and Investment Committee (BIC) Meeting - July 13, 2012

Public Agenda

Chair’s Poll re: Conflict of Interest

Confirmation of Building & Investment Committee Public Minutes – June 8, 2012

Approval of Agenda and Review of Agenda Order

Business Arising from the Minutes and Action Item List

Review of Agenda (all items not held will be voted together without discussion)

For Approval

1. Q1 2012 Quarterly Performance Report

For Information

2. Contract Management Manager Introduction (verbal)

Closed Meeting Agenda Items

Chair's Poll re: Conflict of Interest

A. Confirmation of Building & Investment Committee In Camera Minutes – June 8, 2012 and June 14, 2012

Business Arising from the In Camera Minutes and Action Item List

For Approval

B. Confidential item respecting the business of the corporation

C. Confidential item respecting the business of the corporation

For Information

D. Confidential item respecting the business of the corporation

E. Confidential item respecting the business of the corporation

F. Receipt of Investment Advisory Committee In Camera Minutes – February 17, 2011

TERMINATION

Public Meeting Minutes

The Building and Investment Committee of Toronto Community Housing Corporation met on July 13, 2012, in the Main Floor Conference Room, 931 Yonge Street, commencing at 12:04 p.m.

Committee Directors present:

Audrey Wubbenhorst, Chair

Zahir Bhaidani

Regrets:

Councillor Norm Kelly

Additional Directors present:

Christian Buhagiar

Catherine Wilkinson

Also present:

Marta Asturi, Legal Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary

Malcolm Barrington, Manager, Contract, Compliance & Delivery

Tom Burr, Director Regent Park

Rosa DeFillipis, Legal Counsel- Real Estate

Heather Grey-Wolf, Housing Development Manager

Michelle Haney-Kileeg, General Manager

Eugene Jones Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer

Janice Lewkoski, Board Secretary

Laurie Payne, Senior Development Manager

Josie Scioli, HSI, Chief Executive Officer

Deborah Simon, Chief Operating Officer

Lizette Zuniga, Director, Development and Real Estate

Ms. Audrey Wubbenhorst, the Chair, called the meeting to order and Ms. Mirela Bolentiru served as recording secretary.

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

The Chair requested members of the Building and Investment Committee to indicate any agenda item in which they had a conflict of interest, together with the nature of the interest. None were declared.

Confirmation of Agenda

Motion carried

ON MOTION DULY MADE by Ms. Audrey Wubbenhorst, seconded by Mr. Zahir Bhaidani, the Building and Investment Committee unanimously approved the agenda as presented.

Deputations

The Committee Chair polled for any deputations to be heard at the meeting and explained the deputation process. None were declared.

Minutes – Confirmation of Building and Investment Committee Minutes - June 8, 2012

Motion carried

ON MOTION DULY MADE by Ms. Audrey Wubbenhorst, seconded by Mr. Zahir Bhaidani, the Building and Investment Committee confirmed the above-captioned minutes, subject to the following clarification from management and recommended that the above-captioned minutes be forwarded to the Board of Directors for information.

Management will report back to the Committee to clarify on page 4, second paragraph, last sentence:

"Mr. Len Koroneos further cautioned that any savings TCHC produces, City may take them back."

Business Arising from the Minutes and Action Item List

Page 1: the status of the briefing note requested by Councillor Norm Kelly: the sentence "TCHC will be mandated to construct new buildings that are barrier free" should be corrected as the new buildings are constructed barrier free in accordance with AODA. This is stated already in the TCHC’s policy and a note in this respect should mention it.

Page 3: reducing standalone units re: the 56 undisclosed properties: the properties are now approved by the ministry, so it has become public information (public assets); therefore, it should be posted on the external website for public access and reference.

The President and CEO will report back to the Board of Directors on a plan for the sale of the houses. The report on the 56 undisclosed properties will be available to public.

Mr. Hugh Lawson will report back to the Committee on standalone units at a future Committee meeting.

Page 6: re: briefing note on Don Mount Court Board Members. The Committee Chair requested that a list containing the names of all Don Mount Court Board members be posted publicly.

Item 1 – Toronto Affordable Housing Fund – Railway Lands, BIC:2012-35

The Building and Investment Committee had before it the above-captioned report (BIC:2012-35) from the President and Chief Executive Officer.

The Committee requested information with respect to the impact of the new mortgage rules on the affordable homeownership program and management provided details.

For purposes of communicating to tenants, management will post on TCHC' s external website or include in a newsletter for tenants the options available with respect to the affordable homeownership program.

The Committee requested that management forward the information with respect to the affordable homeownership program to Councillor Ana Bailao's committee for further consideration. Under the changes occurred due to the new mortgage rules (15% down payment and mortgage period no longer than 25 years), the qualified people are facing difficulties in making the monthly payments.

Motion carried

ON MOTION DULY MADE by Ms. Audrey Wubbenhorst, seconded by Mr. Zahir Bhaidani, the Building and Investment Committee adopted the report and resolved to:

1. Authorize the President and CEO or his designate to enter into a Contribution Agreement with the City of Toronto to establish an affordable homeownership program for Block 36 South and Block 36 North in the Railway Lands.
2. Authorize staff to create a new bank account to be administered by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) subsidiary, the Toronto Affordable Housing Fund (TAHF), to receive, segregate and administer the funds for an affordable homeownership program in the Railway Lands only.
3. Authorize the President and CEO or his designate to enter, on behalf of TAHF, into any necessary and ancillary agreements between TAHF and Context Developments Inc., our current development partner in the Railway Lands, for the administration and marketing of the affordable homeownership program for Block 36 South.
4. Authorize staff to take the necessary actions to give effect to the above recommendations.

Item 2 – Contract Management Manager Introduction, Verbal

The Committee Chair introduced Mr. Malcolm Barrington, Manager of Contract, Compliance and Delivery, who provided the Committee with background information about himself, including the following:

• Information on contract management unit and its staff members.
• Centralized approach through quicker response, improved oversight in budgets and capital, and better liaison between TCHC and contract managed properties.
• Measuring success through site visits, audit of processes, tenant satisfaction surveys, building condition audits, preventative maintenance reviews, implementing a new move-in survey for tenants, EasyTrac / work orders, audit of rent calculations (with a target of 100% accuracy), annual reviews, and reporting on safety and security.
• With respect to arrears, management will be monitoring the status by reporting on the same measures used for the direct managed units.
• There is not yet implemented an exit survey for tenants, but the contract management unit has been contemplating the idea.
• Every issue that occurs is documented in EasyTrac.
• All issues are assigned to the site staff to address them.

The Committee requested information on best practices through benchmarking with other housing providers. Management informed the Committee that they will be looking at an evaluation process based on comparison made before and after the end of property management contracts to identify best practices.

Suggestions:

• Quarterly performance reports for the Committee members’ better understanding.
• A comparison between property contract management and direct management of buildings/units.
• When developing a tenant survey, tenant should be part of the process through the tenant communications group.
• Mediated settlements should be reported for contract property managed buildings.

Mr. Malcolm Barrington will circulate his notes for the meeting to the Committee members and other Board members in attendance and will report to the Committee on the quarterly performance reports of the contract managed buildings.

Management informed the Committee that building meetings with tenants and elected officials are being held. Training sessions with site staff in contract managed buildings are in place. Staff profiles will display their contact information for easy communication with tenants and management. One of the challenges is that two property contract management companies have not yet hired full staff complement.

Management explained that the intention is to make service consistent throughout portfolio to eliminate any differences between direct management and contract management. In contract managed buildings, the tenants refer to the call centre for services they need. The call centre will do the triage of calls, re-directing them to the appropriate personnel.

Closed Meeting Proceedings

Motion carried

ON MOTION DULY MADE by Ms. Audrey Wubbenhorst, seconded by Mr. Zahir Bhaidani, the Building and Investment Committee resolved to meet in closed meeting at 12:44 p.m. to consider items A to F.

Public Proceedings

At 2:22 p.m. the Chair announced the resumption of the public proceedings and the public meeting reconvened at that time.

Motion carried

ON MOTION DULY MADE by Ms. Audrey Wubbenhorst, seconded by Mr. Zahir Bhaidani, the Building and Investment Committee ratified the actions authorized during the closed meeting.

Termination

ON MOTION DULY MADE by Ms. Audrey Wubbenhorst, seconded by Mr. Zahir Bhaidani, the meeting of the Building and Investment Committee terminated at 2:22 p.m.