Backgrounder: 2020 Toronto Community Housing budget

The Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) 2020 budget will enhance the overall tenant experience through investments in building capital repairs, improved business operations and service delivery, and community safety and security.

Year over year comparison (2020 vs. 2019)

Item

2020

2019

Total

$1,110.2 million

$1,023.7 million

Operating

$629.7 million

$601.2 million

Building capital renewal

$350.0 million

$313.1 million

Development capital

$130.5 million

$109.5 million

 New permanent funding model

For the first time, TCHC's 2020 Budget includes the new permanent funding model approved by City Council. The new model will deliver stable, ongoing annual funding for TCHC's operating and capital needs, including $160 million per year for building capital repairs and $251 million toward operations.

Operating budget

TCHC's 2020 Operating Budget is $629.7 million. Key focus areas include:

  • Decentralizing operations to deliver services closer to where tenants live
  • Expanding evening and weekend superintendent, cleaning and maintenance services in selected buildings based on need
  • Creating a new tenant resolutions office to manage tenant complaint escalations.
  • Organizing all business operations around the goal of providing quality service to tenants.
  • Continue with the expansion of the deployment of full-time constables to additional Violence Reduction Program sites
  • Expanding youth programs as part of TCHC's violence reduction program in 11 communities
  • Doing more building fire inspections and fire safety education for tenants

Key year-over-year increases include:

  • $6.9 million in non-discretionary expenses, including mortgage principal and interest, cost of living and collective agreement increases, and municipal taxes and fees
  • $6.9 million in demand maintenance at our buildings for anticipated cost of in-suite repairs and pest mitigation
  • $5.0 million to enhance frontline operations and increase staff coverage in communities
  • $6.0 million to proactively manage the escalating violence at our locations and improve fire safety, and
  • $3.7 million for the pilot implementation of the Integrated Service Model in 18 seniors-designated buildings.

The 2020 operating budget identifies $11.8 million in organizational efficiencies. TCHC is redeploying these savings to significantly increase the quality and availability of frontline, tenant-facing services and further invest in community safety.

Accountability will be driven by 20 service quality indicators that will measure the performance of TCHC's service delivery model and systems.

Building Renewal Capital Budget

The 2020 Building Renewal Capital Budget of $350 million is a $37-million increase compared with 2019. It's the largest-ever annual investment in capital repairs since TCHC was created in 2001.

The funding will enable TCHC to do the demand and planned capital improvements needed to prevent permanent unit closures and keep TCHC's portfolio of nearly 60,000 homes available for generations to come.

Through its 2020 building capital renewal program, TCHC will make more than 10,000 individual capital improvements to benefit TCHC tenants. This includes:

  • Repairing more than 20 building roofs
  • Implementing accessibility upgrades in 19 buildings
  • Improving energy efficiency of 38 buildings
  • Reducing TCHC's energy consumption by 2.5 per cent in 2020

TCHC is targeting a 2020 year-end facilities condition index (FCI) of 16.3 per cent, which is projected to decline on a go-forward basis. The goal of TCHC's 10-year building renewal capital plan is to achieve a sustainable state of good repair (10 per cent FCI) by the end of 2026.

Other goals of TCHC's building capital renewal plan include:

  • A 25-per-cent reduction in energy consumption portfolio-wide by the end of 2028
  • Accommodations for tenants living with physical disabilities in 20 per cent of TCHC homes by the end of 202

Multi-year commitment for major building capital renewal projects

The TCHC board of directors also approved a three-year commitment totaling $125 million ($98.0 million in 2021, $19.0 million in 2022, and $8 million in 2023) for multi-year building capital renewal projects. This will improve project delivery and efficiency, and minimize disruption to tenants.

Development Capital Budget

Development capital represents the ongoing work by TCHC to create brand new housing units by leveraging the value of existing properties. The 2020 Development Capital Budget of $130 million will focus on replacing rent-geared-to-income (RGI) units, developing new affordable rental units and creating diverse, welcoming communities.

About Toronto Community Housing:

Toronto Community Housing is Canada's largest social housing landlord, providing homes for nearly 60,000 low and moderate-income households in neighbourhoods across the city. We are wholly owned by the City of Toronto and our 2,100 buildings represent a $10-billion public asset.

TCHC media line: media@torontohousing.ca