Toronto Community Housing selling properties

Case Ootes lone board member votes to sell 22 homes
City-owned housing provider to make millions
Money would be used to fix crumbling housing stock
Kris Scheuer
(Written April 6 for Town Crier.)

Case Ootes explains his vote to sell 22 social housing properties. Kris Scheuer/Town Crier photo.

Case Ootes, the one man board at Toronto Community Housing Corporation, voted today to sell 22 single families homes in the portfolio that could net the corporation up to $15.7 million.
Some who came out to the meeting asked Ootes to defer the decision until a full board is in place this June. But Ootes said he’s acting on recommendations of the previous board to sell these homes including beachfront property on Hubbard Boulevard that are too costly to maintain.
A staff report this issue states the net profits from the sales should be used to tackle the backlog to fix up existing community housing across the city which Ootes pegs at close to $600 million.
“I made the decision based on the fact this corporation is facing serious financial problems,” he told the media after the meeting. “There are almost 2,000 vacant units in some form of disrepair. Money is needed to repair these units.”
But selling all 22 homes, which contain 29 separate units, won’t be a cakewalk.
Currently, 15 of the 29 units are occupied by tenants with most of them paying market rent. The market rent tenants can’t be kicked out by any new owner unless they or their families plan to live in the homes.
“Most buyers do want (houses) to be vacant so it will be more difficult to sell,” said Ootes. 

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Arlington MS to be sold

French Catholic board looks to buy the site
Kris Scheuer
(Written for Town Crier Jan 28)

Arlington MS could be sold to French Catholic school board. Kris Scheuer/Town Crier file photo.

A deal is in the works to sell Arlington Middle School to a French Catholic school board.
Last year the Toronto District School Board voted to sell Arlington, which overlooks Cedarvale Park, and close it this September. The board’s real estate arm, Toronto Lands Corporation is handling the potential sale.
Donna Jondreau, manager of real estate for the Toronto Lands, confirmed the Conseil Scolaire de District Catholique Centre-Sud will vote in a few weeks on whether to buy Arlington MS.
“We should know by mid-March,” Jondreau said Jan. 27.
St. Paul’s public school trustee Shelley Laskin said the deal to sell Arlington will likely be successful.
The French Catholic school board already voted to have its staff negotiate a purchase of the facility, Laskin said.
If the deal goes through, students in grade 7 will continue at Arlington in the 2011-2012 school year for grade 8.

Beachfront heritage homes for sale

Kris Scheuer
(Published in the Town Crier Aug. 13.)

This Hubbard Blvd home is now listed as heritage and had been declared surplus by the owner Toronto Community Housing. Photo by Kris Scheuer/Town Crier.

A dozen Beach homes worth millions are now listed as heritage properties including several sites Toronto Community Housing plans to sell.
They sit on the former site of Scarboro Beach Amusement Park.
The 1920s-built homes on Wineva Avenue and Hubbard Boulevard are mix of publicly and privately owned sites facing Kew Balmy Beach.
Janice Hadfield lives in one of the properties on Wineva and says she’s pleased the home is on the heritage list.