Aach Minutes July 2008

ALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE CO-OPERATIVE HOUSING Minutes of Meeting Thursday, July 3, 2008, 7:00 p.m. Recreation Room, Windmill Line Co-op, Toronto PRESENT: Donald Altman (Church-Isabella; chairing), Bridget Bayliss (Windmill Line), Barbara Czarnecki (Windmill Line; recording), Brian Eng (Oak Street, Wellesley Institute), Christine Mounsteven (Charles Hastings), Patrick Newman (Cardifff), David Sells (Innstead), Brynne Teall (Oak Street), Beth Wilson (Toronto Women’s) REGRETS: Morley Chalmers (Church-Isabella), Angela Cowie (Hugh Garner), Murtaza Dogo (Eamon Park), Corrie Galloway (Windward), Marilyn Garner (Three Links), Pat Leslie (Hugh Garner), Darlene Morris (Tannery Gate), Edward Nixon (Windmill Line), Brenda Roman (Arcadia), Sharyn Wallace (Innisfree), Quentin Wright (Vancouver East) 1.

Introductions

2. Adopt agenda Added to 6, Current projects: Rally for Thornhill Green. 3. Minutes of May 13, 2008 Agreed by consensus. 4. Updates — “existing tools/additional assistance” letter: Stanley Knowles and Windmill Line received responses from Minister Solberg. The letter says nothing new. This is the final confirmation that “existing tools” are not available to co-ops that do not have problems other than subsidy shortage. — deputation on Housing Opportunities Toronto: Brynne, Christine, and Corrie made a deputation on June 16. The text will be posted on the AACH Yahoo Group site. Toronto Women’s also made a deputation; Carrol Downey spoke about her own experience. The focus was on having enough affordable housing. The city’s final plan will be available in the fall. — meeting with Bob Rae on Liberal Party platform development: Rae heads the platform committee and has more co-ops in his riding (Toronto Centre) than any other MP. Beth was there, with Tom Clement and Maria LaVida from CHFT and Christopher Wilson for CHF Canada. They pitched the proposal to “create” 10,000 affordable units in co-ops at a cost of $36 million. Rae said the amount is “peanuts.” He does not favour the sort of national housing plan Canada had in the 1960s.

AACH Minutes, July 3, 2008

— counting vacancies for response to George Smitherman: No one from CHFT was present to report. Members noted that the commitment to give vacancy numbers to Smitherman was made in March. He has now shifted from Health to Energy; the interest he expressed in March was related to health aspects of housing, especially for people with mental illness. Beth will follow up with CHFT. Brian noted that the new minister of health is David Caplan, who has a good background in housing issues. — CSPC research project: Beth’s project at the Community Social Planning Council is about the potential for housing co-ops to provide more RGI accommodation. Things will get moving in the fall. 5. CHF Canada AGM — AACH meeting Although the flyer did not get into the registration package, turnout was good: 40 people signed in. The room was too small. The agenda was crowded, leaving no time for participants to hear from one another. But the presentations by Beth and Carrol from Toronto Women’s, Doug Perry of Cana Management, and David Granovsky of CHF Canada were great, and there was a bit of discussion. Ideas sent in for next time: an agenda should be sent out ahead of time. Have a longer meeting in a bigger room. — resolutions and business meeting: All political resolutions passed. — workshops: The Agency workshop was about the comparative statistics that are now being collected and reported. The Agency is open to asking more and different questions in the future. Members discussed a wish list of questions that would give a fuller picture of subsidy funding: • How many households receive RGI subsidy? • How many get federal money, and how many get provincial or internal funding? • What was the greatest number of units to receive subsidy, and what is the number now? • What percentage of income do members receiving subsidy contribute to their housing costs? • How many households, including those not receiving subsidy, pay more than 30% of income (the impossible question)? • How many households are on an internal waiting list for subsidy? • When was the last time you accepted external applicants who needed subsidy? Barbara will send these questions to Alexandra Wilson.

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AACH Minutes, July 3, 2008

6. Current projects — lobbying MPs and candidates in target ridings Meetings are being organized by CHF Canada and CHFT, such as the meeting with Rae that Beth attended. Patrick attended a meeting with MP Derek Lee and urged him to promote a federal role in affordable housing. — “building a house” for October housing summit The summit has been envisioned as a gathering of housing advocates to support a meeting of provincial ministers. The timing remains uncertain, and it is not clear whether the federal minister will join. If these things all happen, they will be around the same time but not necessarily on the same days. Toronto Disaster Relief Committee has a house frame that might work for our purposes. Barbara will follow up with Cathy Crowe. An organizing meeting was set for Wednesday, July 23, 7:00 p.m. at the Wellesley Institute. Brynne will draft an email; Barbara will circulate it with a “please forward” line. This meeting will draft a to-do list, and turnout will give us an idea of who is willing to contribute time and resources. Beth will begin drafting a handout about AACH. — rally for Thornhill Green: A rally for Thornhill Green, which is under threat of takeover by York Region, is planned for July 15. Barbara will circulate information about transit and will coordinate a car pool. 7.

AACH business: the financial statement is unchanged.

8. Task list Nothing to report. 9. Not to be forgotten — treating internal subsidy as charitable contribution — contacting non-housing co-operatives and other allies — media strategy — connecting with other housing advocacy organizations — provincial lobby campaign (after report of upload review) Date of delivery for the upload report is unknown. The Matthews report on poverty is expected in October. 10. Next meetings: Wednesday, July 23: organizing meeting for “house” project, 7:00 p.m., Wellesley Institute. Tuesday, Sept 2: regular AACH meeting, Windmill Line 11.

Adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

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AACH Minutes, July 3, 2008

Task List – as of July 3, 2008 Date

Item # Apr 9/08 29

Who Assigned Tom

May 30 13/08 Mar 33 15/07 Jan 8/08 37

Tom

May 13/08

42

Barbara Corrie/ Christine Nick Sidor

TASK

Target Date

Talk to Homestarts about S95. CHFT workshop/discussion group for staff about the Agency’s toolkit. Collect economic eviction instances. Call co-ops with 2007 and 2008 rollovers. Look into meeting with editorial board of Tor Star to link with AGM.

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Fall 2008