Toronto Community Housing Adopts Ombudsman’s Recomendations
In response to recommendations made by Toronto Ombudsman Fiona Crean, Toronto Community Housing is changing its procedures to ensure fairness when dealing with complaints of serious misconduct made against a tenant.
Following a formal investigation involving a tenant’s complaint, the Ombudsman made 12 recommendations to ensure that Toronto Community Housing conducts fair and thorough investigations when a complaint of serious misconduct is made against a tenant and that it acts fairly when issuing eviction notices.
“Toronto Community Housing has worked collaboratively with the Ombudsman’s office to address the issues that were the subject of the investigation,” said Keiko Nakamura, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Toronto Community Housing. “We have accepted all the Ombudsman’s recommendations, which are designed to improve and clarify our practices for ensuring procedural fairness for tenants.”
Crean said that effective, open relations with the city’s senior management staff was crucial to finding solutions and preventing unfairness before it happens. “The leadership shown by the Toronto Community Housing CEO in this matter is a very positive sign,” Crean said.
The Ombudsman’s report responds to a complaint made by a long-time market rent tenant, who said Toronto Community Housing had not properly investigated allegations made against him and that it had treated him unfairly in attempting to evict him.
Both the case story and the Ombudsman’s Annual Report are available on the Ombudsman’s web site www.ombudstoronto.ca.
About the Toronto Ombudsman In its first nine-months of operation, the Toronto Ombudsman received more than 1,000 complaints and enquiries, processing and closing 91 per cent of them. It is an office of last resort, mandated to resolve issues of unfairness in the delivery of city services.
About Toronto Community Housing Toronto Community Housing (www.torontohousing.ca) is Canada’s largest social housing provider and home to more than 164,000 tenants with low and moderate incomes—about six per cent of the City of Toronto’s population. Toronto Community Housing employs 1,400 staff in a broad range of jobs who deliver its mandate to provide quality housing and build great neighbourhoods. Toronto Community Housing is one of Canada’s 2009 Top 100 Employers.