#TheCityasSlumlord

#TheCityasSlumlord (Nov. 9, 2024)

Rachael Agnew, citizen anthropologist

Are the province and the city the biggest slumlords of them all?

The question that is usually asked is: Does it work? If we ask that question about rent-geared-to-income (rgi), yes it works, if the point of the legislation was to create a class of people who can never escape from poverty.

We are watching it happen, we are seeing the effects of this discriminatory legislation on citizens of Toronto. It seems to have been designed to keep a segment of people permanently at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Makes me wonder why. Why do the province and the city want to gather yearly financial records on us for housing? What are they using that information for? This rent-geared-to-income legislation is somehow impossible to justify. Everything about the economics of it all escapes me. It would be preferable if all the people in social housing could contribute to the economy of the country.

If you don't respect your constituents, you think rgi legislation is a solution (to what?) but we got that message, even though it's all a lie. The legislation is not a solution to anything.

It is also responsible for an abundance of social workers who do not hesitate to correct your language, and tell you what your attitude and opinions should be, what pronouns you can use when you're talking about someone who is probably not in the room, who don't respect any individual who is not conforming to their ideas, who believe they are essential to everyone, and who are responsible for an overwhelming amount of ridiculous paperwork in the act of upholding the legislation. It all smacks of total #SocialControl.

They have managed to infantalize a large segment of the population with their superior attitude. Shelters and how they manage people instead of managing what is basically a rooming house are a good example of this. The world functioned before they took over, them and their rules. I know because I was here, way before most of them. They are part of this flawed plan, but not all of it.

In case you're still thinking that rent-geared-to-income is a good idea, let me ask if you would like to feel 24-hour frustration because of the social barriers all around you because of the economic power you don't have.

This is life when you jump through the hoops of getting rent-geared-to-income:

i) Everyone on RGI has to report their income to the city of Toronto Housing mafia every year (#feudalRGI) by a certain date. This is disrespectful and controlling. Why do they do this?

What is their expectation, and why do they have that expectation? Why is everyone in social housing having their income monitored on a yearly basis? We don't need to have our income monitored. Allow us the freedom to prosper.

Social Housing in Vienna does not monitor income after the initial application. Consequently people there can live their life, and prosper, without fretting about housing bureauracy (income monitoring) on a yearly basis.

Being monitored is unhealthy, unnecessary, and intrusive. What kind of government monitors its citizens at the housing level? Not a country that values its citizens.

ii) The reporting stipulation means that the city housing mafia is entitled to pass judgment on your activities. A person cannot engage with the economic reality that surrounds them, they cannot escape the situation they're in without putting their right to accommodation in jeopardy. You are obliged to remain poor otherwise you are harassed into submission.

iii) Every rgi building, or partial rgi building (a mixture of market and rgi tenants) employs in its office a person, or persons, who are there to monitor the rgi tenants, and this is, truthfully, an invasion of privacy. Every year, every rgi tenant needs to re-apply to keep their apartment rent at an affordable level, though the rent is going to increase, anyhow. RGI tenants are given a form that needs to be filled in and verified. This causes a great deal of anxiety in tenants, and for what reason? (The answer is: It provides employment for those rgi social workers.)

iv) One extra thing irritated me personally, that being the rounding up to the nearest dollar of the calculated rent, supposedly 30% of your income, but actually more, because of this rounding up business. Maybe it's petty, but when you go through this yearly exercise in applying for #feudalRGI, finding out the building's owners are collecting let's say, an additional $800 or so in rent every year from those of us who are on rgi is a lot like sanctioned theft. Maybe on an individual level it amounts to an extra $20 rent each year, but if there are 400 rgi residents in a building with the same circumstances, that's an extra $800. that the building owner is collecting for rent from rent-geared-to-income tenants. Isn't the city making up the difference in rent to the building owners? Therefore, the owners are not in any way inconvenienced, they are making money out of your situation. They behave as if a resident who refuses to pay the rounded up portion above the allocated rent amount is behaving illegally when they are the ones who are behaving illegally, not the tenants. In my case they used it to claim non-payment of rent... not the truth, because I paid my rent, always, just not the rounded up figure, but the real rent. So for $20. a year they call in their lawyer..... I'm not petty after all, compared to the official city of Toronto antics and individual landlords. Just why are they doing this? Though everyone is happy not to have to deal with pennies in everyday transactions that are about cents, just when did we agree to the rounding up to the nearest dollar for rents? I didn't agree to that at any time. Rent is rent. Landlords cannot decide to round up to the nearest dollar. That is not an appropriate business action.

v) The other thing is that the social worker/housing mafioso are so confused that they are requiring verification of income from market rent-payers too.... (why?) I am paying market rent for a tiny room, but the worker insisted I provide documents, same as if I was on rgi.... What!? Why?

vi) There is another way to deal with social housing without rent-geared-to-income. We have an alternative. See what Vienna, Austria did in 1948 -- they devised a system of rent-based-on-building-upkeep-costs: https://www.politico.eu/article/vienna-social-housing-architecture-austria-stigma/ This is a system I want Canada to implement for social housing. This is actually how rents used to work before now -- rents were cheaper in older buildings. Then everything changed.

Viennese social housing does not monitor incomes, so people are not required to remain poor to to keep their affordable housing, and rents only go up with inflation. They have separated rent from income, and joined rents to the cost of building upkeep. Vienna increased supply by building large buildings for the middle class which are still standing, still in good shape after 75 years. What did Toronto do? They built crappy buildings for the poor class. These buildings are being demolished now (Gerrard St./Regent Park, and the Atkinson Co-op site, with condos being constructed there instead of social housing). When is Toronto going to start building middle class structures for social housing instead of cheap buildings for poor people? It better be right now. #AllCitizensDeserveRespect