BY CYNTHIA REASON
April 10, 2008 04:51 PM 

Tenants of two Thistletown social housing units were successful in their bid to secure $200,000 in funding for community playgrounds last weekend. As part of their participatory budgeting program, Toronto Community Housing (TCH) doled out funding to 13 such projects at its fifth annual $1.8 Million Tenant Allocation Day on Saturday at North York Civic Centre. A tenant representative from each of the 27 community housing councils pitched building and community improvement projects to their peers, who then decided what projects received funding.

Abdullahi Houndeleh, a tenant representative from 24 Orpington Cres., said the money his building secured will go a long way towards the creation of play spaces for kids in Thistletown.

"We desperately need a playground as soon as possible," he said, noting funds were also allocated for park space at 1809 Martin Grove Road. "Now my kids need to go far away - sometimes to schools - to play, and we can't see them or see what they're doing...this gives us money to fix our playgrounds here."

According to TCH's Frank Clarke, construction of the playgrounds will place a special emphasis on youth involvement and will begin within the next eight weeks.

"Part of the project involves the creation of a community space - whether that will be a gazebo with a barbecue, a bench area, or gardens, will be determined through community consultation - but youth from the area will be hired to build that space," he said.

Thistletown, he added, is in dire need of such improvements because its a densely populated area with no adequate play areas.

"Clearly there's a deficit here, and this funding will remedy that," he said.

This year, nearly 8,000 tenants participated in the process leading up to Tenant Allocation Day, where tenants decided how TCH will spend $1.8 million of the $9 million in capital funds allocated by tenants every year. TCH is the first and only public agency in Canada to introduce such participatory budgeting, based upon a model practiced in Puerto Allegra, Brazil, since 1989, Clarke said.

The allotment process begins every fall with individual tenant meetings aimed at identifying and prioritizing individual unit needs based on safety and security, grounds and building upgrades. The top five priorities are then brought to Community Housing Unit Councils, where one is chosen to be presented at Allotment Day.

There, one delegate from each of Toronto's 27 community housing councils is then given five minutes in which to convince their peers - who have 10 votes each - why to choose their improvement project for funding.

"We work in an environment where capital needs exceed the available budget," said TCH CEO Derek Ballantyne. "Making these decisions is not always easy and these tenants had a great responsibility."

This year, some of the applications for funding included new community spaces and playgrounds, improvements for wheelchair accessibility, picnic benches and new fencing. Others focused on lighting, video surveillance and/or access systems to improve community safety.