Departing Toronto Community Housing CEO Derek Ballantyne says the public harbours an "unrealistic expectation" that his agency can serve as a "care institution."

Deplorable conditions - leaking roofs, elevators that don't work, mice, roaches, bedbugs - in Toronto Community Housing Corporation units have been well documented in the media.

In an interview yesterday, Ballantyne, who leaves his post May 15, counters that since he took command in 2002, the agency has made significant strides toward improving the condition of its housing stock, investing close to $600 million in building repairs since then.

When tenants with mental, emotional or cognitive abilities have problems maintaining their units, the corporation steps in, he said.

"When we are aware of individual hardship cases, people having difficulty maintaining their tenancy on their own, we will intervene in the best way we can - which is to connect them to publicly available services, agencies, public health, medical support systems and so on."

But it's "unrealistic" to expect that his organization has the funding and capacity to become a "care institution," Ballantyne said.

"That's just not a reasonable proposition, particularly around people suffering from mental illness. I don't think anyone would expect anything other than institutions funded to do that work, and organizations that have that skill set and capacity, be the ones that provide that service."

Ballantyne is quick to point out other ways TCHC helps tenants.

It now requires, for example, that all large contracts it enters into have an element of economic development.

"If we hire somebody to do a lot of roofing for us, they'll have to do some local hiring," Ballantyne said. "We have long-term expectations these people will be given chances to develop skills and stay with those companies. It's not just low-paid wage employment we're interested in, but sustainable employment."

Still, during his time as CEO, Ballantyne has often had to explain - indeed, defend - the conditions in some of the nearly 60,000 units the corporation provides to about 164,000 tenants.

The cost of operating and maintaining the units used to be shared among provincial, municipal and regional governments. However, the city inherited entire responsibility in 2001, when the Conservative government under Mike Harris downloaded the social housing portfolio. The city has been arguing for years that it shouldn't have to shoulder the cost of its repair backlog - now $200 million.

"We inherited a huge structural deficit. So not only was there not enough money to fix what we had and keep it going, but we had a big accumulated backlog of repairs."

One attempt to find new money was management restructuring. Through forced departures, attrition and voluntary leaves, between 2002 and 2004, the agency shed about 70 management positions.

That saved about $25 million a year, some of which went directly into repairs. Some went to help secure a $250 million loan two years ago, which is being used to fix the interiors of 10,000 units and to cover part of the $1.5 billion revitalization of Regent Park.

Ballantyne has pushed revitalization in Regent Park, Don Mount, Lawrence Heights and other properties, with a view to transforming decrepit, poorly designed, single-purpose public housing into mixed-income neighbourhoods with a range of housing: condos, townhouses, market-rent apartments and public housing.

"It is a pretty significant achievement to figure out how to economically be able to do this, be able to afford it and delivering it in partnership with private sector (companies)," he said.

Ballantyne, recently named chief operating officer of Build Toronto - responsible for developing city-owned real estate - will be replaced at TCHC temporarily by Keiko Nakamura. A committee struck by the corporation's board will seek a permanent replacement.

Ballantyne says he's leaving with no regrets.