Backgrounder: Toronto Community Housing 2021 budget

December 23, 2020

TORONTO, December 23, 2020—The Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) 2021 budget will continue the company's focus on improvements to service delivery, building conditions, safety, accessibility and tenant quality of life.

Here is a year-over-year comparison (2021 vs. 2020) of TCHC's budget:

Item	2021 Budget	2020 Budget
Operating (excluding COVID-19 impacts)	$632.9 million	$629.7 million
Building capital renewal	$350.0 million	$350.0 million
Development capital	$103.0 million	$130.5 million

The 2021 budget delivers stable funding to meet TCHC's operating and capital needs with no increase in its City of Toronto subsidy.

Building renewal capital budget

For the second year in a row, TCHC will deliver a $350-million building renewal capital program in 2021, enabling the company to deliver building repairs and upgrades that improve and enhance quality of life for tenants. These record-level investments will:

Enable TCHC to do the demand and planned capital improvements needed to prevent permanent unit closures and keep TCHC's portfolio of nearly 60,000 homes available for generations to come.
Keep TCHC on track to meet its target of a 10-per-cent facilities condition index (FCI) by 2026 and targets for energy reduction and accessible buildings by 2028.

TCHC is continuing its multi-year planning for major building capital renewal projects:

The Board approved a 2021-2024 building capital renewal plan designed to minimize tenant disruption, improve project delivery and reduce costs.
The plan includes commitments of $110.2 million in 2022, $46.9 million in 2023 and $20.7 million in 2024.

Development capital budget

TCHC's development capital program supports its ongoing work to create new housing units by leveraging the value of existing properties. The $103-million development capital budget for 2021 will drive progress in TCHC's eight revitalization communities.

Highlights include:

Completing 309 rental replacement units and starting construction on 514 rental replacement units in revitalization communities
Implementing future phases of the Regent Park and Lawrence Heights projects
Starting construction for Alexandra Park Phase 2 and Don Summerville
Starting demolition in Firgrove

Operating budget

TCHC's 2021 operating budget is a break-even budget excluding the financial impacts of COVID-19. By offsetting some $24.3 million in increased non-discretionary costs using corporate reductions and efficiencies, TCHC will manage its 2021 operating costs without an increase in its City subsidy.

Highlights include:

$24.3 million in non-discretionary expenses, including utilities, mortgage principal and interest, cost of living and collective agreement increases, service contract price increases and employee retiree benefits
$24.3 million in efficiencies and offsets, mainly due to utility consumption savings from various energy conservation programs, corporate efficiencies and reductions and improved tenant rent management, as well as approved cessation of the annual Infrastructure Ontario reserve contribution

HoMES project

TCHC's 2021 budget includes $24.2 million from reserves to fund the Housing Management Enterprise System (HoMES) project. The funding is part of the overall HoMES project budget approved by the TCHC Board in 2018.

HoMES is replacing TCHC's end-of-life information technology (IT) systems with modern applications that support increased business intelligence and reporting
TCHC implemented phase 1 of HoMES as scheduled in 2021
TCHC is on track to implement Phase 2 in 2021, supporting tenancy management, reporting and performance accountability

COVID-19 cost pressures

TCHC's 2021 budget anticipates $37.5 million in cost pressures arising from COVID-19 that it expects will continue well into the year. These pressures are based on economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the need for continued investments in safety to protect tenants and employees. . It will work with the City of Toronto to recover these costs through federal and provincial relief programs.

Media contact: 416-737-6642 or media@torontohousing.ca