ALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE CO-OPERATIVE HOUSING

Minutes of Meeting
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Sunroom, Windmill Line Co-op, Toronto

PRESENT: Donald Altman (Church-Isabella; chairing), Bridget Bayliss (Windmill

Line), Tom Clement (CHFT), Barbara Czarnecki (Windmill Line; recording), Brian
Eng (Oak Street, Wellesley Institute), Maureen Foy (Stanley Knowles), Corrie
Galloway (Windward), Christine Mounsteven (Charles Hastings), Nick Sidor
(CHF Canada), Brynne Teall (Oak Street), Beth Wilson (Toronto Women’s)

REGRETS: David Granovsky (CHF Canada), Darlene Morris (Tannery Gate),

Edward Nixon (Windmill Line), Jerry Reitsma (Ann Marie Hill)

1. Introductions

2. Adopt agenda
Added to 4, Updates: Toronto affordable housing initiative.

3. Minutes of April 9, 2008

Agreed by consensus.

4. Updates
— politicians at AGM:
Nick said that Harvey Cooper has invited all area MPPs and Toronto councillors.
Mario Sergio will represent Jim Watson, Ontario minister of housing. CHF
Canada has invited federal MPs. The federal minister, Monte Solberg, declined.

— “existing tools/additional assistance” letter:

Nick confirmed that no response has yet been received to the letters sent to
Solberg by co-ops, and he does not expect much.

— Toronto affordable housing initiative:

The city is holding consultations and deputation meetings on Housing
Opportunities Toronto, a 10-year plan for affordable housing. The framework
document has a passing reference to co-ops. For more information:
http://www.toronto.ca/affordablehousing/hot.htm

Deputations can be made at City Hall on Monday, June 16. Brynne will register;
she, Corrie, and Christine will work on a presentation. Tom said that CHFT will
also make a deputation.

Beth reported that the Social Planning Council is conducting community

consultations on the plan, including one on May 26. She will send a schedule.
AACH Minutes, May 13, 2008

5. Current projects
— numbers for Smitherman:
CHFT is collecting data on vacancies. Tom said he decided to expand the project
beyond Scarborough; he has sent an email to all member co-ops. It could take
two or three weeks to assemble the numbers. Beth sent Smitherman a letter to
say we were working on the vacancy statistics he asked for.

— lobbying MPs and candidates in target ridings:

Nick reported on recent lobbying by CHF Canada staff. They have been targeting
two Commons committees: Human Resources, Social Development and the
Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) and Finance (FINA). CHF Canada
continues to work with Canadian Housing Renewal Association, Toronto
Community Housing Corporation, and Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
FCM is now taking a leading role in collective action on housing: this is a big step
forward, because FCM has lots of staff, and all its committees are led by elected
politicians.
Minister Solberg testified at HUMA and was asked two questions about
S95 (by Judy Sgro and Tony Martin), but didn’t answer well on any housing
questions. This suggests the government has no plans at all to act on housing.
Solberg’s staff wants another briefing on S95, but at cabinet level, there’s no
interest. To get interest, we have to make housing an issue by building broad
advocacy coalitions including boards of trade, tourism authorities, and anyone
else who recognizes the need for housing.
A housing summit is being planned for October in Ottawa, to coincide with
the federal-provincial housing ministers’ meeting.
Nick was asked what CHF Canada is doing to get co-ops into the media.
He said David Granovsky is pushing hard for more media appearances.
Brian spoke about getting commitments from politicians before an election
campaign begins. Tom reported on his list of target ridings to work on:
Scarborough-Rouge River (Derek Lee/Bas Balkissoon); Toronto Centre (Bob
Rae/George Smitherman); Beaches-East York (Maria Minna/Michael Prue);
Scarborough Southwest (Tom Wappel); Etobicoke-Lakeshore (Michael Ignatieff);
Toronto Danforth (Jack Layton/Peter Tabuns); York Southwest (Alan Tonks);
Trinity-Spadina (Olivia Chow).

— Liberal Party platform development:

Bob Rae is in charge of it. CHF Canada and CHFT have a meeting with him on
Tuesday, May 20; Beth will attend.

6. CHF Canada AGM

— AACH meeting agenda (Thursday, June 12, 12:15 p.m., Dockside 6):
Donald will chair. The first item, after welcome and introductions, will be the
Toronto Women’s assistance package: five to ten minutes on the good and the
bad. Beth or others from Toronto Women’s will speak and take questions.
Second, we hope to have a speaker from one of the BC co-ops that are
out of their agreements. Tom has asked Thom Armstrong to find someone.

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AACH Minutes, May 13, 2008

The rest of the time will be for co-op delegates or staff to talk about what
they are experiencing or their ideas for political action.
The housing summit in October can be announced. Although grassroots
action is not currently part of the plan, as envisioned by the summit coalition, co-
ops might want to organize their own activities around it.
The next AACH meeting will discuss what we can do around the summit:
one possibility is to build a house on Dundas Square out of reports on
homelessness. Brian will start compiling a list of reports.

— create handout on current lobby initiatives:

Nick had supplied the current version of the options paper that CHF Canada is
using in meetings with MPs. Brian noted that the two parts of the “ask” should not
be called “step 1” and “step 2” because the term makes it seem as if one must
happen before the other; if anything, it’s the other way around, but the sequence
is unimportant.
Barbara will draft and circulate a one-page handout for the June 12
meeting: what you can do when you get home (look into additional assistance,
find out when your agreement expires, find out about the addendum for your next
rollover, etc.). Nick will make the options paper available in its latest version.

— resolutions meetings: May 14 at the Y, May 21 at W.L. Mackenzie.

— late resolution: “Federal Action on Canada’s Affordable Housing Shortage”

The group generally approved of this new resolution.

— workshops: Barbara is attending workshop 206.

7. AACH business: the financial statement is unchanged.

8. Task list
— item 30: Tom is working with the Agency on a session in the fall to explain the
Agency’s assistance “toolkit” to co-op staff.

— item 42: Brian explained that the group had discussed meeting with the Star
editorial board in the run-up to the June AGM. Nick will take over this item.

9. Not to be forgotten
— treating internal subsidy as charitable contribution
— contacting non-housing co-operatives and other allies
— media strategy
— connecting with other housing advocacy organizations

10. Next meetings:

Thursday, June 12, 12:15 p.m., at the CHF Canada AGM (Dockside 6).
Thursday, July 3, 7:00 p.m., Windmill Line. On the agenda: actions to mark the
housing summit in October.

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11. Adjourned at 9:05 p.m.

Task List – as of May 13, 2008

Date Item Who TASK Target

# Assigned Date
Apr 9/08 29 Tom Talk to Homestarts about S95.

May 30 Tom CHFT workshop/discussion group for Fall

13/08 staff about the Agency’s toolkit. 2008
Mar 33 Barbara Collect economic eviction instances.
15/07
Jan 8/08 37 Corrie/ Call co-ops with 2007 and 2008
Christine rollovers.
May 42 Nick Sidor Look into meeting with editorial board
13/08 of Tor Star to link with AGM.