Posted by landlord2001 on 6/20/2009, 9:25 am, in reply to "Re: 2009 Jane Jacobs Prize winner"
Message modified by board administrator 6/20/2009, 11:53 am
Isn't TCHC the worst landlord in Toronto?
--Previous Message--
: I have known Derek for years from when we were
: both in Ottawa. I congratulate him on the
: award and his new job, but I know a lot of
: tenants who are not happy with him winning
: this.
:
: --Previous Message--
: Derek Ballantyne the former head of TCHC,
: brought innovations including tenant
: participation in running their own housing
: and private-public partnerships, is a tenant
: activist and visionary who deservedly won
: this year's Jane Jacobs Award.
:
:
:
: http://ideasthatmatter.com/people/2009derek.html
:
:
:
: People That Matter
: 2009 Jane Jacobs Prize Recipient
:
: Derek Ballantyne
:
: Transforming a Toronto public institution
:
:
:
: Building communities takes imagination,
: determination and a willingness to take
: risks; all the while dealing with competing
: visions, countless nay-sayers and numerous
: tempting opportunities to delay or change
: direction. No one knows this better than
: Derek Ballantyne, this year’s recipient of
: the Jane Jacobs prize. He’s been described
: as a community consultant who gets things
: done without having a bulldozer mentality.
: He knows how to create work environments to
: support his vision. And as a long-time
: volunteer he understands the importance of
: buy-in. “The lessons I have learned from the
: community sector have been very valuable and
: are translatable into a large organizational
: context.”
:
: A compelling vision is often simple and it
: was Derek’s genius to confront the fact that
: in 2002 the Toronto Community Housing
: Corporation (TCHC) was a community in name
: only. How could a newly amalgamated
: collection of public housing companies with
: over 58,000 units and an overall population
: greater than Prince Edward Island become an
: innovative and transformative institution?
: And do so when most people said it could not
: be done!
:
: In retrospect, he says, he drew heavily on
: his early housing experience with a small
: inner city housing nonprofit in Ottawa,
: Centretown Citizens’ Ottawa Corporation
: (CCOC). He had originally joined the
: organization as a volunteer and by the
: mid-80s was chair of its board. CCOC was
: founded by activists in the 70’s and has
: remained dedicated to its goal of building
: community both within and around its 1,300
: units in downtown Ottawa. Here Derek learned
: that companies could be communities, that
: communities had to be built from the bottom
: up, and that the business culture had to be
: values-based.
:
: By 1989 community building had become his
: passion and he moved from the federal civil
: service into community nonprofit housing as
: a full-time endeavor. As general manager of
: City Living, Ottawa’s municipal housing
: corporation, he began to implement his ideas
: on a larger scale as well as incorporating
: organizational transformation and a
: political environment into his way of
: working.
:
: It proved to be another step towards the
: challenges he would face when he moved to
: Toronto in 1999 to become the CEO of Toronto
: Housing Company which subsequently merged
: with the Metro Toronto Housing Corporation
: to become TCHC, one of the largest landlords
: in North America. With a population of
: 160,000 residents, Derek knew that he had to
: do more than just collect rents and fix
: broken window panes.
:
: A dramatic institutional shift had to take
: place – in the way people within the
: organization worked; in the way decisions
: were made; and in the way residents felt
: about the communities they lived in. The
: solutions weren’t easily apparent – how to
: engage workers and residents in the idea of
: a ‘new’ organization. A lot of anger, a
: rigid bureaucracy and a long history of
: unfulfilled promises had been inherited from
: the earlier organizations.
:
: But, just as important, (but of less
: interest to the media) there was a
: tremendous reservoir of committed,
: community-minded residents and staff who
: could be the building blocks of a different
: culture. Ultimately the answer was not to
: create one organization but to reorganize
: the company into numerous
: neighbourhood-based Community Housing Units,
: each operating within the financial and
: value system of the whole company but
: encouraged to interact and innovate within
: its own neighbourhood.
:
: By listening closely to frontline staff and
: making tenants active participants in the
: change, things slowly started to turn
: around. The outlines of a different company
: began to emerge. What Derek and his team
: learned was that tenants wanted to have a
: voice, and wanted to have a say in how to
: make their community a safer and better
: place to live. Today, there is certainly no
: shortage of suggestions from the tenant body
: who now participate in elections that are
: larger in size than many of Canada’s smaller
: cities. Since 2002 tenants have also sat on
: advisory tenant councils which address local
: issues, allocate resources and develop local
: business plans.
:
: And Derek adds, “After a couple of years
: when TCHC became known as a better place to
: work, we began to attract bright and
: dedicated people who had worked in the
: community-based sector where I started as a
: volunteer. They had skills and fresh ideas
: which a large organization can support with
: resources. It was ‘win-win all round.”
:
: Derek also looked at how to overhaul the
: financial picture: “It was pretty clear,
: until quite recently, that the senior levels
: of government were not going to provide the
: funding we needed to repair our units.
: Unless we could leverage some cash flow from
: the housing assets, we were not going to be
: able to improve the living conditions in our
: communities. We realized that with the size
: of TCHC, we were a market unto ourselves and
: could compete both internally and
: externally. We went through a long and
: complicated rating process - a first for a
: social housing organization in Canada. And
: ultimately, based on the quality of our
: assets and cash flow, we were able to borrow
: at very competitive rates over $250 million
: dollars. It still wasn’t enough but it
: allowed us to start the rebuilding and
: repair programs in earnest.”
:
: Derek and his team came up with the idea of
: setting up their own service providers. For
: example, they created Housing Services Inc.,
: a construction and management company wholly
: owned by TCHC which bids on contracts both
: within and outside the portfolio. TCHC also
: helped create a laundry service with private
: sector investors that not only provided
: better service but generated additional
: revenue to upgrade existing services.
: Revenue was also generated through rooftop
: antennas and rooftop advertising.
:
: All this meant an ability to make new
: investments. It meant more money for
: improving and repairing crumbling housing
: much faster. And as importantly, as part of
: creating stronger communities, it meant that
: TCHC could invest in people through a Social
: Investment Fund – for example, funding a
: youth centre in Pelham Place and starting
: community gardening programs.
:
: For the last six years, Derek has been
: overseeing the redevelopment and
: transformation of one of Toronto’s largest
: urban neighbourhoods - Regent Park. One
: would think that the Regent Park renewal
: would stand out as his most important
: project. While Derek doesn’t deny its
: importance, he wants to see it in the right
: context. While the Regent Park
: revitalization has been given a lot of
: press, in the end, it will affect
: approximately 7,500 people. But there are
: another 150,000 residents living in TCHC
: properties. He insists, “We’ll never be able
: to do a Regent Park in every neighbourhood.
: But we can do other things that will affect
: many more lives.”
:
: Derek would be the first to admit that he
: didn’t do all this alone. When asked about
: leadership, he points to three important
: characteristics. First, he or she should
: allow for risks to take place and support a
: risk-taking environment. Next, a leader
: builds both the internal and external
: confidence of the organization. He or she
: builds the space to allow for creativity.
: Finally, “you have to order your ideas. You
: can’t do everything at once and you have to
: make strong priorities and stick to them.”
:
: When asked about his proudest moment, Derek
: talks about how tenants have become more
: involved, how they feel they have more say
: in how they live, how they feel confident to
: be their own change. In the end, there’s no
: better compliment than when tenants tell
: him, “My place is a better place to live.”
:
: On May 15, 2009, Derek started his new
: position as the Chief Operating Officer of
: Build Toronto, a City of Toronto
: organization that will engage private and
: public sector partners in the development of
: city real estate. If his past successes are
: anything to go by, we can look forward to
: some exciting new developments in Toronto’s
: urban fabric.
:
:
:
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