here - Tamarack CCI

Improved education to employment pathways for teens and young adults
A comprehensive housing/neighbourhood revitalization strategy
The creation and adoption of a poverty reduction strategy for the Province of New
Brunswick
Greater Toronto Apartment Association
http://www.gtaaonline.com
The Toronto Community Foundation (T CF) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to
ensure the vitality of Toronto and make Canada’s biggest city a better place to live, work, learn
and grow. It worked as a convener to help form the Greater Toronto Apartment Association
(G T A A ). In only ten months, T CF was able to pull together private sector landlords with social
housing representatives and convince the Ontario provincial and Toronto municipal authorities
to create, help fund and administer a unique pilot project to provide hundreds of low-income
families with access to more affordable housing.
The Greater Toronto Apartment Association (G T A A ) represents the interests of greater
Toronto's most active and concerned firms participating in the multifamily rental housing
industry. In a climate of rapidly changing issues such as realty taxes, municipal fees, property and
fire standards, inspections and bylaws, the G T A A was established as a municipal association to
advocate for the rental housing industry and to provide a source of vital information,
representation and leadership in the rental housing industry.
The G T A A played a vital role in the Strong Communities Housing A llowance Program, which
was designed to make existing rental housing more affordable. Through a collaboration with
landlords, the program provided an opportunity to maximize the use of vacant rental units in
high vacancy rate environments. Rents of eligible households were reduced by approximately
$300 per month. $150 of this was provided by the provincial government, and the other $150
from participating landlords.
The role of the G T A A was to win over the landlords to the program. Through a letter
campaign, the G T A A was able to quickly find more than a dozen major landlords offering as
many as 1,000 units. Many agreed that it was better to have units rented with nominally lower
revenues than sit empty.
Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre
A transitional housing development of 20 bachelor units in Toronto is designed to help formerly
homeless men make the transition from shelter life to more stable accommodations. A garden
centre provided expertise and financial support to design the gardens for this development.
Collaborating with Business for Social Transformation
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