Toronto city council has approved the sale of 22 homes owned by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation in order to raise money to repair other city-owned properties.
Council voted 33-10 in favour of selling the single-family homes after a long and heated debate that began Tuesday night and ended during a council session Wednesday morning.
The market value for the homes is about $17 million, and much of the proceeds have been earmarked to be used for repairing other city-owned property, at an estimated cost of $650 million.
Coun. Janet Davis says she is concerned about the 22 families that will be left without housing once the sale is complete. But Case Ootes, the council-appointed managing director for the TCHC, has insisted that the families will be taken care of.
Ootes approved the sale of the homes in April and introduced a plan to sell as many as 900 houses in order to raise $400 million earlier this month.
More than 165,000 tenants currently live in the TCHC's housing units, with another 77,000 on the waiting list.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Alicia Markson
