Christmas Holidays
 

December is the time of the year the we celebrate Christmas. Family and friends spend time together far and near. People decorate their houses and businesses with Christmas trees and lights to celebrate the holidays. Present under the trees, assorted Christmas baking, traditional foods are always a must in every household. I know that I'm always excited about the holidays. We always have friends over for our Christmas dinner, our tables is always full of friends. It is the best time of the year.

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and prosperous New Year ahead.

Submitted by Chris Del-Rosario

Community Living Toronto part of multi-partner housing initiative

- From the September 21st edition of Update Friday

By this time next year, 26 people supported by Community Living Toronto will be calling 200 Madison Avenue home, as part of an 82-unit, U-shaped affordable housing project involving community groups, a developer, and all levels of government.

Representatives from Community Living Toronto were on hand for an announcement on September 14th by Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development and Minister Responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and Adam Vaughan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development.

They announced that, since 2016, the federal government had invested more than $1.72 billion in funding and subsidies on affordable housing projects in Ontario, benefitting more than 300,000 families in Ontario. The Madison View Homes Inc. project is one of the initiatives that is on the receiving end of the federal investments.

“It’s going to be a beautiful building in a really interesting, established neighbourhood, right on the subway line, right by Casa Loma,” said James Janeiro, Community Living Toronto’s Director of Community Engagement and Policy, who attended last Friday’s announcement.

“It’s a win-win-win for everybody and we were really excited to be part of it.”

Community Living Toronto is one of five community agencies that have partnered with Mahogany Management, as well as the three levels of government.

Janeiro said Community Living Toronto first became involved in the project through a partnership with the developer, who was looking to have community services offered in the building as part of a call for proposals to the City of Toronto.

“Through our relationships with the developer and these four other community agencies, we all worked together to secure some units for our various community groups,” added Janeiro.

“But, really, it was because of the strength of a great proposal to the Affordable Housing Office with this particularly progressive developer, focused on community partnerships to provide affordable housing in this great community.”

12 units will be allocated to Community Living Toronto, with the entire building offering affordable housing. The tenants would pay rent through Community Living Toronto, although the exact amount is still being worked out by the organization and the developer.

According to Janeiro, the units will be move-in ready by July of 2019.