The Toronto Community Housing Corporation is under fire. There have been allegations that tenants paid bribes in order to jump the queue for larger apartments. A tenant in a Jane & St. Clair apartment building, Abderra Boukhalfa, seems to have been the catalyst for this investigation.

Mr. Boukhalfa has been on a wait list for a 2 bedroom subsidized apartment since 1996. In that time he has seen other tenants move into 2 bedroom units ahead of him, although they were wait listed behind him. He alleges that other tenants in the building have told him that they paid between $3,000 and $6,000 dollars to upgrade their apartments without having to wait their turn in line. Mr. Boukhalfa lives in a 1 bedroom apartment with his wife and 2 sons. Tired of the injustice, he wrote letters to the housing officials, the police, the mayor’s office, and Ms Nunziata of Ward 11, York South-Weston.

There are currently 164,000 tenants in 350 buildings run by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. Approximately 75,000 people are currently on wait lists. Ninety-three per cent of Toronto Community Housing tenants pay a subsidized rent that is equal to 30% of their gross household income. These are people who can ill afford to be paying bribes in order to live a decent quality of life. I am looking forward to the outcome of the investigation and sincerely hope that justice will be served.