Ana Bailão

On March 4, 2011, Councillor Bailão hosted a Symposium on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness and included the participation of United Way Toronto, the Toronto Board of Trade, the Daily Bread Foodbank, and former Toronto mayor and Senator Art Eggleton.[16] This symposium examined the increasing separation of high-income earners and low-income earners in Toronto, and the impact that this trend has on neighbourhoods and housing.[17]

Recognizing the City of Toronto's constrained fiscal situation[18] and the declining commitment of provincial and federal governments to fund affordable housing initiatives,[19] Bailão directed the Affordable Housing Committee to create a roundtable with private-sector experts to discuss ways of creating affordable housing in Toronto without upper-level government funding. This roundtable submitted a report[20] that was approved by city council; outlining a plan to create nearly 8,000 affordable homes and over 13,000 well-paying construction jobs within 3 years.[20] This report was very well received[21] and was viewed as a way of moving forward even in the face of reduced public funding.

In 2011, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) faced a repair backlog of $650 million.[22] In response, the Toronto Community Housing Board recommended the sale of 872 stand alone houses to offset these costs, with 715 TCHC houses considered recommended as viable for selling.[23] Excluding the 11 homes that had already been approved for sale by city council in previous reports, the TCHC Board recommended an additional 675 units be sold.[23] The public and media response to this proposal was highly negative,[24][25] with many groups voicing strong concern about how a large scale sell-off of affordable housing would affect the already over-burdened social housing waiting list.[26] Three former mayors of Toronto also wrote a joint letter to express concerns about this proposal to sell the scattered houses in TCHC's portfolio and imploring that Toronto re-engage the federal and provincial governments in sustainable funding support for the growing repair backlog.[27]

Bailão raised strong concerns about the impact of this sale to the City Social Housing portfolio. Bailão submitted a letter as chair of the Affordable Housing Committee to the Executive Committee, which was handling the TCHC report identifying these concerns.[28]

In response to these concerns, Bailão requested the opportunity to lead a special housing working group[29] in order to identify innovative solutions and creative partnerships. In its meetings on March 5, 6, and 7, city council approved Bailãos request and she was appointed to lead this working group along with management consultant Jim Pimblett, TCHC Board Chair Bud Perves and former cabinet minister Alan Redway.[30] This working group was created to make findings on the proposed sale of the 619 TCHC homes, develop innovative solutions and new partnerships to address the repair backlog and create a strategy to re-engage the federal and provincial governments in providing affordable housing. This working group was asked to report back to Executive Committee in early fall, 2012, in order to provide recommendations to city council.[31]

This group launched an extensive consultation process on April 3, 2012,[31] and included a survey of tenants living in the single family homes proposed for sale, an Ideas Forum on Housing, a consultation with non-profit housing organizations and a public Suggestions for Action event.

The final report, entitled "Putting People First", was released on September 17, 2012,[32] and was widely well received by social housing advocates.[33][34][35] By the time the final report was returned to Executive Committee on October 9, 2012,[36] the working group's report recommendations had been informed by consultations with over 600 individuals and organizations. As a goal, the working group set out to raise $120 million over the next two years for housing repairs.[37]

By 2013, TCHC's repair backlog had increased to $751 million.[38]

In March 2013, another of the Special Working Group's recommendations was implemented and realized when $93.5 million was unlocked as part of the refinancing of 18 mortgages at lower rates through Infrastructure Ontario.[39] As a result, nearly $100 million was directed towards high-priority structural repairs in TCHC buildings.[40]

The approval by city council of the mortgage renegotiation also marked a significant achievement for the Special Housing Working Group's report. In addition to the already implemented recommendations from the Special Working Group, the original target of raising $120 million towards the repair backlog was achieved in only the first 6 months of the report receiving council approval.[41]

On October 16, 2012, Bailão was charged with impaired driving and driving with a blood alcohol content over the legal limit. After initially saying she would fight the charges she later reversed her decision and pleaded guilty to the charge of being above the legal limit, saying, "I made a bad choice. I take full responsibility for that and I accept the consequences." The charge of impaired driving was dropped. Mayor Rob Ford commented on the incident and said, "Ana is a good local councillor, she works hard and represents her residents well at City Hall. I look forward to continuing to work with her on council." She received a 12-month licence suspension and a fine.[42]