IHM News - Fall 2015

Volume 61, Fall 2015

Canadian Publications Mail Agreement # 40739009

ENHANCING THE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS

Inside President’s Message ... 2 Social Housing Sector-Wide Asset Management - Long Overdue ... 3 Working at Heights Training ... 5 Housing Needs a New Funding Model to Continue Essential Support Services ... 7 City Eyes Social Housing Revamp in the North End ... 8 Two Terminations: Arbitrator Refuses to Intervene in Employee Eviction ... 10 Human Relations for Property Managers 5-Day IHM In-Class Course Registration ... 11 IHM 2016 Educational Conference Preliminary Program at a Glance... 12 IHM 2016 Educational Conference Registration Form... 13 IHM Certificates in Property Management & Course Completions ... 14 New Members... 14 IHM Board of Directors ... 14

Working at Heights Training

P r e s i d e n t ’s M e s s a g e

Greetings IHM Members, Several editions prior to this newsletter I wrote about how IHM benefits from our many hundreds of members. In fact, that IHM depends on and benefits from our many hundreds of members.

We need you. We need more of you now.

It is primarily the members of IHM that deliver our education program, and we all depend on each other to maintain our membership and, by doing so, maintain our professional accreditation. The board is comprised of IHM members that volunteer their time to support your Institute of Housing Management.

Members of your board are currently working on strengthening and deepening sector partnerships and renewing the Institute’s education curriculum. Our current efforts include working with Humber College, the Cooperative Housing Federation of Canada, the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association and the Federation of Rental-Housing Providers of Ontario. To achieve progress into the future IHM needs members to volunteer their time to either help deliver our education program, or volunteering to help in any way you can.

The Institute of Housing Management benefits and depends on our many hundreds of members and as we look forward to the future, I hope you will consider participating to help ensure our continued success. Often the best way to personal growth and development of one’s own skills is to volunteer, to simply ask “how can I help.” To ask how you can help your Institute of Housing Management, you can contact IHM staff or any member of the IHM board.

Together with you, the board looks forward to celebrating IHM’s 40th anniversary at Sheraton Parkway Hotel in Richmond Hill, April 13-15, 2016. Please plan on attending and thank you for your continue support of the Institute of Housing Management.

Best wishes to all of you for a fantastic fall season.

Kevin O’Hara, MPA, FIHM, CMM III IHM President

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IHM News • Fall 2015

Celebrating 40 Years!

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Feature

Social Housing Sector-Wide Asset Management - Long Overdue

By Marcia O’Connor

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ince devolution, the Social Housing Sector in Ontario has faced considerable challenges maintaining its housing stock. Despite best efforts to develop an approach to consistent and effective asset management, the sector still remains highly fragmented with respect to the vision, approach, and tools used to provide asset management at the housing provider level. While there are many success stories about competent local solutions, it is clear we have not learned from and built on each other’s successes. And it is even clearer that we have not been able to put forward solid, evidence-based cases for anything like the amount of resources needed to close reserved fund gaps.

While individual providers and some Service Managers may have conducted research helpful to their own decisionmaking, inconsistencies from one provider to another and one area to another have proved to be a disservice to all. It has been too easy to play down calls for support from sector associations and Service Managers in the absence of solid data and standards.

Three consultants with substantial and diverse asset management expertise, frustrated in seeing the goals of their own support to providers and Service Managers fail to gain traction, grappled with the issue and concluded that so long as we continue to “prescribe” methodologies, the capacity of much of the sector will limit required take-up.

Our experience combines decades in oversight and in technical and program/policy advice in all aspects of

IHM News • Fall 2015

“We are seeking participation from Service Managers together or individually to participate in this initiative.” provider and Service Manager asset management, and importantly in related advocacy, with expertise in the uniquely successful province-wide educational asset management model for good measure. From this combination of inside and outside perspectives, we believe it is time to look at a strategic bottom-up approach.

This approach would add value at the individual provider or Service Manager – level, as it must if they are going to be enticed to use it. But the organized input from the “early adopters” of the bottom-up approach would help us move to realistic and achievable asset management standards, and sooner rather than later to a defensible data set that will enable better use of funds on hand and strengthen the business case for enhanced capital funding.

We are seeking participation from Service Managers together or individually to participate in this initiative. We are seeking a select number of projects based on age, size, program type, client type that is representative of both LHC and/or housing providers and also to support for the Sector-Wide Asset Management Initiative. Although the staff commitment for the individual provider or Service Manager will be limited with regard to their own data, in keeping with our acknowledged “busyness”, participants should be prepared to commit to one or two facilitated sessions to discuss scaling up and advocacy strategies.

The graphic below summarizes the approach and activities within each phase.

Continued on page 4

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“…organized input from the “early adopters” of the bottom-up approach would help us move to realistic and achievable asset management standards…”

As the sector standard is developed, not only will the report serve as a road map for the evolution of data collection and asset management standards, we have engaged with key housing sector associations, Service Managers, and the Provincial government to develop a sector wide strategy that aims to benefit all housing providers.

We expect this strategy to add value to individual housing providers and SM’s and associations at both decision-making and advocacy levels, but we also expect that by proving “bottom up” will work, that both the technical inputs and analysis will evolve over time and advo-

cacy will be continually strengthened as a result.

We are not sure if what we came up with will succeed, but we are convinced that we can’t keep on the path we have been on. We believe we must find an approach that builds from the bottom up if we are to have any chance of getting significantly better.

Please reach out to us to learn more about the Sector Asset Management Strategy. Marcia’s contact is below: Marcia.oconnor@amfmconsulting.com, 416-433-3565. ■

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP! Participate on the various committees Help with the Annual Educational Conference Submit relevant articles for the IHM quarterly newsletter Consider becoming a proctor for exams (FIHM/AIHM Members only) Mentor a Candidate member (FIHM/AIHM Members only) Become an Instructor (FIHM/AIHM Members only) Contact the IHM office for more information on how you can help.

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Feature

Working at Heights Training

By Carola Mittag

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alls from heights continue to be a significant hazard, leading to injuries and deaths of workers in all sectors – particularly with construction activity. To improve workplace health and safety, new training for those who work at heights has become mandatory in Ontario as of April 1, 2015.

Ontario employers must ensure that workers on construction projects, who may use certain methods of fall protection successfully complete ‘Working at Heights’ training that meets training program and provider standards established

by Ontario’s Chief Prevention Officer (CPO).

I’m not in construction. Does this apply to me?

The word “construction” leaves many owners/employers/Property Managers wondering if this new regulation applies to them. Wherever home/building improvements are undertaken, these sites are considered “construction” sites and fall under the new regulation. This includes electrical work/repairs at heights, heating and ventilation work/repairs at heights as well as repairs done to structures at heights. Keep in mind that “working at heights” also includes working at depths where ladders are required to descend to levels where falls can also cause serious injury.

What the law says…

The Occupational Health and Safety Awareness and Training Regulation

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Wherever home/building improvements are undertaken, these sites are considered “construction” sites and fall under the new regulation.

(Ontario Regulation 297/13) under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), has been amended to include mandatory working at heights training requirements. The working at heights training is valid for three years from the date the worker completes an approved training program delivered by an approved training provider.

In addition to these new requirements, employers continue to have a duty under Section 26.2 (1) of O. Reg. 213/91 to ensure that workers who may use a fall protection system are adequately trained on the use of the system, and are given adequate oral and written instructions by a competent person.

Regulatory Requirements for Working at Heights Training The new training requirements apply to workers who are required to use any of the following methods of fall protection:

Workers      

a a a a a a

travel restraint system; fall restricting system; fall arrest system; safety net; work belt; safety belt.

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Employers Employers with workers who are required to use any of the fall protection methods listed above must do the following to ensure they comply with the new training requirements:

 ensure the worker completes a working at heights training program that has been approved by the CPO as having met the Working at Heights Training Program Standard applicable at the time of the training;

 ensure the training provider, delivering the training program, was approved by the CPO as having met the Working at Heights Training Provider Standard applicable at the time of training;

 ensure the worker’s training is valid and has not expired;

 maintain a training record for the worker that includes the worker’s name, the approved training provider’s name, the date the training was completed, and the name of the approved training program; and

 make the training record available to

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a Ministry of Labour inspector on request.

If a worker has completed training, before April 1, 2015, that met the requirements of section 26.2 of O. Reg. 213/91, that worker will have until April 1, 2017 to complete an approved working at heights training program that is delivered by an approved training provider.

This regulation came into being as a result of a tragic swing-stage accident in Toronto on Christmas Eve 2009, where four workers were killed and one was paralyzed for life.

Who could live with themselves if they knew they could have prevented such a tragedy through proper training and knowledge?

Join the Institute of Housing Management on

Facebook and LinkedIn to participate for free in the conversations, and gain education, information awareness and access to expertise by and for our members.

Visit our website at: ihmcanada.net to gain access

Carola Mittag is CEO of Workplace Safety Group, experts in workplace health and safety. Workplace Safety Group has designed training programs specifically for the housing sector.

Email: carola@workplacesafetygroup.com ■

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Feature

Housing Needs a New Funding Model to Continue Essential Support Services

By Patrick Murray National Housing Federation

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or decades housing associations have delivered high quality support that helps people facing challenges such as homelessness, mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, or difficult life transitions such as young people leaving care or people leaving prison. These services deliver vital support to help people live independently and reach their full potential.

However services are under severe threat. Budgets that fund support services which help people to live independently and reach their full potential have been cut by 45% over the last parliament. The impact on the lives of people who rely on housing related support to overcome difficult challenges in their lives could be catastrophic.

A new model for funding support services The National Housing Federation has been looking at a future model for funding this vital support. It is crucial that we tailor support interventions to suit the lives of people who need them, rather than the requirements of different budget holders. People’s lives, their ambitions, and the challenges they face are rarely so simple that they fit neatly into one commissioning box.

So how do we think this will look in practice? Firstly we need a partnership between local and national government, providers such as housing associations, and the people using these services. We think giving local authorities the freedom to work with providers to identify who would benefit from services, and what interventions would work best,

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would drive greater innovation.

Existing money can be spent more effectively too. Those government departments that pick up the cost of crisis interventions such as A&E visits due to alcohol or drug abuse, or court costs and police time for people who lapse back into offending, should provide national funding for a pooled budget.

payment-by-outcomes regimes. These lessons include making sure that outcomes are co-produced with people who are striving to turn their lives around to ensure they are meaningful, and that the outcomes capture the distance travelled on their journey to a stable roof over their heads, employment opportunities, good health and independence.

People’s lives, their ambitions, and the challenges they face are rarely so simple that they fit neatly into one commissioning box.

This should be match-funded locally, potentially by a range of commissioning partners, to ensure there is a strong incentive to target the money effectively and not siphon it off to meet other funding pressures.

Prevention is cheaper than cure Critically this model needs to fund interventions to prevent people from developing the most difficult problems in the first place. Without that broad approach we could end up with no support for people until the barriers they face in their lives become ever more challenging to overcome.

We want to incentivise a focus on outcomes that people value, not drive commissioning to ever lower costs per hour.

So some of the central contribution should be tied to the achievement of particular outcomes. It is crucial though that we learn the lessons from previous

Housing associations are ideal partners The local commissioning approach must start by answering ‘what can providers bring to the table?’, rather than ‘what is the lowest cost per hour a service can be commissioned for’. Clearly housing associations have much to offer: physical assets, knowledge of communities, partnerships with other active community organizations, the growing use of volunteers, and of course specialist expertise in delivering services that help people build the lives they want to lead.

Ultimately I think a new framework built on these principles could support a new generation of innovative, person-centred support that helps people facing difficult times to live their lives to their full potential.

Patrick Murray is a Policy Officer at the National Housing Federation

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Feature

City Eyes Social Housing Revamp in the North End

By John Rennison The Hamilton Spectator

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he city’s cash-strapped social housing agency is leaving dozens of North End units vacant as it studies whether to sell or redevelop failing buildings in a hot real estate market.

Nearly half of the 146 apartments in the half-century-old Ken Soble tower at the north end of MacNab Street are vacant, while 16 of 91 units are empty in the Jamesville townhouse complex where 18-year-old Shariek Douse was shot and killed last week.

CityHousing Hamilton is leaving those units vacant, confirmed agency head Tom Hunter, partly because they’re in rough shape — but also because the agency is investigating what to do with the properties in future.

Board chair Chad Collins acknowledged interest in a possible sale or redevelopment is “probably the worst kept secret” in the area. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out those properties, in terms of location, have more value now than ever,” he said.

individuals. But Hunter said the vacant units would be empty regardless because there isn’t any cash to fix them.

“We’re tapped out,” he said.

Hunter said the housing agency has about $24 million in capital needs each year — but only $8.5 million to spend.

“We have vacancies across the entire portfolio that we can’t put back on the market (due to damage.)”

About seven per cent of the agency’s 7,000 units across the city are vacant, with about 235 empty due to needed repairs. In the MacNab tower, Hunter

said many units are either damaged or off-limits due to reoccurring bedbug infestations.

Any major change to existing social housing will require buy-in from existing tenants, the city and province, Collins said, and any redevelopment must ensure the agency ends up with “as many or more” subsidized units.

Otherwise, the options are open. For example, the agency could sell its nearharbour tower to a condo developer and use the proceeds to build elsewhere — or partner on a mixed-use, mixed

About seven per cent of the agency’s 7,000 units across the city are vacant, with about 235 empty due to needed repairs.

The 17-storey tower at 500 MacNab St. N. overlooks the harbour, while the townhouses are steps from a new GO Station. Ideally, the agency could translate that value into more and better housing, Collins said.

It’s not clear how long the units will stay vacant in the face of a subsidized housing wait list with 5,700 families or

IHM News • Fall 2015

The 17-storey tower at 500 MacNab St. N. overlooks the harbour.

Empty unit at 500 MacNab St. N.

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income development on James Street similar to the much-lauded Regent Park revamp in Toronto.

In April, Ward Coun. Jason Farr tweeted about his visit to the rejuvenated neighbourhood, which mixes rent-geared-toincome housing with market condos, grocery stores and parks on the site of a formerly troubled social housing project. Farr wouldn’t comment on specific proposals for the North End, but added “it’s no secret” he’s keen on the potential for mixed use, mixed income communities.

The agency could also use sale proceeds from aging single homes and semis elsewhere in the city to repair existing North End properties. It recently did so to help pay for a new 50-unit seniors complex on Stonechurch Road.

Hunter said the agency is working with city planners to evaluate opportunities

IHM News • Fall 2015

“The most important question will be: What do the tenants want? Because they will drive the process” in the west harbour and along the transit-oriented James Street corridor.

he said. “We don’t want to lose our existing residents.”

Council also asked city staff to report on options to ensure new affordable housing is incorporated into a hopedfor 1,600-condo and townhouse development envisioned for city-owned Pier 8 land. Collins said behind-the-scenes “business case” studies continue for the agency’s North End properties, but added he expects public consultation on a list of options could begin as early as this fall. “The most important question will be: What do the tenants want?

Because they will drive this process,”

The sooner the options go public, the better, said Rob Fiedler, who heads the North End Neighbours group. He said residents are aware of the growing number of vacant units and rumours persist that developers wants to “clear out” the Jamesville townhouses to build condos.

“It would be nice to get some accurate information out there for people to weigh in on,” he said. “I’m someone who believes we can’t afford to lose our social housing in the North End.” ■

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Legal Corner

Two Terminations: Arbitrator Refuses to Intervene in Employee Eviction

By Brian Gottheil Lawyer & HR Advisor Bernardi Human Resource Law LLP

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f a property management company fires a Superintendent who lives on site, can it also evict him from his home while he’s in the middle of challenging the termination? A recent decision says yes – or, at least, it says that a labour arbitrator can’t stop it.

In Labourers’ International Union of North America, Local 183 v. Ainsworth Inc., the parties’ collective agreement granted Superintendents of residential buildings the right to live in a two-bedroom apartment in their building rentfree. In February 2015, the company terminated a Superintendent’s employment and required him to vacate the premises within two weeks. The Superintendent filed a grievance challenging the termination, and in the meantime he refused to leave, even after the company issued a formal notice to vacate and threatened to bring eviction proceedings to the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Desperate to keep his apartment, the Superintendent and his union decided to try a novel tactic: they asked the labour arbitrator who was hearing his termination grievance to order the company to let him stay, at least until the grievance was resolved.

After all, as a unionized employee, the Superintendent could expect that if he won his case – that is, if the arbitrator determined that he had been fired without just cause – he would be reinstated to his employment and to all of the benefits that went along with it, including

IHM News • Fall 2015

the apartment. The union argued that it would be unjust for him to lose his home now, only to possibly move back again in a few months and incur the cost and disruption of moving homes twice. It asked the arbitrator to force the company to let him keep his apartment until the grievance was resolved; if the employee lost his case, he could move out then.

The arbitrator refused, finding that she did not have jurisdiction to do what the union requested. At the end of the arbitration, following a full hearing of all of

the evidence, she had the power to reinstate the Superintendent to his employment. As part of that decision, she could fashion a remedy that included returning him to his apartment and compensating him for having been terminated (and evicted) without just cause. But all of that only proved that whether or not the Superintendent had the right to remain in the apartment was a substantive issue going to the merits of the case. Therefore, a hearing was necessary. The arbitrator did not have the power to decide such significant issues using a preliminary, interim order.

As a result, the company was allowed to go ahead with its eviction proceedings even while the dispute over the employment termination continued. This was good news for a company that no doubt needed the apartment for this employee’s replacement, if not another tenant.

The arbitrator’s decision does not mean that a property management company can evict a live-in employee with impunity. If an employee lives on site and refuses to move out, the eviction procedures under the Residential Tenancies Act must still be followed, including, if necessary, an application to the Landlord and Tenant Board. What it does mean, however, is that employees cannot use the labour arbitration system to make an end-run around an otherwise proper eviction. ■

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Education

IHM Certificates in Property Management Human Relations for Property Managers

Property & Building Administration

Robert Grace Janet-Lea Law Louise Oddell Lila Mariage Jyoti Metha

Ben Lemel Colin Colace Keeana Gillesby Brianne Chard Etleva Mullaj Andrew Hope Allison Corbett Christine Leung

Strategic and Financial Planning for Property Managers

Membership

Congratulations to IHM’s New Accredited Member Emily Hollington, AIHM u u u

Congratulations to IHM’s New Honourary Candidate Members Francesca Filice, AIHM (C) u u u

Congratulations to IHM’s New Candidate Members

Building Maintenance for Property Managers

Erin Cooper Dianne Toth Ricky Quieshi Alana Stewart Darlene Pisuena-Ray

Alana Van Paassen Eduardo Ulloa Villanueva Charlaine La Marre Jane Kuchma Rachell Russell Kelly Morphew Samantha White Russell Thompson Maria Cossa-Rossi Allister Andrews

Teri MacNeil Emily Hollington Robert Grace

Congratulations to IHM’s Program Completion Student Emily Hollington

u u u

2014-2015 Board of Directors EXECUTIVE

DIRECTORS

President Kevin O’Hara, MPA, FIHM, CMM III Supervisor, Area Operations, Waterloo Region Housing 235 King Street East, 6th Floor Kitchener, ON Canada N2G 4N5 Tel: 519-575-4800 Ext. 1218 Fax: 519-893-8447 Email: kohara@regionofwaterloo.ca

Marketing/Membership Chair Kris Boyce, AIHM Greenwin Inc. 19 Lesmill Road, Toronto, Ontario, M3B 2T3 Tel: 416-322-4006 Fax: 416-544-4895 E-mail: kboyce@greenwin.ca

Communications Co-Chair Kathy Harris, AIHM, CMM III Project Manager Facilities Design & Development, Asset Management Regional Municipality of Halton 1151 Bronte Road, Oakville, ON L6M 3L1 Ph: 905-825-6000 Ext. 7507 Fax: 905-825-3879 Conference Co-Chair Deborah Parker, AIHM Girl Guides of Canada 50 Merton Street, Toronto, ON M4S 1A3 Tel: 416-487-5281 Ext. 209 Fax: 416-487-5570 Email: parkerd@girlguides.ca

Vice President & Education Committee Member Jim Mellor, AIHM 17199 Regional Road 50, Palgrave Ontario L7E 0K7 Tel: 519-996-6006 Email: jmellor5225@gmail.com

Conference Committee Member Anne-Marie Cheung, AIHM Housing York Inc. 1091 Gorham Street, Unit 104, Newmarket, ON L3Y 8X7 Tel: 905-898-1007 x 72701 Fax: 905-895-5724 E-mail: anne-marie.cheung@york.ca

Past President & Education Co-Chair Deborah Filice, B.A., R.S.S.W., FIHM, CMM III Professor, Humber College Email: deborah.filice@humber.ca Email: filicedaf@cogeco.ca

Education Committee Member Ed Cipriani, AIHM, MAATO Region of Halton 1151 Bronto Road, Stoney Creek, ON Tel: 905-825-6000 Ext. 7355 Fax: 905-825-8274 Email: ecpm@skyline.net

CANDIDATE REPS Communications Co-Chair Francesca Filice, B.A., AIHM (C) Hamilton East Kiwanis Non-Profit Homes Inc. 281 Queenston Road, Hamilton, ON L8K 1G9 Tel: 905-545-4654 Ext. 233 Fax: 905-545-4884 Email: Francesca.Filice@Kiwanishomes.ca

Treasurer/Conference Co-Chair Lynn Alexander, AIHM Region of Durham Housing Services P.O.Box 623, Whitby, ON L1N 6A3 Tel: 905-666-6222 Fax: 905-666-6225 Email: Lynn.alexander@durham.ca

Education Co-Chair Phil Eram, B.Sc., AIHM Precision Property Management Inc. 22 Goodmark Place, Suite 22, Toronto, ON M9W 6R2 Tel: 416-675-2223 Fax: 416-675-0170 Email: pgsd@cogeco.ca

Education Committee Member Lana Nwaokoro Community First Developments Inc. 2171 Avenue Rd., Suite 303, Toronto, ON M5M 4B4 Tel: 905-507-8939 Email: swetlana.nwaokoro@hotmail.com

IHM OFFICE: Carolyne Vigon, Operations Manager Laura Fairley, Education Coordinator

IHM News • Fall 2015

2800 14th Avenue, Suite 210, Markham, Ontario L3R 0E4 Tel: (416) 493-7382 / 1-866-212-4377 • Fax: (416) 491-1670 Email: ihm@associationconcepts.ca

www.ihmcanada.net

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