the circle story
Circle is here today because of the vision, advocacy, and hard work of many people.
Circle was founded in 2017 and took on our first properties and Tenants in 2022, but our journey traces back over more than a decade.
It all began with Tenants
For decades, Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) owned and managed hundreds of standalone homes in neighbourhoods across the city as affordable housing. These houses – which came to be collectively known as the Scattered Homes – are great places to live: they fit into mixed-income neighbourhoods, are great places to raise kids, and Tenants can have yards, gardens, and more. However, these benefits also put the houses at risk: Over the years, rising real estate values and the increasing cost of maintaining the homes moved some politicians to push for a sale of the Scattered Homes. Tenants and advocates knew that a sell-off would mean the loss of some of the last affordable family-sized homes in Toronto, for current Tenants and future generations. So, when TCHC announced in 2011 that they were going to sell off 900 houses, Tenants said: “We are NOT FOR SALE.” And then, Tenants got organized: They rallied support from politicians and non-profits, they knocked on the doors of every City Councillor in the city, circulated petitions, and deputed at City Council. In response, Council came up with a plan: sell 158 of the houses, but save the rest.
City Council had a number of ideas about how to do the saving part, but the ultimate path forward was set as part of the City’s 2016 Tenants First initiative. Thanks to the advocacy of Tenants and some champions at City Hall, Council voted to take the Scattered Homes off the political table and keep them affordable forever by transferring them to a co-op, non-profit or land trust.
No House Left Behind
The challenge with the transfer idea was that most of Toronto’s non-profits and co-ops were only in a position to take 10-20 houses apiece, which would leave many of the houses with TCHC, but with less money and fewer staff to take care of them. What seemed to be needed was a scattered unit specialist, who could take them all. To test out the idea, Circle founding Board member Joy Connelly met with Tenants4SocialHousing – one of the groups that had organized to stop the sell-off. Joy put the idea before them: Would this make your lives better? And they said yes. That was the go-ahead to form Circle with a single purpose: to preserve and invest in the Scattered Homes.
Next, the City of Toronto introduced a competitive process to ensure that the Homes were transferred to an organization that was up to the task. A group of affordable housing leaders came together to form Circle’s founding board. They sought startup funding, and put together a plan. As part of that work, Circle formed an Advisory Group of Scattered Home Tenants to consult on important policy decisions that would go into Circle’s final proposal to the City.
In June 2021, the announcement was made that Circle would become the new owner of over 600 Scattered Homes in the East End, Scarborough, and other neighbourhoods across the city. The next step was to hire staff and build a brand new organization to own and manage these permanently affordable homes. During Circle’s startup phase, many organizations provided invaluable mentorship and support, including Woodgreen Community Services, Maytree Foundation, Wigwamen, Options For Homes, The Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto, and more.
The Transfer
Circle was founded to protect the Scattered Homes from the threat of sale by transferring them to a nonprofit land trust. But what does it look like to actually do that? At Circle, we’ve come to refer to this complex process as The Transfer.
The Transfer encompassed many things: the legal transfer of ownership of the properties, and the transfer of all tenancies to Circle as the new landlord; the Social Housing Agreement with the City of Toronto that guarantees permanent affordability and prevents the Scattered Homes from being sold on the open market; the continuation of rent-geared-to-income subsidies for our Tenants; and a myriad of legal details. Put simply, the Transfer process saw the ownership of over 600 homes – and the Tenants who live in them – passed from TCHC over to Circle between June and October of 2022. Circle was founded with the vision of keeping these homes permanently affordable for current and future Tenants: the Transfer made that a reality.
To make this massive legal deal more manageable, the houses were split into batches, which were transferred on four separate dates in 2022. Throughout the process, Circle worked closely with our dedicated partners at TCHC, the City of Toronto, the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC), and Vancity Community Investment Bank (VCIB) – not to mention the many lawyers that each organization brought to our weekly meetings! While Circle’s executive and financial leadership navigated the ownership transfer, our frontline staff got to work introducing Circle to our soon-to-be-Tenants, who needed to know how to set up rent payments, who to call for repairs, and what “The Transfer” meant for them.
As part of the Transfer, Circle was tasked with the responsibility of bringing all of the homes into a state of good repair over a five-year period. Our $70 million Capital Repair Program will benefit hundreds of families now and into the future, and is being made possible with the support of the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation, and other levels of government. You can learn more about this ongoing work on the Capital Repair Program page.
The Transfer was a huge undertaking in its own right, but Circle took it on while simultaneously building a new organization. In January 2022 Circle hired our first two staff. In the following months, 20 more staff were hired, and departments were set up to manage Tenant Services, Asset Management & Capital Projects, Finance, and Communications & Engagement. In that first year, we began the preparation work for our Capital Repair Program, and started getting to know our Tenants, who were generous with their patience and in sharing background information, pain points, advice, and more. 2022 – our “Transfer Year” – was a filled with exciting milestones, but was not without its challenges. You can read more about our learnings in The Transfer section of our 2022 Annual Report.
At Circle, we’re honored to have played a role in the decade-plus journey that ultimately protected the Scattered Homes and made them affordable forever. Since the completion of the Transfer, we have been learning and growing as an organization – from integrating forward-thinking quality and sustainability into our Capital Repair Plan, to working with our Tenant Advisory Group on strategic planning and policy consultation. Check out these exciting projects and much more at the Our Work page.
Circle’s founding and the transfer of homes would not have been possible without the generous support of our funders and partners.
