Latest news with #LMCH
CTV News
04-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
‘I was offended, highly offended': LMCH under fire as graffiti with swastika and genitalia left on housing complex wall for months
The region's public landlord is coming under fire. Graffiti showing a swastika and male genitalia were left on the outside wall of a London Middlesex Community Housing complex for as long as two months, according to tenants. 'I was offended. Highly offended. My family fought in World War Two. Seeing that symbol, it's a hate-symbol. It was not nice,' exclaimed one tenant of 1481 Limberlost Road. He didn't want his identity revealed for fear that he could be evicted by LMCH for speaking out. Instead, he reached out to CTV News to express his concerns. 'That's really sad. Tenants do not speak out because there's a cone of silence,' he said. The graffiti in question is a mess of scribbles made in chalk on the outside wall of a unit facing Gainsborough Road. The offending images are easily identifiable. 'There's always something going on along here with all these kids. So, never really thought anything much of it, I guess at the time,' said Rob Lavigne. A family friend of the tenants in the vandalized unit, Lavigne says he initially wrote it off as kids being kids, until the swastika was pointed out to him. 070425 Graffiti of swastika and genitalia on a London housing complex. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London) He tells CTV News the graffiti has been on the wall for a couple of months, and maintenance staff at the complex were aware of it. 'They stop by, they give us new screens, apparently, and they never did. And they just looked at that and walked away and we haven't seen them in like almost two months,' said Lavigne. 'It's worse than offensive, it clearly constitutes hate speech,' said an angry Sam Trosow. The city councillor says he was contacted by tenants in the complex who complained about the graffiti, so he visited the site to see for himself. A vocal critic of LMCH, Trosow pulled no punches in expressing his disgust. 'Just disgraceful. This is on Gainsborough, it's visible when you're coming into the Wonderland Road, you see that. I've been complaining about the conditions at London Middlesex Housing. This is yet another example of their absolute failure to keep their premises in any kind of reasonable shape,' said Trosow. The city councillor says he's filing a municipal code compliance complaint against LMCH. CTV News reached out to LMCH to see what it had to say about the graffiti and the claims made by tenants. The agency issued the following statement: London and Middlesex Community Housing strongly condemns anti-Semitism and hatred of any kind. These acts are unacceptable. We encourage tenants to report these incidents to us immediately. The graffiti has been cleaned up, and this matter has been referred to London Police for further investigation. — London Middlesex Community Housing LMCH also says it sent a power wash crew to the site Friday afternoon for a thorough cleanup of the graffiti. In the meantime, just one question from the anonymous tenant who first called it out. 'Why did it take so long?'
CTV News
30-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Most of the public housing in ‘very poor' condition isn't in London— it's in Middlesex County
With three highest-demand LMCH locations in Middlesex County, a detailed report shows which units are in the worst repair, reports CTV London's Daryl Newcombe.
CTV News
28-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
No Quick Fix: $110M gap to bring LMCH public housing up to ‘good' condition
A recently completed Asset Management Plan (AMP) has determined that bringing public housing operated by London Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) up to a 'good' condition would require up to $110 million over the next decade. A condition assessment of 31 residential properties generated an overall grade of 'poor', with none evaluated as being in 'good' or 'very good' condition. According to the report, seven were in 'fair' condition, 18 in 'poor' condition, and six in 'very poor' condition. 'These assets are a different type of asset because there's a human factor here-- people live in these units,' Councillor Sam Trosow told colleagues on the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee. Councillor Hadleigh McAlister, who also sits on the LMCH Board, explained, 'Many of these properties were built in the 1960s and 1970s. So, all of these properties are falling into the same trap, which is aging infrastructure.' Escaping that financial trap will be costly. The AMP determined it will cost $6.4 million to simply maintain the overall 'poor' condition and not slip into 'very poor' over the next 10 years. Making improvements to achieve an overall 'fair' condition would boost the 10-year cost to $34.6 million. An estimated $110.3 million would need to be spent over the next decade to improve to an overall 'good' condition. 'These are discussions that have to happen through the multi-year budget, because they have ramifications in terms of the financial impacts,' said McAlister. Mayor Josh Morgan suggested there is no quick fix. 'There is not going to be a plan that is going to bring that gap to zero in a short period of time,' Morgan told colleagues on SPPC. 'It would require significant investment from other levels of government, and those other levels of government know that this is a challenge many municipalities have.' The mayor cited financial investments made in the 2020-2023 budget as an indication that there's a commitment to address the problem. 'Work through 2025 will have over $60 million in capital repair investments into our community—so that work has begun,' said Paul Chisholm, CEO of LMCH after the meeting. 'The data tells us there's more work (and) that we need to up the level of maintenance and capital work we do.' City staff will provide LMCH with support, assisting LMCH in developing action plans to implement recommendations in the short, medium, and long-term. The committee voted to receive the report.
CBC
27-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Almost 70% of London's public housing is in disrepair, and the price tag to fix it is $110M
Social Sharing Update: London councillors voted 12-to-1 in favour of accepting the plan that recommends $110 million in spending to bring the average LMCH property status to "good". Now that it's made it through the committee stage, the report will go to council for final approval on June 3. London's stock of affordable public housing is largely in disrepair, according to a report penned by city bureaucrats that calls on councillors to spend millions to solve the problem. The staff assessment found that 63 per cent of the housing in London and Middlesex Community Housing's (LMCH) inventory is in "poor" condition, and five per cent is in "very poor" condition. The report coming to a committee meeting Tuesday says it will cost $110 million over 10 years for the average across all public housing to be brought up to a "good" condition. "I have lots of complaints," said Michaela Garlick, a public housing resident who has lived in LMCH's Limberlost community for four and a half years, and says the report's findings are no surprise. Garlick is one of several residents at Limberlost who told CBC news they have become accustomed to waiting more than a year to have basic maintenance requests filled. She's personally been waiting months to have a peeling and unusable bathtub fixed, and waited over a year to have a broken staircase fixed. "[It's] absolutely horrible. It's not fair to us and it's not fair to my kids, to live in poor conditions," Garlick said. Still, she said, emergency requests like leaks are often promptly solved. LMCH says it provides 3,258 housing units for more than 5,000 people across 32 properties. At its Southdale housing complex, where Misty Murphy has lived for 20 years, similar repair concerns exist. "When I moved [into a new unit in the complex], we had to bang down screws that were sticking up out of the floor. My outside water tap still doesn't work [three years later]," Murphy said. "It's not an emergency issue, so I guess it's just kind of put on the backburner." The extent of the repair issues at LMCH, and how they're triaged, is something LMCH is not proud of, but it's something that's currently necessary, said Paul Chisholm, the organization's CEO. "It's not acceptable," Chisholm said. "Unfortunately, it's not a surprise to us. We do know we have an asset that's over 50 years old, and many of the the elements of the buildings and sites we operate have a life expectancy of less than 50 years." Chisholm said LMCH continues to maintain its most critical infrastructure, and is making progress in catching up, especially since it no longer has the "very limited" capital budget it had prior to 2020. "We want to get to a fair and then a good state of repair across our portfolio," Chisholm said. According to Chisholm, a portion of the maintenance needs would require significant work, like replacing 50-year old plumbing, and completely rewiring aging electrical infrastructure. He said LMCH is on track to repair what it can with its current level of funding, but more money is needed to do it in a more reasonable timeframe. He suggests more money could come from other levels of government. Ward 6 Councillor Sam Trosow agrees. "They need more money, and ultimately, I think the province is going to have to step in here because in fairness, there's only so much the municipality can do," Trosow said. "We can't break the municipal budget over there." Trosow said he doesn't believe LMCH has budgeted well with the money it has, and that will play a role in his vote on the proposed course of action. "I'm not seeing any improvement. I am constantly getting complaints from tenants that live in their buildings," he said. Trosow and other councillors will consider the report during Tuesday's meeting of the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee.
CBC
27-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Almost 70% of London's public housing is in disrepair, and the price tag to fix it is $100M
Social Sharing London's stock of affordable public housing is largely in disrepair, according to a report penned by city bureaucrats that calls on councillors to spend millions to solve the problem. The staff assessment found that 63 per cent of the housing in London and Middlesex Community Housing's (LMCH) inventory is in "poor" condition, and five per cent is in "very poor" condition. The report coming to a committee meeting Tuesday says it will cost $110 million over 10 years for all public housing to be brought up to a "good" condition. "I have lots of complaints," said Michaela Garlick, a public housing resident who has lived in LMCH's Limberlost community for four and a half years, and says the report's findings are no surprise. Garlick is one of several residents at Limberlost who told CBC news they have become accustomed to waiting more than a year to have basic maintenance requests filled. She's personally been waiting months to have a peeling and unusable bathtub fixed, and waited over a year to have a broken staircase fixed. "[It's] absolutely horrible. It's not fair to us and it's not fair to my kids, to live in poor conditions," Garlick said. Still, she said, emergency requests like leaks are often promptly solved. LMCH says it provides 3,258 housing units for more than 5,000 people across 32 properties. At its Southdale housing complex, where Misty Murphy has lived for 20 years, similar repair concerns exist. "When I moved [into a new unit in the complex], we had to bang down screws that were sticking up out of the floor. My outside water tap still doesn't work [three years later]," Murphy said. "It's not an emergency issue, so I guess it's just kind of put on the backburner." The extent of the repair issues at LMCH, and how they're triaged, is something LMCH is not proud of, but it's something that's currently necessary, said Paul Chisholm, the organization's CEO. "It's not acceptable," Chisholm said. "Unfortunately, it's not a surprise to us. We do know we have an asset that's over 50 years old, and many of the the elements of the buildings and sites we operate have a life expectancy of less than 50 years." Chisholm said LMCH continues to maintain its most critical infrastructure, and is making progress in catching up, especially since it no longer has the "very limited" capital budget it had prior to 2020. "We want to get to a fair and then a good state of repair across our portfolio," Chisholm said. According to Chisholm, a portion of the maintenance needs would require significant work, like replacing 50-year old plumbing, and completely rewiring aging electrical infrastructure. He said LMCH is on track to repair what it can with its current level of funding, but more money is needed to do it in a more reasonable timeframe. He suggests more money could come from other levels of government. Ward 6 Councillor Sam Trosow agrees. "They need more money, and ultimately, I think the province is going to have to step in here because in fairness, there's only so much the municipality can do," Trosow said. "We can't break the municipal budget over there." Trosow said he doesn't believe LMCH has budgeted well with the money it has, and that will play a role in his vote on the proposed course of action. "I'm not seeing any improvement. I am constantly getting complaints from tenants that live in their buildings," he said.
