The community
“Without a
sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.”
—Anthony J. D'Angelo
YCC #42 changed over the years as the original owners moved out and
others replaced them.
Since 1971, when the condo was registered, Canadian society became
richer and with our new affluence, people wanted larger homes with more
features.
Immigration was increasing and the newcomers bought or rented
apartments as they worked towards becoming successful in their new
country.
In
the late 1980s large numbers of Somali refugees started to settle in
the Dixon Rd. area. This led to serious tensions between the newcomers
and the established residents.
The CBC
produced a documentary called "A place called Dixon" that blamed the
friction on the established residents but failed to show how their
lives had been disrupted by the flood of East-African refugees and the
effect that the eroding equity in their homes had on their financial
well-being.
One
of the problems was that some residents had trouble sleeping at night
because the
Somalis would gather outdoors in large groups and talk loudly well into
the early hours. Khat was part of that talking culture. It wasn't
that the Somalis were bad people. They were conforming to
the norms of their own culture, but their customs conflicted with the
habits of the residents who had been there first.
Declaration not enforced
One family bought a large two-bedroom plus den in 1988. At that time,
middle class owner-residents inhabited YCC # 42. There were few
renters.
At that time, the condo corporation enforced standards. The
single-family provision in
the declaration was strictly enforced. Residents were not allowed to
distribute advertising flyers door-to-door.
Then the building standards declined. Multiple families started living
in
apartments designed for a single-families and small businesses were
being
run
out of the residential units.
More original owners sold or rented out their units. Some of the
renters turned their rented units into rooming houses. When the living
room was converted to one or two bedrooms, three or more families could
live in two-bedroom unit.
The building facilities were badly strained by the heavy use. The costs
of electricity, water, gas and waste removal soared.
Crime
Drug dealing was common in some units, in the staircases and in the
underground parking garage. Vandalism increased and false fire alarms
were a major problem.
In September 2007 the Toronto Star published an article about Somalis
in these three Dixon Road high-rises who claimed that they were being
harassed by security guards from Intelligarde. The security guards said
the real issue was drug trafficking.
Property values sank
The family who bought their 1200 square foot unit in 1998 tried
unsuccessfully to sell their unit several times. Their asking prices
were:
| 1988 |
$149,000 |
purchase
price |
| 1991 |
$99,000 |
listing
price |
| 1992 |
$85,000 |
listing
price |
| 1996 |
$59,000 |
listing
price |
Yet, this family could not sell their well-maintained unit at those
listed prices and they did not want to sell any lower.
As prices dropped, some owners found that they had
under-water
mortgages; they owed more than their unit was worth.
They stayed put
or they rented
their units.
As the units dropped in value, lower-income buyers and investors
started buying them. The investors had no intention of living in their
units; they were small-scale landlords.
Eventually, the owner-residents became the minority while some
investors owned ten or more units. Their priority was to keep the
maintenance fees low so they could realize better profits.
Finally the prices fell so far that YCC # 42 was among the
lowest-priced condos in the City of Toronto.
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