3.REDISTRIBUTION OF COMMUNITY SERVICE GRANTS

Ward 27, York-Humber and Ward 28, York-Eglinton.

Councillor Joe Mihevc, Ward 28, York Eglinton

(October 21, 1998)

Please add the attached letter from Martin Zichy, 97 Earlsdale Avenue to the York Community Council Agenda of November 12.

Mr . Zichy has also requested 2 to 5 minutes to speak to the item. Please contact Mr. Zichy at 654-7299 as to the approximate time the item will be raised.

If you have any further questions, please contact my office at 392-0208.

Martin Zichy, 97 Earlsdale Avenue

(October 1, 1998)

I am writing this letter as a resident of the old City of York to enlist the support of the York Community Council to take a strong position on the issue being considered to >redistribute= community grants that support the multitude of social service agencies in the City.

I am also a past member of the Board of Directors at St. Stephen=s Community House (SSCH) in the Kensington area downtown. In the nearly five years that I served on that Board, I saw the agency refocus itself to essentially deliver services that meet the most basic of human needs, food for the homeless and help to find affordable housing. These programs and many others such as their daycare, youth programs, ESL for the large population of newcomers in this area, quality seniors program for the aging population and neighbourhood conflict resolution services have defined SSCH as able to deliver very cost effective programs due, in part, to the support of the thousands of volunteers it has nurtured over the decades of its existence.

No one will deny that the need is great throughout the new City of Toronto to adequately fund all these not-for-profit agencies that in varying degrees depend on the City=s Grant Review Committee for their ability to deliver quality programs to our neighbours in need. I also recognize that the budget is extremely tight with little to no increase to these agencies to meet the growing demand for their services.

However, I find the matter of >redistribution= of the current resources away from the established agencies in the city core to the fledgling agencies in the suburbs as short sighted, divisive in terms of an US (supports of funding to inner-city agencies) against Them (supporters of the new programs needed in the suburbs) and a poorer use of this scarce (but very cost effective) resource.

>Redistribution= is short-sighted in that new programs set-up in the suburbs will have benefit to those areas immediately, however at the cost of the quality and in some cases the very existence of programs already in place struggling to meet the needs of the downtown core. >Robbing Peter to pay Paul= as a principle is short sighted.

As Councillors in the new City of Toronto, it is among your challenges to unite the citizens for everybody=s collective good. When the best ideas from our Councillors is to simply transfer funds away from the downtown core to the suburbs, you will be dividing communities not uniting them.

Lastly, in economic terms alone, >redistribution= makes little to no sense at all. The well-established agencies in the City core have far more efficient service delivery due to their ability to attract other funding sources to support their programs. Many of these alternative-funding sources are dependent upon the grants currently issued from the City. Instead of jeopardizing their ability to deliver these quality programs, the downtown agencies need to be strengthened to support the newer agencies in the suburbs. (As an example SSCH was used as a model and assisted on the set-up of the North York Community House.) Councillors need to be spending our limited tax dollars as efficiently as possible, not for political gain in their own backyard.

As stated before, this is not to deny that the needs in the suburbs are no less significant as they are in the inner city. But if there is obsoletely no extra resources in the budget to support the growing demand for services, I am prompting the York Community Council to take a strong position against the idea of redistribution for the sake of all those who are in need of the services and for the needed city building with which you are responsible.