CTV Ottawa has learned it will cost the city about $300-million to fix Ottawa's community housing problems.
Ottawa Community Housing is expected to outline social housing problems and estimated costs to fix them in a report scheduled to be released Tuesday.
Joan Willnott, who's been living in an Ottawa social housing apartment with her grandsons and great-granddaughter for two years, says the hefty bill doesn't surprise her.
"When you wake up and you've got cockroaches walking on your arms and your blankets, you know," Willnott told CTV Ottawa.
She says she can't even leave her great-granddaughter on the floor because she'll pick up the cockroaches and put them in her mouth.
Crime also a problem
Ottawa residents who depend on social housing say bugs aren't the only problem -- crime is also high on the list.
"They went over there, smashed a few flowers," said Adam Makucki, whose home has been broken into two times. He says police have told him there's been a total of about 50 break-ins in his neighbourhood.
"Ottawa Housing is supposed to play an active role and evict those people because they know who the criminals are and they're sitting on their hands," he said.
Second largest social housing provider
The City of Ottawa is the second largest provider of social housing in Ontario. It owns nearly 15,000 units and provides shelter to nearly 40,000 low-income residents.
Sources have told CTV Ottawa the cost to fix the problems will be about $300 million, three-times the current operating budget for social housing. One councillor says the city can't even afford to maintain the units, let alone fix them.
Nine-thousand families are currently on the waiting list for low-income housing in the capital. With nowhere else to go, many of them say they're willing to deal with the bugs and mold as long as they have a place to live.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr
