Social housing built in Ottawa during the 1990s has deteriorated decades earlier than anticipated, contributing to the millions the city has had to spend on emergency repairs.

"We know that money was tight when these buildings were built and obviously corners were cut and now it's coming home to roost," said Coun. Diane Deans, head of the city council committee in charge of social housing on Wednesday, ahead of Thursday's meeting about the issue.

'Our capital reserve fund calls for replacing this siding in another 25 years. But I've got to do it now.'— Dave Lewis, Cumberland Non-Profit Housing

The community and protective services committee was to discuss a memo dated Jan. 8, 2008, on the allocation of $6 million in grants for emergency repairs to buildings run by 31 social housing providers.

Another $5.126 million in requests for funds could not be granted, as the money was not available.

"Many of the urgent repairs funded by this grant program are the result of more rapid failure of building systems than was expected in documented building condition assessments," the memo said, noting that many of the buildings involved were built in the 1990s when strained budgets allowed developers to meet only minimum construction standards.

"This has resulted in very expensive capital expenditures on building systems that if adequately funded at the time would have lasted much longer."

Deans said one would normally expect most new social housing to last 25 to 40 years before major repairs were needed.

Dave Lewis, property manager for Cumberland Non-Profit Housing in the east end, showed a CBC reporter what some "rapid building failure" looked like in the 40-unit complex where he works.

"Here you can see that the two-by-six window sill here just totally rotted. It's non-existent," he said, flipping through photographs of repairs to some of the units built in 1993.

The buildings have sustained serious water damage from cracked siding and leaky roofs and stucco that largely had to be replaced at a cost of more than $500,000.

"Our capital reserve fund calls for replacing this siding in another 25 years," Lewis said. "But I've got to do it now."

In addition to premature roof and siding replacements, many buildings need their elevators replaced.

City council approved $12 million in grants for emergency repairs to social housing in October 2007.

Half was allocated to Ottawa Community Housing, the city's largest social housing provider, while the rest was allocated to 31 other social housing agencies, with repairs to be completed by Dec. 31, 2008.