According to this Toronto Star article, the city is seeking further financial assistance from the province and the federal government to accelerate the redevelopment of neighbouring Regent Park.
For some background, in 2005 before redevelopment began – there were approximately 7,500 residents in Regent Park, all of whom paid rent-geared-to-income to the city’s Toronto Community Housing (TCHC). The city committed to having the same number of subsidised residents in Regent Park post-redevelopment and an additional 5,000 residents would pay full market-price for housing which would help to pay for the project (the total number of residents post-development was therefore expected to be 12,500).
In 2013, at community consultation meetings the city proposed (and eventually permitted itself) to increase the number of new market-price residents by an additional 4,500 in order to make up for unforeseen shortfalls in funding (the total number of residents post-development was therefore expected to be 17,000). At these 2013 meetings, there was near-unanimous opposition expressed by those in attendance to such a large increase in density and many expressed concern that the city would again run out of money…but the audiences were assured that this increase would be sufficient to pay for the rest of the redevelopment project.
The funding request reported in the article is for Phase III to be completed (there are 5 phases in total).
Additonal Note January 20: It was pointed out to us that the article and letter indicate that the funding request is to “accelerate” development, not to make up for any shortfall.
Toronto asks Ottawa, Queen’s Park for help in Regent Park development (thestar.com)
| Year | Actual Population | Proposed | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subsidised | Unsubsidised | Subsidised/Unsubsidised% | Population Total | ||
| 2005 | 7,500 | ||||
| 2009 | 7,500 | 5,000 | 60 / 40 | 12,500 | |
| 2013 | 7,500 | 9,500 | 45 / 55 | 17,000 | |
2 replies on “Regent Park redevelopment: Toronto seeking financial assistance from Ottawa and Queen’s Park”
I really hope this does not derail or slow down the redevelopment!
Wouldn’t a density increase be a good thing? On one hand, there would be more people living in Regent Park to patronize local businesses…maybe Cabbagetown could then have a few more restaurants, coffeeshops, retail, etc. On the other, the more market rate units there are in RP, the smaller the % share of subsidized units would be. I’d rather live adjacent to a neighborhood of 20,000 people with 7,500 TCHC units than a neighborhood of 7,500 people with 7,500 TCHC units.
It will be interesting to see. My recollection is that most of the complaints raised during the public meetings were around sizes of new units (less space per person to fit more people), transit overcrowding, increased parking/traffic concerns and the creating of “canyons” of buildings. There are definitely the positives you mention also when a certain level of population density is reached. Thanks for writing in!