When Toronto Tried to Eliminate Poverty | The Story of Regent Park

Plot Twist: The families who lived there before were promised they could move back to their homes after it was completed. Most families were relocated to Scarborough and other social housing elsewhere on the outskirts of the city. While these families waited, the developers & the city changed a few rules. They said families with individuals who had police records couldn't move back into the new complexes. Most of these people were law-abiding citizens anyway, so they wouldn't have to be concerned, right? Well Cops started a little thing called 'Carding'. If you were carded, it was a permanent record in the police database and labeled individuals as "known to police". If you were carded more than 3 times, it would be viewed as a criminal strike on your record, and some labeled an individual as "not police friendly". For families who had a dad, a brother, or an uncle who was carded, technically, they had a police record. Therefore, they were not allowed to return to Regent Park housing.

We had to study this as a case study in my Urban Planning program at the University of Waterloo.

Please keep telling the unknown stories of Toronto!

I was born in the building of your thumbnail. 1982. I ended up living a criminal life. Im 44yo now, and im still trying to recover from the life there as a boy.

i was born in 1998. when I was a kid I’d never go there for any reason. Now I regularly meet friends there to skate at the rink, its one of the best in the city.

I grew up in south side in the 80s and 90s as a white kid in the Blevins Place apartments. 14 was mine and the last one that was demolished which almost became a heritage site. I ended up a social worker and a soldier.

Thanks for telling this story of Toronto.

The idea that replacing slums with new housing will solve all the social problems there, has been completely disproven, wherever it's been tried, anywhere in the world. It's the same with "trickle-down economics": so completely disproven, that even the "geniuses" who created it have recanted.

If you look at the time frame of 1985 to today, it has really changed for the better. I had friends that lived near Shuter St and Regent St. near the police station. I would visit often and what a change with the mixed living condo's. Money well spent for the people.

This is an exceptional piece of historical journalism. Thanks for producing this! ❤

This video with its shots of the [now demolished] Regent Park public housing reminded me of my pet peeve with apartment complexes in North America: The lack of green space. A pocket park here, a tree there...concrete everywhere. Mainland China is no paradise, but my apartment complexes there had the buildings fronting the streets - with small supermarkets, veg shops, restaurants, et cetera, on the ground level - and interior courtyards behind/around the residential buildings that were partly park and partly exercise zone (maybe a running track, some basketball courts, and so on). Since moving to North America I've started to wonder if the lack of green space, of somewhere to chill outside for free in one's own backyard is why so many people are so pissy in the cities here. Is there any push to require such things, to make urban life less concrete? Or am I the only person who loves cities, but doesn't love being surrounded 100% by glass and concrete all the time? 😂

Your production value improves with every video. I'm glad you chose to tell Toronto's stories. Great work

Thanks for this video. I think the point about economic diversity was, as you suggest, one of the lessons learned. A friend of mine grew up in the Park and was part of the Pathways project, which was Regent Park residents having a say in the redevelopment. One thing they stressed was the benefits of mixed incomes in the classroom. As she put it, academic and post-secondary expectations are often correlated with income. The higher expectations for middle class kids were found to raise the expectations of their lower income peers, without having a negative reverse effect on middle class achievement. I wonder if the Tedious B has any research on this yet.

Sadly, the majority of those who were “relocated” never secured apartments in the new developments. Many ended up homeless or displaced in surrounding areas. A significant portion of the new “rent geared to income” units remain empty or are still too expensive for the people they were meant to house. Meanwhile, much of the development consists of single unit “luxury” condos, many under 400 square feet spaces that are nearly impossible for families to live in comfortably. Architecturally, a lot of these buildings are mostly recycled brutalist or Soviet style designs with a thin layer of so called "modernism" but are mostly cheap glass façades slapped onto cold, boxy structures. Especially in the winter, the area can feel sterile, soulless, and unwelcoming, which inevitably affects the morale of the people living there. Give it a decade or 2 and most if not majority of these building will look aged and or run down. The sad irony is that these buildings could eventually become high-rise ghettos if residents can’t afford rising maintenance fees. When fees go unpaid and upkeep declines, rents will likely drop as conditions deteriorate potentially reintroducing the same social challenges and questionable people that once affected the original community, just with a newer but equality soulless exterior. In short, without long-term affordability and proper upkeep, they risk becoming the urban highrise ghettos of tomorrow seen in dystopian fiction like Cyberpunk or Blade runner. I live in the city and work downtown and each day it's becoming more like Night City without the flashy neon

I live in this neighbourhood. It’s quite nice. I’ve only been here since August and pay $2200 a month for a 1 bedroom. Rent is a bit brutal in this city to live alone. My block has a family feel to it. I’m white but there’s a lot of Caribbean and Indian folks with kids in my area. The only obvious signs of struggle are the homeless towards Dundas and shelbourne. It’s really bad around Moss Park. There are forested areas around the bridge in the NE by the Don Valley that have homeless encampments hidden there. But for the most part it seems to be a good mix of different people. There are well used sports facilities. I live right by a track and field with a hockey rink. I think some of the units in my building are subsidized but I can’t tell which (which is a good thing!). I haven’t seen any crime since I moved in despite the fact the area still has a reputation from its history.

New to Toronto, so videos like this are great in helping me to learn about the city and its history.

Good video! Fun fact: For 10 years, I was part of the Regent Park re-development team with the developer that transformed it.

The quality of this video was amazing! So many clips of historical newspapers showing the history. I also love the map of the phases of the Regent Park redevelopment and the top down timelapse.

I lived in regent park from 2022 to 2024. All the new buildings being built looked like fancy new condos, not 'affordable' housing. It's gentrifying. And the street level retail of course is chain stores or franchises, which tend to be more expensive as well. Lots of developers likely are making good money from that land. And given its proximity to downtown, the lakeshore, and right on the dvp, that makes it extremely valuable for residents so even more reason to charge big rent. The apartment I lived in was on Oak street (not part of the new buildings), and on a 7 year old lease (I was subletting) which was still $2000 for a 2 bedroom. If I had to guess now on a fresh lease would probably be more like 3000-3500

If you're telling this story then you should also document the successful Esplanade nearby. Biggest problem with Regent Park is developer interference. The Esplanade shows that the system *can* work and work very well