Redevelopment

Project Background

For more than 40 years, the Toronto Christian Resource Centre (CRC), a ministry of the United Church of Canada, has been providing practical assistance to people marginalized by poverty, including people experiencing homelessness and people living in rooming houses, and advocating for justice for men and women living on the edge of society. CRC uses a facilitative approach, working with people in the community to identify needs and then working with those same people to engage them directly in developing solutions to their problems.

CRC has been housed for many years in Regent Park United Church at 40 Oak Street in the middle of Regent Park, Canada's oldest and largest public housing development. The land and building is owned by the Toronto United Church Council, which has maintained a cooperative and supportive relationship with the Centre for many years.

The United Church congregation that worships every Sunday at Regent Park United is a small group of people with unique needs that would not always be met in more traditional congregations. At other times, 5 other congregations currently worship at 40 Oak Street, with a range of ethnic and faith traditions.

Over the next 12-15 years all of the housing in Regent Park will be torn down and replaced by a new community which will include a mix of housing types including social housing, market rental and ownership housing. There will also be a range of other uses including public services and retail and commercial space.

The Board of Directors of the Christian Resource Centre is committed to investing in this evolving community and major urban redevelopment project in the following ways:

(a) staying in Regent Park;

(b) adding to the housing stock and the range of housing forms;

(c) creating a worship space to serve a variety of faith groups, and

(d) continuing to create programs which are responsive and relevant to the needs of the community

 

(e) incubating and supporting a Community Hub to foster the growth of small community groups - thus, in turn, enhancing the goals of social inclusion and social cohesion in the emerging community

Project Planning

The Board formed a Development Committee with representation from CRC, the Regent Park United Church congregation, Toronto South Presbytery, Regent Park residents, the Toronto United Church Council, and the Toronto Urban Native Ministry. The group has been working and planning and negotiating with TCHC and the City for the past while to develop this exciting proposal. Doug Norris, the minister at Rosedale United Church, is a Presbytery representative on the committee.

The Christian Resource Centre sees the redevelopment of Regent Park as an opportunity to rebuild and reaffirm the presence of the United Church in this community. At present it appears that the United Church might be the only congregation in Regent Park with its own facilities by the time the redevelopment is completed.

CRC is taking advantage of the redevelopment opportunity to provide much needed housing for those most marginalized by poverty, including those that live on the streets and in substandard rooming houses. CRC has contracted with Dixon Hall to act as the housing developer. Working with architect Charles Rosenberg of Hilditch Architects, the committee has developed a design for a multi storey building with 87 bachelor, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. This will be deeply affordable alternative housing with staff, meeting space and programming available for the residents. Rents for all of the people housed at 40 Oak Street will be subsidized on a geared to income basis.

Dixon Hall will provide ongoing property management, using the facilitative management approach that is most effective in providing supportive housing for marginalized people.

CRC is working collaboratively with the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) to ensure that the redevelopment is supportive of and complementary to the overall Regent Park redevelopment. TCHC has agreed to support the CRC development by providing rent supplement assistance as well as an equity contribution. TCHC ensured that the CRC site was rezoned to accommodate the intended use as part of their rezoning approval for the entire Regent Park development. As a result, CRC is able to proceed very quickly with the redevelopment.

Planning for the social and spiritual needs of the community will respond to the changing cultural and socio-economic makeup of the Regent Park area over the next 12-15 years. As public, market rental, privately owned homes and condominiums are built on what has, for the past 57 years, been social housing only, the community and the worshipping congregations can be expected to change substantially.

The City of Toronto has approved the funding for the housing, the zoning is in place and the architect is moving ahead to complete the design of the building ready for tender. It is currently anticipated that the project could be ready for a construction start by the summer of 2009.

As the Regent Park community turns its face toward the future with a new sense of hope and opportunity, the United Church will be there to share that hope and to support the opportunities. The Toronto Christian Resource Centre is the face of the Church in Regent Park and is committed to contributing to the enrichment of the new and emerging community.


Related Links:

Hilditch Architect
Dixon Hall
Ganesh
Regent Park Redevelopment