As a fourth year Urban and Regional Planning student at Ryerson University, a housing activist in my community and a part-time employee at HSC for the past three years, I was already familiar with a lot of the history covered by the City of Toronto Archives rental housing exhibit.

A Public Health Concern

That said, the way the information was presented was unique.  It provided an overview and history of housing in Toronto (using pictures, texts and official documents), making it easy to see the innovations in affordable rental housing in chronological order since the early twentieth century.  At that time, the housing situation had become so bad that the city’s medical officer of health, Dr. Charles Hastings, issued a report declaring it a public health concern.  This report was written in response to Toronto’s booming growth and industrial development, which brought with it the problems of slums, pollution, epidemics, poverty, and ill health in the late nineteenth century.

A Study in Slum Clearance - City of Toronto Archives

Since then, the city developed the Regent Park, St. James Town and St. Lawrence neighbourhoods. These developments still exist today and house a large number of Torontonians.  They all started off with good intentions: their goal was to provide rental housing at affordable rates.

The exhibit prompts visitors to take a step back and look at these developments – and decide if the urban planning ideas embedded in them have stood the test of time. As Jessica mentioned in her article, Regent Park, built exclusively to provide affordable housing was a success when it was first built. But the neighbourhood and the design principles used to create it faced criticism as time passed.

The St. Lawrence Neighbourhood

One of the more successful community developments highlighted in the Archives’ exhibit is the revitalization of the St. Lawrence community through the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The community was designed using a unique collaborative approach where the planners were not the ones driving the show – instead all community stakeholders had a say in how this development unfolded. The area features a mix of housing including rental units, condos, co-ops and community housing.

The St. Lawrence neighbourhood is said to be Canada’s most dynamic inner city neighbourhood and it continues to be a success. The exhibit confirmed my belief that the planning principles and the unique approach used to create this neighbourhood should be recognized and used to help plan and design future neighbourhoods.