New TCHC Building at 150 River St.

By -

Here at RPTV, we're committed to keeping you up to date on new construction in the Regent Park community. As buildings are readying for occupancy, it's important that we reach out to developers to learn more about these projects. We talked with Senior Construction Manager Robert Boyd to learn more about the new development at 150 River St. 


 This development is part of stage three of a five-stage plan to revitalize Regent Park. The end goal is to replace Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s (TCHC) old buildings with newer, safer housing. Though they have the option to leave Regent Park, all community housing residents are guaranteed a unit in one of TCHC’s new buildings.

Located at the corner of River St. and Oak St., this 11-storey building contains 158 TCHC community housing units with 33 affordable housing units. The TCHC units are rent-geared-to-income (or RGI), meaning your rent is based 30% of your annual income before taxes. The affordable units, though they are considered market housing, are listed at 80% of the average cost of a normal market unit in Toronto. They include one, two, and three bedroom apartments, and four and five bedroom two-storey townhomes for larger families.

Amenities include a community room, laundry facilities, underground parking, lounges, a rooftop garden, and a playground and courtyard. While market developers may include features like these in their buildings just to attract buyers, Boyd believes these shared spaces serve a greater purpose; they can help foster a sense of community among residents. “These communal bonds are so important for this entire revitalization to be successful,” explains Boyd. By creating these common spaces, people of different backgrounds--socioeconomic or otherwise--can talk, play, and live together.

Construction was completed in December 2019, and some tenants began to move in. With the pandemic, however, move-ins were paused to encourage self-isolation and prevent the spread and entry of disease. Occupancy is now starting up again, with increased safety protocols in place. High-traffic zones are sanitized twice a day, including laundry rooms, door handles, and elevator buttons. Common spaces were also temporarily closed, but are re-opening soon.

Aside from this development, TCHC will start excavation on a new building in September or October of this year. Located just west of 150 River St., this development will be the last of phase three before moving on to the final two phases of revitalization.

Though the pandemic has caused delays, Toronto Community Housing is moving forward and getting residents moved in as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing how 150 River Street and TCHC’s upcoming projects turn out.

 Watch Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1DMPrBRvZg

By Chloe Nguyen-Drury

Chloe is a youth journalist with the FOCUS Media Arts Centre


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regent Park Portrayed in Film and Television

By -
Image
Toronto has a rich history of being a go-to shooting location for many television and film production companies. Some notable films shot here over the years include Good Will Hunting (1997), Billy Madison (1998), American Psycho (2000), and X-Men (2000). Regent Park has also had its share of showcases in film. This article aims to review the general content of movie dramas and televisions shows shot in Regent and explore their relationship to the community. Clement Virgo is a director, producer, and writer from Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was born in 1966 and moved to the Regent Park area in Toronto in 1977. During this time Regent Park was generally populated by low-income families and as a hot spot for drugs. Virgo is most recently known for his roles in Greenleaf (2016-2018), The Book of Negroes (2015), and The Wire (2002) as Director and/or Producer. His first feature-length film, however, was Rude (1995), which was filmed almost entirely in the old Regent Park. “The film told
Read more

Meet Your Neighbourhood Police Officers – PC Mircea Biga and PC Farzad Ghotbi

By -
Image
Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity of
Read more

WHY RENAME DUNDAS STREET IN TORONTO – what’s in a name?

By -
Image
July 14th, 2021: After a lengthy debate on Wednesday, council voted 17 to 7 in favour of a motion put forward by Mayor John Tory and city staff to change the name of Dundas Street. Dundas Street cuts across an immense swath of neighbourhoods including the community of Regent Park, as it circumnavigates the eastern and western boundaries of Toronto. Beginning in the east end at Kingston Rd. and working its way westward, Dundas Street travels through The Beach, Leslieville, Riverside, Regent Park, Cabbagetown South, ChinaTown, Alexandra Park, Trinity Bellwoods, Little Portugal, Brockton Village, the Junction Triangle, Lambton, Chestnut Hills, Islington, Summerville, Appelwood Heights, Mississauga Valley, and to Erindale at its western edge where it becomes Hwy 5. Each of these neighbourhoods has a distinct cultural vibe and demographic make-up, urban, residential, commercial, suburban and in some case semi-industrial, each locale a mix of rich identities and histories that begs out to
Read more