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Toronto City Council’s Economic and Community Development Committee received an important update on how the City is responding to growing pressure on Toronto’s shelter system, as the housing crisis continues to worsen. Rising rents, a lack of affordable housing, and increasing homelessness have pushed shelters to their limits. For residents in the Downtown East — including Regent Park, Moss Park, and nearby neighbourhoods — access to safe shelter has become an urgent concern. City staff explained how the shelter system is adjusting to higher demand while trying to make access clearer, fairer, and based on human rights. A major focus was the new Access to Shelter Framework. This framework creates a more straightforward and consistent process for deciding who can access shelter services. The goal is to reduce confusion, improve transparency, and make sure decisions consider equity and the real-life needs of individuals and families asking for help. The committee also reviewed updates to ...

Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) has announced the outcome of a community-wide vote determining how $26.8 million in community benefits funding will be invested as part of Regent Park’s Phase 4–5 revitalization. The funding is secured through a legally binding Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) between TCHC and its development partner, Tridel. The agreement is designed to ensure that redevelopment in Regent Park delivers long-term social and economic benefits for residents alongside new housing and infrastructure. The CBA was shaped through an extensive community consultation process. Residents and local agencies participated in meetings, workshops, and surveys led by the Community Benefits Oversight Working Group (CBOWG), a body made up of Regent Park community members and organizations. Through this process, three potential investment packages were co-designed, each outlining different priorities for education, employment, community space, and local initiatives. In the summer of 2025...

Community leaders, legal experts, and elected officials gathered for a public panel raising a critical question: is Ontario still functioning as a healthy democracy? Hosted by NDP MPP Chris Glover and moderated by MPP Jessica Bell, the discussion brought together a diverse group of speakers, including Indigenous activists, education organizers, and academic experts. The panel focused on growing concerns that major provincial decisions are increasingly being made with limited transparency and reduced public accountability. More than 100 people attended the event, with a strong turnout from Toronto’s Downtown East communities. A public Q&A allowed residents to share lived experiences and ask how recent policy changes affect their neighbourhoods directly. Panelists pointed to decisions involving public lands, essential services, and billions in public spending that they say are moving forward with less community input and oversight. Speakers warned that concentrating decision-making p...

Toronto is advancing a major plan to improve youth employment, following a key discussion at the Economic and Community Development Committee chaired by Councillor Alejandra Bravo. With youth unemployment at 19.7%—and even higher among Indigenous, Black, newcomer, and 2SLGBTQ+ youth—the issue is especially urgent in communities like Regent Park, Moss Park, and St. James Town. During the meeting, youth residents, community advocates, and members of the Toronto Youth Cabinet delivered strong deputations outlining long-standing barriers: limited access to quality jobs, unfair wages, lack of mentorship, and unclear pathways into stable careers. Their input helped shape a series of committee recommendations designed to remove systemic barriers and expand opportunities. Key proposals include calls for increased provincial funding for the Focus on Youth Program, inflation-linked investments for youth services, and new citywide employment targets through the Youth Employment Table. Councillors...

Ontario’s newly passed Bill 60 is sparking deep concern among tenant advocates and local leaders, especially in neighbourhoods like Regent Park where many residents already face housing insecurity. The legislation expands landlords’ ability to fast-track evictions and restricts what tenants can argue at Landlord and Tenant Board hearings—changes critics say will disproportionately impact low-income families, newcomers, and vulnerable households. Tensions reached a peak at Queen’s Park during the final vote, when protesters shouted “people over profit” before being escorted from the public gallery. Ontario’s NDP has since introduced a motion calling for Bill 60 to be repealed, warning that it will further erode fairness at the already backlogged Landlord and Tenant Board. In Regent Park, where a large share of residents live in rental units—including Toronto Community Housing buildings—advocates fear the legislation will accelerate displacement. With fewer protections and shorter timeli...

On November 25th, the Confronting Anti-Black Racism Advisory Committee gathered at City Hall to review the proposed 2026 budget allocation for Social Development Plan implementation across Toronto’s priority neighborhoods. The discussion highlighted the plan’s success in Regent Park and its potential to guide equitable development citywide. Chaired by Deputy Mayor Amber Morley, the committee heard from residents, advocates, and city staff about the tangible impact of Regent Park’s plan. Outcomes cited included zero gun-related deaths in 2023, expanded youth employment and leadership programs, and strengthened community cohesion. These results showcase how coordinated, resident-led strategies can make neighborhoods safer and more equitable. Speakers emphasized the ongoing challenges facing priority neighborhoods with significant Black and racialized populations, including housing instability, economic pressures, and systemic inequities. Expanding Social Development Plans citywide would ...

As part of our ongoing Indigenous reporting, we share an interview with Ramon Kataquapit, a young leader from Attawapiskat First Nation and founder of the Okiniwak Indigenous Youth Movement. RPTV met Ramon at the Indigenous Youth Gathering and Pow Wow in Regent Park, where he spoke about the urgent need for youth leadership as Ontario moves forward with Bill 5 — a provincial law that opens the door to large-scale development on Indigenous lands without proper consultation. For many Indigenous youth, the response to Bill 5 is about more than policy. It is about defending land, language, identity, and the right to self-determination. Throughout the year, organizers have held gatherings, cultural teachings, and rallies across Toronto, including a summer encampment behind Queen’s Park that called attention to the lack of consent and the ongoing impacts of colonial land decisions. Regent Park TV has followed these actions closely, documenting how culture, ceremony, and community care guide ...

Skilled trade workers rallied outside Queen’s Park after the Ontario government abruptly cancelled 2,600 applications submitted through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP). The province suspended the skilled trades stream, citing what it called “systemic misrepresentation or fraud,” and returned all applications without offering individual explanations. Workers Kulginder and Gurjeed told RPTV they followed every requirement. They submitted documents on time, paid the $1,500 application fee, and waited more than a year with almost no communication from the program. Now, they say the province has labelled thousands of honest applicants as fraudulent with no clear evidence. Many workers are facing severe consequences. Some have lost their status, can no longer work, and now struggle to support their families—at a time when housing costs, food prices, and basic expenses are already out of reach for many in Toronto. Kulginder Singh explained that they were trained in Ontario, work ...

Representatives from more than 68 food banks and community groups gathered at Queen’s Park to deliver a clear warning: Ontario’s Bill 60 could worsen housing insecurity and push more residents toward emergency food services already struggling to meet record demand. Speakers at the media conference said the bill would speed up evictions, reduce the time tenants have to catch up on rent, and limit their ability to defend themselves at hearings. Chiara Padovani and Sarah Watson from North York Harvest stressed that food banks are seeing unprecedented demand, driven largely by households spending nearly all their income on rent. Diana Chan McNally, a Community Outreach Worker, highlighted how shelters, municipalities, and frontline agencies are stretched thin, while Megan Kee of No Demovictions emphasized that vulnerable communities would bear the brunt—facing worsening housing and food insecurity as landlords and developers gain more power. For Toronto’s Downtown East, the message hits cl...

Food insecurity in Toronto’s Downtown East continues to reach new and alarming levels, with the Allan Gardens Food Bank now facing one of the highest surges in demand in its history. Each week, hundreds of residents — including many from Regent Park, Moss Park, and Cabbagetown — rely on the service as rising costs and stagnant incomes push more families into hardship. Volunteers say the pressure has never been greater. Paul Uytenbogart, longtime volunteer and former director, describes a growing gap between what the food bank can provide and what the community urgently needs. With limited supplies and no sustained public funding, the strain is becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Uytenbogart emphasized that while volunteers remain committed, elected representatives must pay closer attention to the realities unfolding on the ground. Recent data underscores the severity of the situation. The Who’s Hungry 2025 report shows 4.1 million food bank visits across Toronto. At Allan Garden...