Sources of information

1. The social agencies located within Regent Park are too numerous to show on the map, details can be found here.
   
   
2. list of rooming houses provided by the City of Toronto (Jan 2006)
   legend:
   -A/O - Absentee Owner
   - A/O- Absentee Owner operating Non-Profit Corporation
   - Regular Licence - other than a Converted House or Personal Care Rooming House
   
   Units refers to the following Classifications:
   - A/0 Class 2 containing <=not more than 14 dwelling rooms and dwelling units
   - A/0 Class 3 containing >=more than 14 dwelling rooms and dwelling units
   
   
3. list of shelters provided by the City of Toronto (Jan 2006)
   
   
4. 211toronto.ca
   
   
5. additional details for selected agencies
   Adams House, 423-425 Sherbourne St
   Central Neighbourhood House, 349 Ontario St
   Council Fire, 439 Dundas St E
   Dixon Hall, 58 Sumach
   Good Neighbours Club, 170 Jarvis St
   Good Shepherd Hostel, 412 Queen St E
   Homes First Society Apts, 90 Shuter St
   Jessie's Centre for Teenagers, 205 Parliament St
   Regent Park
   Rekai Centre, 345 Sherbourne
   St. Jude (Phase 1: 431 Dundas St E, Phase 2: 270 Milan)
   Salvation Army Maxwell Meighen Centre, 135 Sherbourne St
   Turning Point Youth Services, 95 Wellesley St E
   Wellesley Central Place (160 Wellesley)
   30 St. Lawrence
   

(here is an extract of all of the map data)

Shelters

In Feb 2003, Toronto City Council approved the Municipal Shelter By-law, which contains these restrictions: shelters must be on an arterial road, and each shelter should not exceed 80 singles or 80 families. Each "emergency shelter, hostel or crisis care facility" has to be at least 250 metres apart. Council also approved a moratorium on the location of new municipal shelters, so that no new municipal shelter sites be approved in wards already having 500 or more municipal shelter beds.
The new building for Sojourn House (101 Ontario Street, south of Queen) was explicitly exempted from shelter bylaw restrictions (for unknown reasons). It is unclear whether facilities which use the term "transitional housing" are subject to the restrictions of the Municipal Shelter By-law.

For more information:
- City council debate (see pages 104-122) and bylaw.
- All emergency and transitional shelters, funded or directly operated by the City of Toronto, are required to adhere to Toronto Shelter Standards.
- The "Status of Housing and Shelter Projects" summarizes new construction, and total # of shelter beds (eg. Ward 27 = 996, Ward 28 = 835, representing 43% of Toronto's total)
- The "2006 Guide to Services for People who are Homeless" provides a list of shelters (and # of beds)

New developments in Wards 27-28 since Feb 2003 which contravene the Municipal Shelter Bylaw
(to be completed)

Rooming houses

Rooming houses were licensed in the "former" City of Toronto (Municipal Code, Chapter 285) and this will continue until zoning bylaws and licensing issues are amalgamated city-wide. When the City amalgamated in 1998, it inherited 7 official plans and 41 comprehensive zoning bylaws. A new offical plan was prepared in Nov 2002; the city hopes to have a single comprehensive zoning bylaw by 2008.

Group homes / Residential Care Facility

Maximum Capacity 10 beds
Minimum Separation Distance between such facilities 245 meters
(link to bylaw? other details?)

Regent Park

Regent Park North (bounded by Gerrard, River, Dundas and Parliament) consists of numerous 2 story townhouses, as well as a number of 6-8 story apartment blocks (see map):
295, 325, 355, 407, 463 Gerrard
347, 365 Parliament
248, 251, 274, 295 Sackville
229, 230, 259, 260 Sumach
150, 184 River
470, 508, 540, 600, 674 Dundas
(470 Dundas was demolished Feb 2006, part of the first phase of Regent Park redevelopment).

Regent Park South (bounded by Dundas, River, Shuter and Parliament) consists of numerous 2 story townhouses, as well as several 20 story high-rise apartment buildings (see map).

In total, Regent Park covers 70 acres and currently consists of 2083 public housing units.

There are numerous social agencies located within Regent Park.

The City of Toronto (through its subsidiary, Toronto Community Housing Corporation) plans to redevelop Regent Park
- demolish almost all existing housing
- retain the existing community centre, health centre, ice rink, and 3 churches [237 Sackville, 509 Dundas East, 17 Regent]. The Christian Resource Centre at 40 Oak Street would be rebuilt (worship, community space, supportive housing)
- re-introduce a network of public streets, and public parks
- increase the density by 2.4 times (from 2,083 to a maximum of 5,100 units),
- encourage private developers to construct housing for a mixture of income levels on the Regent Park site, and
- construct an additional public housing site somewhere in East Downtown.

For more details, see http://www.regentparkplan.ca