In Toronto, the location is the New Edwin Hotel (which is being renovated to feature rooms with bathrooms and kitchens) on Queen Street East in the broadly defined Queen East Village, which abuts recently gentrified Leslieville and Riverdale.
Many new restaurants and shops have opened up on this stretch of Queen and people are already speculating what will happen to the new "hip" condos in the area and if the area will revert to its old shabby self. I think this location is great for this type of housing. My main worry is that the people who live in this home may have trouble finding enough affordable amenities/stores in the immediate area.
Queen East has plenty of low-income social housing mixed with its recently renovated homes, new condos, and many parks. The neighborhoods here have grown organically and successfully. However, a divide does remain between the retail areas that are for the old residents (working class) and the new residents. Many stores service all people. However, it is quite obvious who is going out to one of the newer fine dining restaurants and who is warily looking on from the dilapidated, but lively bar across the street.
The location of the housing project is excellent because it provides a place of good middle class structure that, along with the social services support, will transition these individuals back into society with dignity as the good citizens and people that they are. I believe the people of Queen East will support these people as the make their way out of a difficult situation.
2 comments:
I am very disappointed that there was no community consultation in terms of this project. (regardless of whether they have an obligation to do so or not). This $5M initiative is being funded with our tax dollars ($4M out of the $5M). At the very least, Woodgreen should have done so as a courtesy to the community (which I am guessing it has most likely included as a contributing factor to the success of this project). This happened very quietly and learning through a newspaper article was not a good move from a PR perspective. Do any of us to know exactly what is planned?
Of course, one could say that most residents would oppose such a project in their neighbourhood, but in this case, a few simple points could have been raised, including the fact that this sort of transition home is perhaps not appropriate in a family based residential neighbourhood.
We are trying to attract families in south riverdale and I can definitely say as the parent of two young children that the prospect of having recovering drug addicts and people with mental illness in my neighbourhood causes me concern.
Anyone who has taken a walk at night on the corner of Queen St. E/Jarvis St. in front of the Fred Viktor centre (a similar initiative/establishment) would have similar concerns. Multiple police cruisers parked in front this morning are a regular occurrence, unfortunately. Do we want this in our neighorhood?
My problem is not with having transitional housing in our neighborhood. It is this specific type of transitional housing that concerns me and the fact that we will have recovering drug addicts and people with serious mental illnesses in our neighborhood. A betting man would not wager money on a recovering crack or meth addict beating his or her addiction nor place money on a mentally ill person with a history of homelessness diligently taking his or her medication.
As an area resident, why should I be expected to do so? As a parent, I cannot put blind faith in the foregoing and simply hope that my children will not be at risk.
I am all for social housing and would favour more projects as the Rivertowne project which integrates low income families within gentrified /gentrifying communities. Families facing economic/social problems should be integrated with more fortunate families and this is the sort of project I believe would be appropriate for South Riverdale.
I am not certain why a downtown location was not selected. The future residents will not require access to schools or other family focused amenities. The Riverside area is within walking distance to the downtown area so the "new beginning" or "disconnect from past" arguments seem flawed. Again, if this project was geared to people who pose less of a risk for children, such as transition homes for battered women or new low-income immigrant families, I would applaud the initiative and open my arms to it.
I instead feel cynical and, as this was done without involving me, disengaged in terms of the success of this initiative.
John
Thank you for the well thought out and written response John.
You are definitely right about the lack of community consultation. This came out of the blue.
I am in full agreement with you regarding the creation of more housing in the vein of Rivertowne, a project I am familiar with. That is a really great project. Part of what I love about Queen East, South Riverdale, and Leslieville is the blend of social housing. I think this area is excellent for families and my family is planning to move there as well. While I do not currently have children, I recognize the issue of safety and understand that concern.
Are there better locations for this housing? Perhaps a location downtown near either of the subway lines. I think any neighborhood will find these people difficult to accept. It is very, very hard.
I've watched those that are "hanging out" in front of the Fred Victor Centre and they seem to have come from much better days. The Fred Victor Centre also housing about 194 people - it's over six times as dense as the New Edwin Hotel project.
This project is much, much smaller and is near the fringe of the neighborhood which is another reason why I think it can work.
I worked at the Distillery for a couple years and at the streetcar stop at Trinity and King East there is a methadone clinic. While I know it is simply a clinic and people are not living there, I suspect the amount of traffic one will see will be similar to that: a few people will come and go, but there will not be excessive loitering (certainly not more than the people I see at the park behind Jilly's!).
Let's hope that the community is given more information as the project moves forward, including the efforts that will be made to ensure safety in the area!
I am curious to the response of Paula Fletcher, which was absent from what I have read (at least I don't remember any statement from her).
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