Community Wide Meeting Advocates for Community Benefits Agreement with TCHC and Tridel

By Freda Alvarado
Fred is journalist with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE.

Welcome to RPTV Weekly News Show Episode 13. In this weekly news show hosted by RPTV reporters, Fred Alvarado, Murphy Brown, and Jabin Haque, we present news that impacts on Regent Park and other surrounding communities located in the Down Town East communities of Toronto.

Episode 13 for the week of November 23rd to November 30th, 2021 features segments on: Ontario investing $75.1M to fight gun and gang violence; Teacher who wore blackface ‘no longer employed’ by Toronto District School Board; A woman in a wheelchair dead after being struck by concrete truck near Dundas-Sherbourne; RPNA Hold Community Wide Meeting to Advocate for a tri-party community benefits agreement with TCHC and Tridel; Covid-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old; Events in Regent Park Community.

Here is one of the stories featured in this week’s news:  RPNA Hold Community Wide Meeting to Advocate for a tri-party community benefits agreement with TCHC and Tridel.
 
On Thursday, November 18 th 2021, the RPNA – Regent Park Neighbourhood Association – held an emergency, community wide, zoom meeting inviting all members of the Regent Park Neighbourhood. Over 100 community members participated.

The meeting, co-facilitated by Regent Park residents and RPNA members, Pavithra Sulanthar, Walied Khogali Ali, Marlene DeGenova, Ismail Afrah and Ibrahim Afrah began with welcome remarks, and land acknowledgement. The stated purpose of the meeting was to inform residents on phases 4 &5 of the Regent Park Redevelopment.

Following the moment of silence, for Thane Murray, a member of the community who was murdered this past September at the big park, Co-chair Marlene DeGenova gave a quick overview of the RPNA. Formed by an elected group of volunteers in 2015, RPNA mandate is to create a unified voice in the community and represent the interests of all the residents, focusing on advocacy, community engagement and community building.  RPNA is also guided by the principles of the Social Development Plan in creating social cohesion and inclusion in this new, redeveloped chapter of Regent Park. Marlene went on to explain that RPNA is governed by a leadership team which is comprised of half market rent residents and half Toronto Community Housing residents.

Ismail Afrah went on to speak about the past 15 years of revitalization. According to Ismail, revitalization had delivered many benefits, but also many challenges. Benefits include the Daniel Spectrum community hub, Athletic grounds and commercial opportunities. The challenges have been, no follow through on job creation for residents, construction quality issues – specially for Toronto Community Housing buildings, increased density, reduced proportion of the ratio of TCHC housing to market housing which originally was supposed to be greater than 35%.

According to Ismail, as part of phases 4 & 5 of the Regent Park Redevelopment, Toronto Housing Corporation’s new development partner, Tridel Builders, has pledged $26. 8 million dollars in community benefits.

As stated by Afrah, one of the milestones for the RPNA was signing a Community Benefits Framework between TCHC and the RPNA for phase 4 and 5 through its Community Benefits Coalition, considered the advocacy wing of the RPNA. According to Afrah the framework ensures equitable community benefits like targeted economic development opportunities for residents are not only guaranteed but also directed by and for the community.  

Walied Khoghali added that according to the City of Toronto's 2019 report on the redevelopment, only 259 part time jobs were created since 2014, adding that there were no records before that year. Walied went on to state that only 33 residents had acquired full time jobs from revitalization and only a mere 17 residents had acquired homeownership, which for him was a failure.

On the issue of home ownership, Khogali spoke about the Foundation program and the Boost program from which these 17 new homeowners benefited.  According to Walied these programs worked but had to be suspended because homes went up from $330 thousand dollars to $1.3 million dollars in regent park! According to Khogali, as part of phase 4 & 5,  the RPNA's Community Benefits Coalition wants more realistic home ownership programs to be created in order for residents to have the opportunity to buy their homes.

The meeting then moved on to the Rezoning issue. Ibrahim Afrah explained, this summer, Tridel and TCHC announced the submission of a rezoning application to the City for phases 4 and 5 planned for January or February of next year. This application will ask to

1.    increase density

2.    make taller towers of 30 stories or more

3.    new amenities

Ismail Afrah reminded attendees that zoning by-laws regulate land use and provide framework for growth therefore potentially change property values but that hopefully this would mean more social housing rather than less. This rezoning affects many aspects of living in regent park and just like with the Community Benefits agreement, the community need to be part of the decisions being made not only consulted.

At the meeting the facilitators summed up what RPNA asking for? RPNA is seeking to co-design and sign a legally binding, tri-party, Community Benefits Agreement in which residents are equal partners alongside Tridel and TCHC. They want Community decision making - to be meaningfully included in how the 26.8 Million dollars pledged to community benefits by Tridel will be spent by taking into account residents needs and interests, especially for TCHC residents through an equity lens. They also want clear targets, regular reporting and accountability measure and this includes having a community agreement on the Zoning the upcoming application.

RPNA co-chair, Ismail Afrah went on to elaborate on some of the roadblocks ahead for reaching these goals. There seems to have been an overhaul of TCHC staff at all levels in the past few months, destroying the rapport already built by the RPNA and residents with the old TCHC staff. Afrah also mentioned that the new staff are not aware of the unique nature of the Regent Park community and revite process and so are relying on old, more traditional model of redevelopment that do not fit here, ones that do not work with the community.

Instead, TCHC has also taken a bit of a one directional approach when it comes to Community Benefits and the new Builder “where they are in charge of the whole process” and have been pushing the community away. This he says is a resistance and detrimental to social cohesion and inclusion when you exclude the community from the Community Benefits process and make decisions without considering their voice, opinions and needs.  According to Ismail, there seems to be a perceived lack of appreciation by TCHC of the existing neighbourhood infrastructure, like the role of the RPNA according to Afrah, preferring instead to consult with the TCHC tenant council. This has made negotiations very difficult, from small issues to big.

The meeting closed with a resident Q&A about community benefits as well as closing remarks by Walied Kohgali, stating that the RPNA has secured support for the Tri-lateral community benefits agreement proposal from Marci ien and Suze Morrison, now only waiting for the city's support. To do this, RPNA needs as many resident voices and mobilization in order to secure the Community benefits the community needs.