“Regent Park has become a vibrant, inclusive community”: Mitchell Cohen on the neighbourhood’s two-decade revitalization

Built in the 1940s as Canada’s first social housing project, Regent Park was long known as an underfunded neighbourhood with high crime rates, largely cut off from the rest of the city and devoid of essential services. Now, thanks to a $1.5-billion revitalization project—a combined effort of Toronto Community Housing and the Daniels Corporation—the community is thriving. The project has so far yielded thousands of mixed-income homes, a world-class aquatic centre, an artists’ space, an MLSE-funded sports haven and a namesake park.

Mitchell Cohen, president and CEO of the Daniels Corporation, has been at the forefront of this transformation. In his new book, Rhythms of Change, Cohen shares an in-depth account of the nearly 20-year journey that reshaped Regent Park. Here, he explains why Toronto’s housing crisis persists and how Regent Park’s success provides a blueprint for creating sustainable, affordable housing across the city.

Your career began as a YMCA community worker in Montreal. How did that shape your approach to urban development? That YMCA was in Côte Saint-Luc, a low-income neighbourhood in Montreal. While I was working there, many families in the area were suddenly evicted from their social housing. They had just 30 days to find a new home, with no safety net and low incomes that severely limited their options. It opened my eyes to how precarious housing was for so many people. In 1973, that experience inspired me to co-found an affordable housing co-op in Côte Saint-Luc—one of the first of its kind in Quebec. After moving to Toronto in 1979, I worked for the Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto, negotiating land deals to build nonprofit co-op housing. At the time, there was a robust federal program to fund the creation of affordable housing co-ops. But then everything changed in 1984.

What happened in 1984? Brian Mulroney was elected prime minister. Soon afterward, the federal government downloaded responsibility for housing to the provinces and began a long and gradual process of cutting off its funding—including ending the program that paid for affordable housing co-ops. Without that funding, my work was throttled; we simply couldn’t develop any new co-ops. I decided I could make more of an impact in building affordable housing by moving to the private sector. That same year, I joined the Daniels Corporation, a development company. For 40 years, we’ve aimed to incorporate affordable housing into everything we do—Regent Park has been a culmination of that mission.

Related: Shelters are overwhelmed, social housing is a mess, rents are exorbitant. The cost—100 deaths a year

What went wrong with Toronto’s housing affordability over the years? After the feds downloaded housing to the provinces, Ontario followed suit in 1995 under Mike Harris by shunting responsibility to municipalities. These policy decisions dismantled the framework that supported affordable housing development for decades. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of Toronto’s current social housing predates 1995. Since then, developers in Toronto have built tens of thousands of condos without zoning requirements that mandate the inclusion of affordable units. Had just 10 per cent of those developments incorporated affordable units, the landscape today would be far better. The bottom line is that we stopped investing in affordable housing and we’re now paying the price.

You’ve dedicated nearly two decades of your life to the revitalization of Regent Park. How come? The story begins in the 1940s, when Regent Park was built following a “garden city” model. The design aimed to create high-density social housing surrounded by green space, with streets removed and buildings organized around inner courtyards. While well-intentioned, this layout isolated Regent Park from the rest of the city, and as the buildings deteriorated due to insufficient maintenance, the neighbourhood became a hotspot for crime. To make things worse, the entire neighbourhood was just social housing: it didn’t have shops, restaurants, community centres or any other amenities.

When I moved to Toronto in 1979, I lived in the Beaches and drove through Regent Park to get to my office in Queen West. Friends warned me to roll up my windows and lock the doors while I was passing through—that’s how bad the stigma was back then. But, as I learned more about the neighbourhood, I discovered its incredible diversity. Its affordable rents meant it was a popular landing spot for Toronto’s immigrants, people looking to build better lives.

After the City of Toronto took over responsibility for social housing, it created a new public agency to manage it in 2002: the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. It began seeking developers to partner in Regent Park’s revitalization, and I threw my hat in the ring. It was an opportunity to improve the lives of thousands of people.

What went into transforming the neighbourhood? Local residents came up with 12 principles of revitalization. These principles—such as the right for tenants to return to the new developments we built at the same rent, reintroducing streets that had been taken out when Regent Park was first built and creating a mix of property types beyond affordable housing to ensure community diversity—served as the north star for all planning decisions. We also built an arts and culture hub, an aquatic centre, athletic grounds and commercial spaces like grocery stores and cafés. These spaces not only served residents but also helped break down the stigma surrounding Regent Park, attracting people from across Toronto.

What’s it like hanging out in the neighbourhood now? Regent Park has become a vibrant, inclusive community. Events like Taste of Regent Park and Under the Stars, a Regent Park Film Festival initiative to screen films outdoors for free, bring together residents every year. Affordable housing tenants, condo owners and market renters all participate in the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association, ensuring that everyone has a voice in shaping their community’s future.

Could the transformation be replicated in other neighbourhoods across the city? Regent Park’s success was built on collaboration between the public and private sectors, guided by the community’s vision. The residents’ vision ensured long-term viability. But the revitalization was only possible due to collective investment. For instance, Daniels Spectrum, the arts hub, cost roughly $40 million to build. The feds and the province each devoted $12 million, and an additional $12 million came from private capital. As the developer, we also contributed about $4 million.

Could this kind of investment be a solution to Toronto’s housing crisis? Building affordable housing means bridging the equity gap between the cost of creating a unit of housing and enabling its owner—for example, a housing co-op or nonprofit—to offer it at an affordable rent. Governments at all levels need to fund and support these projects. Municipalities can waive property taxes and development charges for affordable housing, significantly lowering costs for developers and nonprofits. They can also mandate the inclusion of affordable units in all future developments. The province can expand rent supplement programs, providing direct support to low-income tenants to bridge the gap between what they can afford to pay and the actual cost of housing.

At the federal level, the $82-billion National Housing Strategy needs to be refocused on creating targeted affordable housing. For example, the $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund misses the mark: speeding up the construction of unaffordable housing does little for people with incomes too low to buy or rent it. Instead, the feds should establish long-term funding streams for affordable housing projects and work closely with municipalities and provinces to ensure these programs address the equity gap.

How does the private sector fit in?  The private sector has the expertise and resources to take on the risks of development, approvals and construction. Nonprofits are essential partners, but they shouldn’t be expected to bear those risks. All developers must integrate affordable housing into their projects and view it as a social responsibility, not just a business decision. Philanthropy is important too. Foundations and corporate donors already fund hospitals and universities—imagine the impact if they invested in transitional or supportive housing.

Affordable housing is a primary social determinant of health, and providing it would reduce health care costs dramatically. For example, the newly opened Dunn House in Parkdale is a tremendous success story. With more investment from governments and developers, projects like this could be scaled up to meet the needs of the entire city.

What do you hope readers will take away from Rhythms of Change? That we need to avoid making the same mistakes. Take the upcoming Ontario Line: streets are being torn up and land expropriated, yet there’s no strategy to ensure affordable housing around the new transit stations. This is a critical moment to align infrastructure development with inclusive housing policies and community building. My hope is that my book inspires policy makers and developers to seize these opportunities.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.