'It'll keep them off the street. We know they're here,' resident says

Youths living in the Toronto Community Housing (TCH) complex at Cooper Mills asked for it, and they got it.

Their newly renovated gymnasium was a long time coming for the many children and youths growing up in the social housing neighbourhood near Dundas Street and Scarlett Road.

"The gym has gotten a lot of use and it certainly was looking like it," said Kimberley Garrett, TCH manager for Cooper Mills, consisting of 177 one- to three-bedroom townhouse units.

Local residents came out Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the reopening of the gym with new floors, basketball rims, drinking fountain, fresh paint and plaster on the walls, new entry doors for the change rooms and newly installed security card access to the gym area.

The $37,000 needed for the gym improvements came from Toronto Community Housing's participatory budgeting process where tenant representatives allocate $9 million annually to various projects in TCH neighbourhoods across the city.

Sylvia Smith, who has lived at Cooper Mills since the gym was first built in the early 1970s, said the renovations were a top priority this year.

"We've been thinking about this for over a year and this is what the youth wanted," Smith said. "It'll keep them off the street. We know they're here."

Ameera McIntosh, 17, agreed.

"Right now, it's like a fresh new start," she said. "It gets really busy in here."

Adoni McAnuff, 24, expected more of his friends to come play basketball at the Cooper Mills gym, especially with the new floors.

"This is a whole lot better," McAnuff said.

The gym will also be available for community use and can be reserved by calling TCH health promotion officer Emelda Chapman at 416-981-5447.