PETER CHENEY
FROM WEDNESDAY'S GLOBE AND MAIL
MAY 6, 2009 AT 5:04 AM EDT
TORONTO - The Loganathan family's urban odyssey began almost four years ago, when they moved out
of one cockroach-infested building and into another that was even worse. They set up a Hindu shrine in the
hall closet and promised their six-year-old daughter that some day, things would be better.
Yesterday, the Loganathans' journey came to a happy ending when they became the first family to move
into the grandest experiment in the history of Canadian social housing - the $1-billion redevelopment of
Regent Park.
Their daughter Linta, now 10, swung open the door of their new apartment and her eyes widened at the
stainless steel sinks, the floor to ceiling windows, and the penthouse-style view.
"Wow," she said. "It's like a condominium. It's sick!!"

Her parents laughed, not quite understanding their daughter's description, yet sensing that in idiomatic
English, sick is actually good.
"Linta knows many Canadian things," Mr. Loganathan said. "She is our expert."
In 2005, the Loganathans became one of the first families displaced by the Regent Park makeover, which
will dramatically alter Canada's largest and oldest housing project.
Built shortly after the Second World War, Regent Park was once considered a leading-edge design,
providing affordable housing to 7,500 people. But by the 1990s, it was seen as a failed social experiment,
racked by crime and intergenerational poverty. In 2005, the community's average income was $18,000, and
20 per cent of Regent Park families reported no income at all.
The new community will be home to about 15,000 people - double the previous population - and will mix
subsidized housing with market-rent units and about 300 owner-occupied homes.
Toronto Community Housing Corporation CEO Derek Ballantyne says the development will alter not just
the neighbourhood's architecture, but its outlook: "It will change everyone's perceptions, whether they live
here or not."
The project involves a vast choreography. Buildings are being torn down and replaced in six phases. In the Her parents laughed, not quite understanding their daughter's description, yet sensing that in idiomatic
English, sick is actually good.
"Linta knows many Canadian things," Mr. Loganathan said. "She is our expert."
In 2005, the Loganathans became one of the first families displaced by the Regent Park makeover, which
will dramatically alter Canada's largest and oldest housing project.
Built shortly after the Second World War, Regent Park was once considered a leading-edge design,
providing affordable housing to 7,500 people. But by the 1990s, it was seen as a failed social experiment,
racked by crime and intergenerational poverty. In 2005, the community's average income was $18,000, and
20 per cent of Regent Park families reported no income at all.
The new community will be home to about 15,000 people - double the previous population - and will mix
subsidized housing with market-rent units and about 300 owner-occupied homes.
Toronto Community Housing Corporation CEO Derek Ballantyne says the development will alter not just
the neighbourhood's architecture, but its outlook: "It will change everyone's perceptions, whether they live
here or not."
The project involves a vast choreography. Buildings are being torn down and replaced in six phases. In the Her parents laughed, not quite understanding their daughter's description, yet sensing that in idiomatic
English, sick is actually good.
"Linta knows many Canadian things," Mr. Loganathan said. "She is our expert."
In 2005, the Loganathans became one of the first families displaced by the Regent Park makeover, which
will dramatically alter Canada's largest and oldest housing project.
Built shortly after the Second World War, Regent Park was once considered a leading-edge design,
providing affordable housing to 7,500 people. But by the 1990s, it was seen as a failed social experiment,
racked by crime and intergenerational poverty. In 2005, the community's average income was $18,000, and
20 per cent of Regent Park families reported no income at all.
The new community will be home to about 15,000 people - double the previous population - and will mix
subsidized housing with market-rent units and about 300 owner-occupied homes.
Toronto Community Housing Corporation CEO Derek Ballantyne says the development will alter not just
the neighbourhood's architecture, but its outlook: "It will change everyone's perceptions, whether they live
here or not."
The project involves a vast choreography. Buildings are being torn down and replaced in six phases. In the first phase, 418 families (including the Loganathans) were forced to move. Some were relocated as far away
as Scarborough, while others were hopscotched through Regent Park as apartments became available. Since
2005, the Loganathans have moved three times.
Despite the inconvenience, they support the project because they believe it can offer an improved future for
their daughter, an honour-roll student who studies piano, dance, and Tamil culture in after-school programs.
"For me, this is about Linta," says Mr. Loganathan. He is a 50-year-old immigrant whose story parallels
many others in Regent Park. After arriving in Canada from Sri Lanka in the early 1990s, he and his wife
found their horizons limited by their foreign credentials and limited English.
Regent Park has been both a blessing and a curse. Because rents are geared to income, it is affordable.
Tenants are charged an amount equal to 30 per cent of their gross income - at the moment, the Loganathans
pay $292 per month. The downside has been an atmosphere of despair, and rising crime levels - a few years
ago, Mr. Loganathan witnessed a gun murder on the street.
The building that the Loganathans moved into yesterday blurs the line between social housing and market-
level rentals. Although relatively economical to construct, the new building looks like an upscale condo,
with a clean, modern design, tall windows, and glass-fronted balconies. The Loganathans' neighbours will
include people who pay market-level rents.
Despite their limited income, the Loganathans have worked hard to provide their daughter with the tools she
needs for success, including a computer and an Internet connection.
For Linta, the new apartment is clearly a boost. As the movers carried in her family's modest possessions
yesterday, she focused on where her desk should go, finally deciding on the north wall of her bedroom,
which offered a phone jack for her computer modem, and a view of a downtown, a once-distant world that
now seemed closer.
"Look," she said. "There's the CN Tower!"