When Toronto Tried to Eliminate Poverty | The Story of Regent Park
Can Urban Redevelopment Reduce Poverty?
This video delves into the long, evolving story of Regent Park — Canada’s oldest large-scale public housing project — from its origins in the post-war period to its decades-long revitalization as a mixed-income neighbourhood. Originally designed to clear slum conditions and provide affordable housing, the community became physically isolated and stigmatized, reinforcing patterns of concentrated poverty and social exclusion.
Starting in the early 2000s, city planners, residents, and development partners launched a phased redevelopment to reconnect Regent Park to Toronto’s street grid, diversify housing tenures, and introduce amenities and services aimed at boosting economic opportunity and quality of life. Revitalization efforts have transformed the physical and social fabric of the area, but questions remain about displacement, the accuracy of mixed-income outcomes, and whether structural inequities are being addressed or simply masked by new construction.
The Non-capitalist Solution to the Housing Crisis
Re-thinking ownership and delivery models could be part of a broader policy toolkit.
This video explores alternative approaches to addressing today’s global housing affordability crisis that do not rely solely on market-driven models. It argues that the traditional capitalist housing system — where profit motives dominate development decisions — inherently limits equitable access to affordable housing. Instead, the video highlights non-market housing strategies such as cooperative ownership, community land trusts, public housing initiatives, and other models that prioritize community needs and long-term affordability over investor returns. Using international examples (including robust non-market housing sectors like those in Vienna), the video suggests that expanding non-profit and government-supported housing options could help lower overall housing costs and improve stability for low- and moderate-income households. It frames housing as a human right rather than a commodity, challenging the dominant assumption that profit-maximization should guide housing supply and policy decisions.
How to Solve Housing: Grow More Cities?
As affordability challenges intensify in major cities, the question becomes whether reforming zoning within existing boundaries is enough.
This video examines whether expanding and building entirely new cities could be part of the solution to today’s housing affordability crisis. Rather than focusing solely on densifying existing urban cores, it explores the argument that constrained land supply, restrictive zoning, and infrastructure bottlenecks in major metropolitan areas have driven prices upward. By encouraging the development of new urban centres — supported by transportation links, employment hubs, and coordinated planning — policymakers could reduce pressure on overheated housing markets.
The discussion highlights trade-offs: while new city development may unlock land and scale supply more rapidly, it requires massive upfront infrastructure investment and long-term economic viability. The video ultimately frames housing affordability not just as a construction issue, but as a broader question of regional planning, economic geography, and political will.
Why Is It So Hard to Mass-Produce Housing?
Engage Prospective Tenants Instantly and Effectively.
This video explores why housing — unlike cars, electronics, or consumer goods — has proven resistant to true mass production. While industrial manufacturing has dramatically reduced costs through standardization, automation, and scale, homebuilding remains highly fragmented, labour-intensive, and heavily regulated. The video examines barriers such as zoning restrictions, building codes, permitting timelines, local opposition, and supply chain variability that prevent housing from achieving factory-level efficiency.
It also looks at past and present attempts to industrialize construction — including prefabrication and modular housing — and why these approaches have struggled to transform the sector at scale. Ultimately, the discussion suggests that housing costs are shaped not only by materials and labour, but by political, regulatory, and structural constraints that limit productivity growth.
North America’s Elevator Problem
Understanding barriers to affordable elevator infrastructure helps unpack broader housing supply and affordability issues in North America.
This video investigates why elevators — crucial infrastructure for dense, accessible housing — are significantly more expensive and less common in Canada and the United States than in peer nations. Despite elevators playing a critical role in making mid-rise and high-density housing feasible and inclusive, North America has one of the lowest per-capita elevator counts in the developed world. Elevator installation and operational costs here run three to four times higher than in Europe, largely due to unique technical standards, regulatory requirements, and a fragmented market that discourages competition and innovation.
The video explores how these cost and policy barriers affect housing affordability and urban form, especially in smaller cities and mid-rise buildings where the added expense can push development costs beyond financial viability. Reforming codes to align with international standards and allowing smaller, more adaptable elevator designs are highlighted as possible steps toward reducing costs and enabling more accessible, walkable communities.