“You can’t tell people the way to go is to own property,” said Roger Keil, who is also director of the University’s City Institute. “The attitude has to change. We have to move away from the thought that rental housing is for lower-class people.”

With a large revitalization project such as Lawrence Heights, Keil said the key thing to keep in mind is how to balance needs and wants.

“The housing area is dilapidated,” he said. “The need part is putting in new windows, making upgrades, but also for landlords to treat residents in housing better. Toronto has an official plan and wants to make it a denser city. The problem is the want part. Other interests that want housing in that area really drive the process. With Regent Park, the whole place was torn down to create change in population and change in those areas. They tear the place down, kick inhabitants out, and when shiny new buildings are built, as far as the old residents go, either the rent is too high or they feel uncomfortable living there now with the new population and new class structure. This is a given. We know this is going to happen.”

Keil noted several ways to “soften the blow” to help ensure mixed-income neighbourhoods would succeed, including a guaranteed quota of low-income housing, rental attitude changes and creation of social institutions within those communities. “The question is how to manage it and not make it into a catastrophe,” he said. “Housing is a tiny aspect. We need schools, community centres, religious institutions that support the community there so we don’t ghettoize them in the new housing. Mobility is a major issue. It needs to be built into the renovation project and that’s why things like Transit City are so important.”

Ute Lehrer, professor in 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies and member of the City Institute, said the reason why not all residents return is mainly due to cost. “To relocate costs money,” she said. “People can’t really afford relocation twice. Then there is the issue of social networks with their kids. You have to take them out of their old school, put them in a new one, and if you move back, put them back in the old school. Employment situations might have changed. They might feel uncomfortable in their new environment, rubbing shoulders with people who they have very little in common with. There needs to be subsidies and guaranteed rental space, which needs to be implemented and politically supported.”

The Global Suburbanisms Project is funded by the (SSHRC).

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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He is a professor of health policy & management in 91ŃÇÉ« University’s Faculty of Health, and he is an observant guy. No skyscrapers?

“Downsview,” he said.

I should have known. The airport; incoming likes it low. But there are other features of the neighbourhood that are much more notable, in particular the overlapping of the maps of poverty, illness and crime.

What kind of poverty? Crushing. What kind of crime? You name it. How about illness?

Let’s talk diabetes. Everyone’s talking about it these days. The national public broadcaster even has a bunch of people eating lettuce and doing jumping jacks on TV.

Is it lifestyle? Fooey.

Raphael did a health study in a while back. His findings show that the correlation [of poverty and poor health] is not between the couch and the potato. “People who are poor don’t have the resources to be healthy. Diabetes is three or four times more likely to occur among poor people.”

He talked freely as we walked along. “We interviewed low-income people. We were struck, when we did the study, by how unable people were to access resources: the poor don’t go to ball games, to movies. They never spoke of recreation, of volunteering, of going out with friends.In other words, the poor have fewer ways to relieve their stress, and stress is a factor of the disease of diabetes, and I don’t know any poor people who are relaxed.

I was going to ask about other factors when he said something that is encouraging and ridiculous at once.

“People with life-threatening illnesses overwhelmingly say they get good health care. And most people on disability get free meds, diabetes test strips, monitors, feet and eye exams; and, overwhelmingly, they had public housing.” That’s the good news.

“But even with those pluses, we found that 72 per cent of the people we surveyed couldn’t afford the food they needed to be healthy.” He wasted no time in pointing out the irony: “The health care system will treat you fine if you keel over, but we won’t provide you with the resources you need to avoid getting sick.”

An easy fix?

“People are suffering, but I see little evidence that things are getting better.” I shivered, not from the cold. We passed a solid little building. He said, “The community health centre here is great. And the Community Care Access Centre is great.”

His proof?

“The people in our study knew about blood monitoring.” That, by the way, is a constant for diabetics. “And they knew about eating healthy food. But we found they didn’t have the money to afford the food they needed.”

That’s an outrage, or it ought to be.

I noted that some people seem to think that if you are fat, you are more prone to diabetes. Raphael hammered away at his original theme: “It isn’t whether you are fat, it’s whether you are poor.

“Countries that have low poverty rates are countries that give things like child care, tuition, decent social assistance.” These are countries where — surprise, surprise — people’s health is generally better.

“But in countries like ours, where there is a good chance of being poor, you don’t get those things — you don’t get universal child care; you don’t get good, solid employment insurance.”

Funny how we say we can’t afford first-rate social programs, and yet many of our neighbours haven’t got the money they need to be healthy. The dots ought to be easy to connect.

Raphael has published extensively about the , and the social determinants of health in Canada and internationally.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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