Article Added On: July 09, 2005 - over 2 years ago
Title: Better, but not by much
Author: PETER CHENEY
Publication: The Globe and Mail
Publication Date: January 01, 2005 - over 3 years ago
Faith Groups: Hindu
Themes: Religion and society

Saturday, July 9, 2005

In the closet, they have recreated their small Hindu shrine -- pictures of the goddess Lakshmi and god Shiva are arranged on the top shelf, flanked by sticks of incense.

But aside from this one note of continuity, the life of the Loganathan family is very much up in the air. The hallway and the bedrooms are stacked with boxes, and some of their clothes are still in suitcases.

"So much to do," Ratneswary says as she makes dinner for her seven-year-old daughter, Linta, and her husband, Velautney, entertains a guest in the living room. "We're trying to make life normal again."

It's been just over two weeks since the Loganathans moved out of their building, which will soon be torn down as part of the biggest urban makeover in Canadian history -- the $1-billion redevelopment of Regent Park, a housing project home to more than 7,500 people.

For the Loganathans, the redevelopment means years of upheaval. Their move is just the beginning of a long journey: Their new home won't be ready until at least 2007, and so they must live in temporary quarters in another Regent Park building for now. Even when it's completed, they will be living in the midst of a construction site, since the earliest projected completion date for the entire project is 2015.

The project involves an intricate choreography, with the first phase involving the not-so-small feat of relocating 7,500 people. Their buildings will be demolished, and then replaced with a community vastly different than the old one. The population density will be doubled, and the area will mix subsidized housing with market-rent units and privately owned homes.

The Loganathans' old building, on Sackville Street, is part of the redevelopment's first phase, which involves the relocation of 418 families, so that demolition can begin late this fall. The Loganathans were among the first to leave, and the movers are still at work.

The Loganathans' new, temporary apartment is much like their old one -- a crumbling two-bedroom in a roach-infested low-rise building built shortly after the Second World War. The apartment is in slightly better condition than their old one, but that's not saying much as almost everything is in need of repair. One of the more annoying problems is the mirrored door of the medicine cabinet, which won't stay shut -- when Linta brushes her teeth, one of her parents has to hold it closed so it doesn't swing into her face.

The Loganathans came to Canada from Sri Lanka in the early 1990s, hoping to make a better life for themselves. But it hasn't been easy. Last year, Mr. Loganathan was laid off from his job as a mail sorter, which paid him as much as $30,000 a year with overtime.

He has been searching for a new job ever since, but the only ones he has been offered pay $8 an hour or less -- about one-third of what he used to make. Mrs. Loganathan is studying English as a second language at York University, hoping that increased fluency will allow her to get a job as an administrator and improve the family's prospects.

The Loganathans have watched the Regent Park redevelopment plans with interest. Not long ago, they saw pictures of some of the architect's concepts, which show glass-encased apartment buildings rising above treed streets lined with new houses, some privately owned.

"It looked nice," Mrs. Loganathan says. "It has to be better than this."

Although it was hailed as a "workers' paradise" when it opened in the 1950s, Regent Park is now widely regarded as a failed social experiment, with high rates of poverty and crime. And the Loganathans have witnessed the violence and prostitution problems first-hand.

Like many Regent Park residents, they are tied to the area by economics. Their rent, which is calculated as a percentage of their income, was as high as $680 a month when Mr. Loganathan held his previous job, but now has been reduced to $246 as he searches for work.

Even so, they find it hard to make ends meet. "We don't have any money," he says. "I'm a poor man."

As Toronto endured yet another day of unrelenting sun this week, the temperature in their apartment climbed to tropical levels, yet the Loganathans' only relief was a small electric fan in the living room. Some other families in the building have installed window air conditioners, and the Loganathans dream of buying one, but know they can't afford it -- a friend told them that he had seen one at Wal-Mart for $100, but for them, it may as well be $10,000.

Their single luxury is a television set, which gets only a few fuzzy channels because they can't afford satellite or cable.

Much of their energy is devoted to Linta, who is off school for the summer. Her report card was on the coffee table in the living room this week. Except for a D in English, her marks were superb, and her father held up the document with pride. Academic success, he hopes, will be his daughter's passport to a better life. "I want her to be a doctor or a scientist," he says. "Those are the best jobs."

"No," Linta says. "I want to be a teacher."

"A doctor," he tells her. "In one year, you will make more than we have in our whole lives."