As she sat in the audience, listening to the speeches, Canon Alice Jean Finlay thought of her husband, the late Archbishop Terence Finlay. “He would have been so proud to be identified with this project,” she said. “Housing, especially for those in need, was always an issue for him.”
Canon Finlay was one of about 200 people who attended the official re-opening of St. Hilda’s Seniors Community in Toronto on Oct. 25. The ceremony was held at St. Hilda’s church, located on the site at the corner of Dufferin Street and Eglinton Avenue West.
When fully occupied, the complex’s three residential towers, named after the Rev. Canon Clifford Ward, Archbishop Lewis Garnsworthy and Archbishop Finlay, will provide affordable housing for about 500 seniors. It is the largest project of its kind in the city and possibly the country.
In his opening remarks, Bishop Andrew Asbil said the success of the project was due to the collaboration between the federal, provincial and city governments, St. Hilda’s church and the housing complex’s board of directors, led by the Very Rev. Douglas Stoute, a former rector of St. James Cathedral and dean of Toronto.
“I am grateful for that collaboration,” said Bishop Asbil. “It is a style and a vision of working together as community to help solve our issue of affordable housing. This is a moment when we give thanks that so many among us can call this place home.” Many of the towers’ residents attended the ceremony.
Bishop Asbil said it was gratifying that the towers are named after Canon Ward, Archbishop Garnsworthy and Archbishop Finlay, “who are all, to us, saints.” Canon Ward was the rector of St. Hilda’s when he proposed the idea of a housing project for seniors on the church’s land in the early 1970s. Archbishop Garnsworthy and Archbishop Finlay, former diocesan bishops, were supporters of the project.
Two of the three towers are fully renovated, with the third to be refurbished when the funding becomes available. The towers are made up of studio and one-bedroom apartments, with an option of support services. Rent is capped at 80 per cent of the market level rates in the surrounding community. Many units are available on a rent-geared-to-income basis, and 80 units are for previously unhoused people.
The two towers are completely refurbished, with new plumbing and electricity and high-quality heating and cooling. Green strategies have reduced the buildings’ carbon footprint by 40 per cent.
The first tower was built in 1977, followed by the second in 1982 and the third in 1997. Originally intended to provide affordable supportive housing for seniors, the complex eventually became an assisted-living organization, similar to a nursing home, and was no longer viable. The buildings fell into disrepair.
Rather than sell the property to developers, the board of directors made the decision to turn the towers into affordable housing units for seniors. Dean Stoute said the decision was rooted in a theory of cities found in the writings of Jane Jacobs, a Torontonian, journalist and urban theorist who argued for the respect of city dwellers.
“You do not take cities and put all of the rich people in one corner and the poor people down on the other side of the track,” Dean Stoute told the gathering. “That was the heart of what Jane Jacobs was saying. Because of the subway, which is going to stop right out here, this area’s real estate value has gone through the roof. But because we’re here, we bring that anchor, that mirror of reality, that says it’s not just for the wealthy or the well-to-do, but at Dufferin and Eglinton, all people can live here.”
The project’s architect, Graeme Stewart, said the revitalization of the towers is one of the biggest housing stories in the country. “We’re talking about an enormous investment and a significant number of homes,” he said. “There’s a lot of talk right now about the housing crisis but one of the stories we don’t talk about is maintaining the affordable housing we have, and I can’t overstate that this was a choice by the board to say we are going to keep these homes as affordable for another generation. That was a choice – there was no obligation to do that. They said we’re going to take hundreds of homes and ensure that they are affordable for the long term.”
Bishop Asbil thanked Dean Stoute and board members Ted Hawkin and Kevin Kindellan, “who in their tenacity and hard work over eight and a half years, worked with all levels of government and partners to get us to this place.”
Serving in the name of Jesus