Economics
Toronto Betting C$2 Billion on Crack Haven Housing Makeover
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It’s the dank, stinking stairwells of Toronto’s Regent Park housing project that for residents like Ines Garcia represent the failures of the past, and now, as they’re being demolished, hope for the future.
Garcia, a 48-year-old single mother of four, has been forced to shield her children from strangers shooting up heroin on the urine-soaked steps. One time, the Ecuadorean immigrant mustered the courage to tell a man smoking crack to do it elsewhere. He replied, “Bitch, you wanna die?” Garcia’s eyes teared up at the memory.