Housing Policy from a Child's Perspective:
The Lieutenant-Governor's Committee on Housing Conditions in Toronto

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At the luncheon celebrating the City's 100th anniversary on March 6, 1934, Prime Minister Bennett and other dignitaries praised Toronto's accomplishments. Bruce shocked the audience by calling attention to the misery found in Toronto's slum districts. He claimed that the only worthwhile centennial project was "a plan that would recognize the inalienable right of every man and woman and child to decent and dignified and healthful environment."

City Council accepted Bruce's challenge and struck a committee to investigate housing issues. The Bruce Report, issued late in 1934, called on all levels of government to help solve chronic problems of housing quality and supply. The agenda included repairing or demolishing unfit dwellings and building publicly owned and subsidized rental housing.

Bruce also proposed a program of slum clearance and reconstruction which used a child-centred approach to design. The case study was Moss Park, where a link existed between poor housing conditions, limited recreational opportunities, and juvenile delinquency. New row houses and low-rise apartments were placed around a large central playground and other open spaces. This integration of home- and play-space echoed the work done 20 years earlier by the Toronto Housing Company.

The impact of the Bruce Report (and Bruce's lobbying) was substantial. The federal government responded with the Dominion Housing Act (1935), the Home Improvement Program (1936-40), and the National Housing Act (1938). Bruce's reconstruction scheme for Moss Park materialized much later, and in a much different form, as Regent Park North.

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©2001. City of Toronto