Right now, Amal Ahmed can walk to her classes at Ryerson University or to her baby daughter’s doctor appointments. Her mother attends a women’s group at the health centre down the street, and she can rely on her longtime neighbours in Regent Park.

In the fall, all that could change for the 26-year-old single mother and hundreds of other residents who are being relocated during the third phase of redevelopment of the downtown Toronto Community Housing complex.

On the list of available three-bedroom TCHC units distributed last week, most are miles away in Scarborough: Finch and Victoria Park, Danforth and Warden, Sheppard and Morningside. Others are near Kingsway and Queensway, or Dixon and Islington in Etobicoke.

Just one, near Bathurst and Queens Quay, is even close to home. Some four-bedroom units on the list are as far away as Jane and Finch. For Ahmed, who has lived in Regent Park for 14 years, commuting for the three and a half years it will take to build the new units will be nearly impossible.

“We have mosques here, we have daycare here, we have home care, the doctor’s here. Everything is accessible. The majority of people that are being relocated are single mothers; we don’t drive, our university is right over here,” said Ahmed, who is one year away from completing her nursing degree.

“For us to be uprooted and told to assimilate, even if it’s just temporarily, we feel like it’s unfair.”

She will have to leave her townhouse on the eastern edge of Regent Park just days before her final year of classes begins. And by the time she returns, 1-year-old Anzel will be enrolled in school.

If Ahmed’s story sounds familiar, it’s because hundreds of Regent Park residents have gone through the same thing.

Under the 15-year Regent Park revitalization plan, profits from the sale of more than 3,000 market-priced condos will help pay for the replacement of 2,083 social housing units and subsidize the cost of 700 affordable rental units. Residents from the old Regent Park were moved out, for up to seven years, so the builders could move in.

Phase One, which began in 2005, relocated 381 households, and Phase Two saw 440 households displaced between 2008 and 2010, according to TCHC numbers.

Phase Three affects the largest number of units, in several waves; 324 units are slated for relocation by Aug. 31, with even more later on for a total of 630 households.

Ahmed’s friend Sharifa Ali, 23, faces the same dilemma: also a Ryerson nursing student and single mother with a son in junior kindergarten, she wonders what school he would go to, or how she could ever make it to the 7 a.m. clinics that are part of her training at downtown hospitals. It would take more than an hour by TTC from Scarborough. She worries about social isolation. And she worries about the safety of teenagers in Regent Park trying to fit in with students in other inner-city schools.

“That’s a fear for mothers. We are all like family here. We don’t want to lose our kids, we don’t want to lose our friends.”

Despite growing pains experienced by many residents during earlier phases, the process for relocation remains the same: a lottery and several “rounds” of offers for temporary homes before residents — all of whom are guaranteed a right to return — can come back to Regent Park.

The only difference is the lottery, which was introduced after the first-come-first-serve system of Phase One saw residents lining up overnight to claim the best units.

Ali has organized a petition with 103 signatures asking TCHC officials and city council to make a greater effort to find families more reasonable accommodations. She and others believe closer units should be made available.

There were 29 vacant units in Regent Park this week, mostly two-bedrooms, but that won’t help the area’s many large, multi-generational families. A meeting with Ward 28 Councillor Pam McConnell is set for Monday.

This week, McConnell said residents won’t be forced to move against their will. During the last phase, some went through eight rounds of unit selection before they were matched with a temporary home as new TCHC units became available.

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“Of course, what we are trying to do is make as many units available inside Regent Park and surrounding areas as we can,” McConnell said.

“People get very frightened going into the process, but as they go into the process they will find something that matches their needs,” she said, adding that most tenants who have returned have expressed happiness with their new homes.

Ali and Ahmed were hoping to move into affordable housing apartments being completed in Regent Park this summer, while paying their subsidized rental rates. But that’s not possible under the current funding agreements and legal framework.

“Relocation is the most difficult part of the revitalization,” said TCHC spokeswoman Sarah Goldvine. “Our staff work very closely with the residents to find the right options for them.”