The project is one of the most visible efforts to help this small prairie centre, population just under 200,000, deal with some awfully big-city problems. Inner-city Regina — effectively two neighbourhoods, North Central and the area east of the downtown known as the Core — is among the poorest spots in urban Canada. Thirty per cent of residents depend on government assistance. Local food banks deal with more than 3,600 requests a month. The health authority, which last year distributed 1.8 million needles, estimates there are more IV drug users per capita than on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Girls as young as 11 or 12 regularly work the stroll. Regina’s high incidence of break and enters, car thefts, street robberies and violent assaults has placed the city at the top of Canada’s urban crime rankings for nine of the past 10 years. (An overall 15 per cent drop in criminal code offences proved just enough to land the city second place in 2005, right behind Saskatoon — 13,194 incidents per 100,000 population versus 13,236.)

And while Regina’s crime problem may be city-wide, there’s no question where its epicentre lies. North Central — 153 blocks, 153 back alleys, sandwiched between the CN and the CP rail tracks — accounts for a quarter of all police calls. There are no massive housing projects here, just tiny 1920s-vintage workers’ cottages on tree-lined streets. Some are well maintained, others barely qualify as shacks. They all sell for less than most new cars. Six per cent of North Central’s 10,500 residents move every month. The median household income is just over $25,000 — half the city average. A typical child will attend all four of the neighbourhood’s elementary schools in the course of a single academic year.

MacLean’s Magazine - Canada’s Worst Neighbourhood