In a neighbourhood bordering the Don Valley in Toronto’s east end sits a complex made up of three high-rise apartment buildings. It’s tucked away in a sparsely developed corner where older residential buildings spring up from the green valley terrain like brick-and-mortar dandelions. The three buildings, at 71, 75 and 79 Thorncliffe Park Drive, are the homes of a close-knit community of renters like Amina (a pseudonym to protect her from reprisal), who has lived in Thorncliffe Park for more than thirty years—her entire life. She’s grown up knowing and caring about her neighbours, other mostly low-income and Muslim immigrants who’ve raised families there for decades. It’s the kind of neighbourhood where children play together in groups, neighbours offer each other vegetables grown from a community garden behind the buildings and local organizations cook and deliver meals to struggling families.

Recently, the buildings have ...