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Neighbourhoods in Need

Post date: December 14, 2005

Article reproduced from FSA Magazine Catalyst: Ideas for Change, Fall/Winter 2005 issue

What makes a neighbourhood strong?

Let’s visit the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood in the downtown core. This neighbourhood features a mix of incomes and residences including apartments, condominiums, housing cooperatives and detached houses. It is also well served by parks, religious institutions, social services, a community health centre, community recreation centre, schools, and a mix of shops including the essentials such as grocery stores and pharmacies. It is also well served by the TTC. Many of the older buildings have been restored and the parks are beautifully maintained. This is a strong, well organized neighbourhood and all the amenities are within walking distance.

Now let’s visit the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. This area is dominated by tall, decaying high-rise apartment buildings; busy, multi-lane streets that are not pedestrian friendly; and a shopping plaza that is dominated by fast food restaurants and empty storefronts. There are few social services and no public spaces that the residents feel is safe to use. The subway system is a long bus ride away and it can take more than an hour to get downtown to access social services, such as an employment centre. Most of the people in this neighbourhood are poor and can’t afford to live elsewhere.

Increasingly in Toronto there are many more neighbourhoods like Jane and Finch that like St. Lawrence Market. Poverty has forced many Toronto residents, and particularly recent immigrants, to move into poorer neighbourhoods with little or no services. According to the 2001 Census, 20 per cent of all families in Toronto lived in poverty; up from 16 per cent in 1991. The number of individuals living in poverty also increased during this period. Between 1996 and 2001, the poverty rate for individuals grew to 37.5 per cent.

Many of Toronto's residents have suffered from the disappearance of well-paid manufacturing jobs, minimum wage rates that haven't kept pace with the cost of living, a sharp decline in social assistance rates and reduced access to employment insurance. As well, many recent immigrants face extraordinary difficulty finding suitable employment.

Thousands of families have been forced to move to areas of the city where rent is cheapest. This has led to a concentration of poverty within certain neighbourhoods in the former municipalities of Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke—areas originally built for lower densities and for middle-income households.

In 1981, 17.8 per cent of low-income families lived in higher poverty neighbourhoods. By 2001, this had grown to 43.2 per cent. Over this same period, the number of higher poverty neighbourhoods approximately doubled every ten years, from 30 in 1981, to 66 in 1991, to 120 in 2001.

If this issue is not addressed, Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods will continue to decline and will eventually be excluded from mainstream society. We know from the experience of cities in the United Kingdom and the United States that the life chances of children and youth growing up in these neighbourhoods will be negatively affected.

The Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force was formed in April 2004 as a joint initiative of the United Way of Greater Toronto and the City of Toronto, with support from the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario. Representatives from organized labour and the private and voluntary sectors also participated, united in the belief that Toronto's health and prosperity are closely tied to the well being of its neighbourhoods. After a year of study and consultations, the Task Force released its report Strong Neighbourhoods: A Call to Action in June 2005.

Family Service Association of Toronto lent its expertise to the Task Force. Laurel Rothman, Director of Social Reform, contributed a research report entitled Defining Community Infrastructure that outlined the system of facilities, programs and social networks that are needed to improve the quality of life in Toronto ’s neighbourhoods.

The Need for Service

The Strong Neighbourhoods report recognized that many of Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods do not have the social services they need. Most community-based service providers recognize the need for more services in these areas, but have not been able to secure the resources needed from government or other funding organizations to move or expand to where the need is greatest. Since the 1990s, government funding and reporting requirements have become increasingly restrictive. Many service providers are now spending a considerable amount of time filling out funding and evaluation reports every year, leaving less time for the actual delivery of services.

In addition, much of the funding that is available to community-based organizations is designated for short-term projects that do not allow for sustained improvements because the program runs for only a year, and doesn’t help organizations pay for core costs such as rent, utilities, appropriate technology, program development, volunteer development and management, and strategic planning. This would be like expecting a manufacturer to not spend any money on equipment or research and development. As a result, many service providers are unable to develop long-term programs that would effect real change in declining neighbourhoods.

This means that essential services, such as homeless shelters, youth employment services, or food banks are not located in the neighbourhoods where they are needed most. And the community-based service providers who have the knowledge and expertise to deliver these services are unable to find the funding needed to expand or move their services to under-served neighbourhoods.

Family Service Association of Toronto has been able to respond to the increased need for services in Toronto's inner suburbs. In 2003, we opened our Scarborough office to make our services for newcomers and seniors available to residents in this under-served neighbourhood. However, many agencies, small or large, do not have the flexibility to move or expand their services given the current funding restrictions.

Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy

The Task Force developed the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy to help realize a vision of a city in which no one is disadvantaged by where they live, and where neighbourhoods are safe, inclusive, cohesive and vibrant. Its goal is to ensure that all neighbourhoods, regardless of the income levels of the people living there, have a mix of services and facilities that meet local needs and correspond to both the size and characteristics of the population.

The Task Force used a set of measures that included median household income, unemployment levels, education levels, percentage of low birth-weight babies and the percentage of the population who are recent immigrants to identified nine neighbourhoods in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke for initial investment (see map). The United Way will work with the City of Toronto, provincial and federal governments and other stakeholders from a wide range of sectors, including local businesses, community service providers, faith groups, school boards, community funders and neighbourhood residents, to create investment plans for each targeted neighbourhood.

In May 2005, the City of Toronto, provincial and federal governments entered into the Canada-Ontario-Toronto Agreement proposed by the City of Toronto. The agreement establishes a common vision and shared goals for urban sustainability to guide government decision-making and negotiations on complex issues. The Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy is consistent with the Agreement.

In June 2005, the United Way of Greater Toronto announced that it will allocate $1 million over three years for community development. This work will be coordinated with the City and will be focused on the nine targeted neighbourhoods. The most effective community development requires strong local partnerships—in which residents, businesses and service providers come together to develop a local action plan and investment strategy. The United Way's funding will support this work.

Map shows the location of each of the nine targeted neighbourhoods

The United Way will also be improving access to services at neighbourhood agencies across the inner suburbs, particularly programs for newcomers and youth.

The United Way's Board of Trustees has decided that 75 per cent of new United Way funding will be directed to those agencies located in inner suburban neighbourhoods—an estimated $6.7 million over three years. 

A Call to Action

Any effort to revitalize these neighbourhoods will benefit not only the people living in those areas, but Toronto as a whole. All of Toronto's neighbourhoods are vital to this city's social and economic success. Distressed neighbourhoods have been identified by the private sector as a significant threat to the region’s economic competitiveness.

Family Service Association of Toronto's Strategic Directions recognize the need to strengthen at-risk neighbourhoods. In the coming years, we will continue to evaluate our programs and services on an ongoing basis to ensure that we are addressing issues affecting those most in need across the city, including in the poorest neighbourhoods.

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