PlaceBased Neighbourhood Renewal

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Place-Based Neighbourhood Renewal

• CHRA Symposium
• Montreal, Quebec
• Sept 10, 2008
• Nancy J. Matthews
• City of Toronto

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Community Revitalization

• The City of Torontos approach to community
  revitalization focuses on place-based strategies
  and a continuum of community building initiatives
  that include housing, employment and economic
  development, recreation and community supports,
  social inclusion and sustainability.

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Torontos Approach to Community Revitalization

• Community Safety
• Social Housing Revitalization
• Tower Renewal

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1. Community Safety

• In March 2004, Toronto City Council unanimously
  adopted the Community Safety Plan that
  emphasized
• building on the strengths of neighbourhoods and
  communities
• investing in social infrastructure
• creating opportunities for youth

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Place-Based Strategies

• A key component of the Citys Community Safety
  Plan is the use of a place-based approach.
• In 2005, the City of Toronto identified 13
  priority neighbourhoods for targeted investment
  struggling with the challenges of
• Lack of community services and social
  infrastructure
• Poverty and underemployment
• Settlement of new immigrants
• Higher incidence of youth violence

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Methodology for Place-Based Approach

• How the City of Toronto identified the Priority
  Neighbourhoods
• Based on the Citys 140 neighbourhoods
• Supply-Demand Analysis of proximity of community
  infrastructure to socio-economic need
• Focused on neighbourhoods with poor service
  coverage but high needs
• Applied eleven social needs indicators (e.g.
  household income, literacy, low birth weight,
  etc.)
• Identified neighbourhoods with high service needs
  and high risk factors
• Applied data on youth gun violence and existing
  City infrastructure development priorities

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Torontos Priority Neighbourhoods
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Neighbourhood Action

• Neighbourhood Action is the City of Toronto
  initiative to make the City safer by making
  neighbourhoods stronger and by providing supports
  to young people and their families that prevent
  the social and economic conditions that give rise
  to crime.
• It is a place-based strategy that operates in the
  Citys 13 priority neighbourhoods.

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Neighbourhood Action Teams

• Each of the 13 priority neighbourhoods formed
  Neighbourhood Action Teams with representatives
  from all of the relevant City divisions (e.g.
  planning, public health, libraries, childrens
  services, social services, parks and recreation,
  etc.) to
• coordinate services
• problem-solve
• identify local priorities and opportunities
• build community capacity
• at the local level.

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Neighbourhood Action Partnerships

• These teams evolved into Neighbourhood Action
  Partnerships where City staff drew in partners
  from across the service delivery spectrum of
  three governments including representatives from
• school boards
• Police
• Toronto Community Housing (City public housing
  agency)
• community agencies
• local residents

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Local Structures of Collaboration

• Neighbourhood Action Teams (NATs)
• GOAL sustainable institutional (staff-level)
  change
• HOW transcending institutional silos to provide
  integrated service delivery
• RESULT community development based on service
  partnerships
• Neighbourhood Action Partnerships (NAPs)
• GOAL sustainable community (neighbourhood-level)
  change
• HOW resident-engaged multi-sectoral
  neighbourhood-based decision-making
• RESULT neighbourhood vitality and enhanced
  community capacity to thrive
• Neighbourhood Action Directors Table
• Interdivisional Committee on Integrated Responses
  to Priority Neighbourhoods

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Intergovernmental Structures of Collaboration

• In addition to local neighbourhood action
  efforts, the City leverages additional
  investments for the priority neighbourhoods
  through its work on the Intergovernmental Working
  Group on Gun Violence.
• The kinds of partnerships we have been able to
  leverage are
• New Capital Investments
• New Collaborative Programs
• Youth Employment Partnerships

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New Capital Investments

• Partnership Opportunities Legacy Fund
• In 2006 the Mayor committed to investing 13M in
  each of the Citys 13 priority neighbourhoods
  over four years for new social infrastructure
  (e.g. playgrounds, basketball courts, community
  space for youth, etc.).
• In 2008, the Partnership Opportunities Legacy
  Fund program was established to deliver the
  capital investment.
• Between 2007 and 2008, the City is investing
  7.6M through the Partnership Opportunities
  Legacy Fund and leveraging a further 12.9M in
  partnership funding for facility upgrades, new
  youth spaces, library expansion, new recreation
  facilities and multi-purpose community space.
• By the end of 2008, the City will have achieved
  an investment of 20.5M in social infrastructure
  capital projects in Torontos priority
  neighbourhoods through the Partnership
  Opportunities Legacy Fund model.
• All project funding priorities are established
  with residents and community organizations
  through the collaborative Neighbourhood Action
  process.

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New Collaborative Programs

• Preventing Youth Gang Violence in Toronto Pilot
  Project
• On September 3, 2008 the Government of Canada
  announced an investment of more than 4.9 million
  over three and a half years for a project aimed
  at preventing and reducing street gang activity
  in the City of Toronto.

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Youth Employment Partnerships

• Partnerships to Advance Youth Employment (PAYE)
  program
• A joint initiative between the City of Toronto
  and private employers to give youth from priority
  neighbourhoods direct and innovative
  opportunities for employment.
• PAYE is spearheaded by business leaders and
  includes a number of employers who have come
  forward with jobs for youth from Torontos 13
  priority neighbourhoods.
• Employers have the opportunity to fill
  entry-level positions with pre-screened
  applicants that have the necessary training and
  skills. At the same time, the initiative supports
  the Citys aim of providing opportunity to its
  young people.
• A pilot was tested in Lawrence Heights in 2007,
  with support from 29 employers.
• 100 youth received employment coaching and
  participated in employer-led workshops
• 70 youth attended job interviews
• 39 youth were offered employment and
• two were awarded educational bursaries.
• PAYE will be expanding on the success of the
  pilot into additional priority neighbourhoods.

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ProTech Media Centre - Rexdale

• The Rexdale ProTech Media Centre provides free
  access to state-of-the-art digital arts training
  to young people in the Jamestown/Rexdale priority
  neighbourhood.
• Since the Centre opened in July 2007, 382 youth
  and children aged 9-19 yrs have been served.
• To date Microsoft has committed 274K to this
  City partnership.
• Microsoft has committed to opening three further
  ProTech Media Centres in priority neighbourhoods.

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Resource Leveraging

• Since we began the place-based investment
  strategy in 2005/2006, we have leveraged
  partnerships (capital and operating) that have
  resulted in new investments in the priority
  neighbourhoods totalling 88 million.
• United Way Toronto has made an additional 16
  million investment in the priority neighbourhoods.

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2. Social Housing Revitalization

• The focus is to create balanced neighbourhoods
  that are integrated into the larger city fabric
  through a mix of incomes, tenures and land uses.
• This approach balances the physical, social,
  economic and environmental needs and priorities
  to ensure a vibrant, liveable community.
• Social Housing Revitalization requires the
  partnership and investment of all three orders of
  government, the private sector and community
  residents to succeed.

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Social Housing Revitalization

• There are two large-scale social housing
  neighbourhood revitalization initiatives
  currently underway in the neighbourhoods of
• Lawrence Heights
• Regent Park
• The Revitalization Secretariat was established in
  the Social Development, Finance and
  Administration division to undertake this work
  and to manage the partnerships involved.

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Regent Park

• Fifty years ago, Regent Park was designed as a
  low-income community, composed entirely of social
  housing and cut off from surrounding
  neighbourhoods.
• Regent Park is being rebuilt as a diverse,
  mixed-income community in an open and integrated
  neighbourhood.
• This redevelopment reflects a widespread
  commitment to city building and the growth of
  healthy, sustainable communities across Toronto.

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Regent Park Neighbourhood Revitalization

• first large-scale revitalization effort
• more than 70 acres of land in downtown Toronto
• revitalization will occur over a 12 year period,
  in 6 phases, replacing 2,083 social housing units
• catalyst for new private sector economic
  development investment (e.g. bank, grocery store,
  private sector housing development) with public
  sector community infrastructure investment (e.g.
  schools, child care, affordable housing) funded
  by all three orders of government
• total estimated cost 560 million
• TCHC 417 million
• City of Toronto 44 million
• Province of Ontario 15.3 million
• Government of Canada 16.9 million

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Regent Park Social Development Plan

• Required by the City as part of the neighbourhood
  revitalization initiative, the development of the
  Social Development Plan was an inclusive process
  that enabled a dialogue with a large number of
  interested stakeholders and has resulted in the
  development of a shared agenda with agreed upon
  issues, community objectives and a set of
  neighbourhood strategies.
• The Social Development Plan covers three broad
  areas
• social inclusion
• community services and facilities and
• employment and economic development.
• The plan involves a series of neighbourhood
  strategies to support the transition of Regent
  Park from a social housing community to a mixed
  community.

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Lawrence Heights

• The Lawrence Heights social housing community was
  built in 1957
• There are 3,715 tenants in 1,235
  rent-geared-to-income housing units on 60.5
  hectares of land
• Presents the City with an opportunity to develop
  a comprehensive and integrated approach to
  neighbourhood revitalization that incorporates
  social, physical, economic, environmental,
  health-related and community-based supports into
  a planning framework that will ultimately
  strengthen the community

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Investments in Social Housing

• The City of Toronto also recognizes the
  importance of addressing maintenance backlogs in
  its public housing stock in maintaining
  neighbourhood vitality and community safety.
• In July 2008 Toronto Council authorized the sale
  of the Citys Hydro Telecom business and will
  directly apply the proceeds of the sale towards
  addressing its public housing maintenance
  backlog. It is expected that this will result in
  a 75M investment in public housing.
• In March 2008 the Province of Ontario announced a
  budget allocation of 36.5M for major capital
  repair of social housing units in the City of
  Toronto.

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3. The Mayors Tower Renewal

• The City is working with the private sector to
  effect local community revitalization and achieve
  greater environmental efficiencies through
  private sector leveraged investment.
• The Mayors Tower Renewal project seeks to
  improve Torontos concrete apartment towers and
  the neighbourhoods that surround them.
• The Toronto region contains North Americas
  second highest concentration of these buildings.
• This project shows how energy efficiency can be a
  means to community revitalization.

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Neighbourhood Renewal

• The City of Torontos approach to Neighbourhood
  Renewal is a guided partnership with our major
  community stakeholders as defined by each
  neighbourhood renewal initiative.
• Our current partners include
• Local residents
• Toronto Community Housing
• United Way Toronto
• School Boards
• Private Sector
• Provincial and federal governments
• Community agencies
• Toronto Police Service

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Neighbourhood Renewal

• Neighbourhood renewal is an opportunity to
• engage residents in every step of the community
  revitalization process
• create jobs and opportunities, especially for
  local youth
• involve all three orders of government as well as
  the community based not for profit sector to
  provide the services residents need

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Community Revitalization

• Torontos collaborative, place-based approach has
  fundamentally changed the way the City provides
  services, invests in communities, engages
  residents and builds collaborative partnerships.

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Contact Information

• Nancy J. Matthews
• General Manager, Childrens Services
• City of Toronto
• Email nmatthew_at_toronto.ca