Malvern: The Forgotten Toronto Neighbourhood
Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods started in 2005 in order to combat significant gun violence. The updated Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020 (TSNS 2020) was intended to better reflect community needs with the intention of investing in people and improve services for neighbourhoods falling below a threshold, to improve the city as a whole. The old list of priority neighbourhoods were expected to overlap with the new “Neighbourhood Improvement Areas” (NIAs), and those that didn’t were supposed to have a transition period. Malvern was apart of the old Priority Areas cohort, but was excluded as a NIA.
TSNS 2020 is focused on improving the social, economic, and physical conditions for the Toronto population by focusing on neighbourhoods with greater need. A modified version of the World Health Organization’s (WHOs) Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool (HEART) was used to make these desginations. The modified tool used 15 indicators and the following five domains in its assessment: economic opportunities, social development, participation in decision making, healthy lives, and physical surroundings. In 2014, 31 of 140 neighbourhoods fell below the benchmark according to Urban HEART and became NIAs. The tool was modified in collaboration with Inner City Health/St. Michael’s Hospital, the City of Toronto, United Way of Toronto, the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network, and WoodGreen Community Services.
MALVERN: UNDESIGNATED
When you hear of Malvern, what is the first thing that comes to mind? When you’ve listed all the stereotypes, think about how this neighbourhood compares to others in the City of Toronto. According to the 2014 Neighbourhood Improvement Area profiles, Malvern did not make the cut because there were 31 other neighbourhoods that ranked lower. A Director from a GTA charity, who has worked in the Malvern community since 2008, considered this exclusion with a mixed review.
It’s good and bad news. [It shows] Malvern is getting its act together, there must be job security, there must be a measurement of security being met. The measure of success was the community established good social service programs, but the funding that made [the community] successful was removed. — Charity Director
Malvern was undesignated as a priority area with the new urban HEART methodology, resulting in severe funding cuts from the Ontario and the City of Toronto for programs in Malvern. The community, including the local high school, experienced difficulties finding funding for social programs. Although, there was some pushback from local advocates.
I want to say people stood up. I would think that the not-for- profits that would see horrible cuts would have pushed back. I would say the agencies initially did. When the urban priorities school funding got cut, the high schools weren’t okay with it, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. On the other hand, there was a sense of resignation. — Charity Director
The advocacy from the local community at the time made little difference, considering the neighbourhood remains undesignated as an NIA to this day.
HOUSING
“Malvern is considered a success because people [are] living in homes as opposed to high rises. That’s a measurement of the health of a community. But how many people are living in those homes? The real challenges that remain in Malvern aren’t as visible because you don’t have these optics of towers that exist in other neighbourhoods. There’s a hidden reality of the living conditions in Malvern,” Charity Director. Housing as an equity indicator was considered, but not added to the Urban HEART because of limited neighbourhood-level data. Yet, housing has been a part of the City of Toronto’s agenda since 2018 because of the housing crisis. The TSNS 2020 should be updated to reflect current equity issues in Toronto.
TRANSPORTATION
Transportation as an equity indicator was considered, but not added to the Urban HEART because of limited neighbourhood-level data. Each neighbourhood was measured as separate entities, while many people in Malvern are commuters. Safe transportation or commute times were not measured and transportation in the neighbourhood is only going to get worse without additional support. “The transit is inexcusable. It’s inexplicable…dithering about how many stops we can afford. The whole killing of the LRT; when people get political instead of real. You see all the people standing at bus shelters, it is a piece of the problem. How do you get to places of unemployment and [travel] safely? Wrap the whole thing in a pandemic and take a look at how people function,” Charity Director. When I was travelling to school or to work downtown from Malvern, it would take me a minimum of 1.5 hours one way (only if there were no delays). With the potential replacement of the Scarborough RT with shuttle buses, commute times in Malvern will only get worse.
YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
“The NIA needs were still there so we just kept working…as long as people [were] identifying challenges, issues, and successes. As [youth working with the charity] pointed out, youth unemployment is skewed in Malvern,” Charity Director. The Urban HEART identified that there was high unemployment in Malvern in 2011, well below the acceptable benchmark. Unemployment has remained in the community and has been effectively exacerbated as a result of the pandemic.
PLACE-BASED STRATEGIES
“We can put our feet on the ground, and we can see how much places have changed.” — Charity Director
The community has changed significantly since the Urban HEART was used and NIAs were designated. The older data used in the development of the TSNS 2020 Strategy, from 2006 and 2011, should be updated. As, current solutions require current data. This is an opportunity to implement iterative data collection. The community has seen significant increases in housing infrastructure, which is reducing green space and increasing neighbourhood density. It is likely that this trend will continue in the future. The TSNS 2020 should be designed to be dynamic in order to keep up with the geographic changes of the growing and changing communities in Toronto. Otherwise, populations living in neighbourhoods like Malvern will be forgotten and left behind.
