But just beyond the edge of development, tucked between farm fields along the Yonge St. corridor, a shelter for homeless families is a stark reminder that amid rising affluence in Toronto’s northern suburb, poverty is increasing, too.
“Most people are unaware of the issue,” said Patti Bell, executive director of Blue Door Shelters. “There’s a huge, growing gap.”
In the past 30 years, York Region has dramatically changed, from a collection of rural communities to booming suburbs. But as the sprawl marches on, new research from the University of Toronto shows that deep socio-economic divisions have emerged.
Although geographically large areas north of Steeles Ave. remain middle class, a sea of wealth now stretches clear across the region, from King to Whitchurch-Stouffville. Yet in the shadow of affluent subdivisions and private schools, the ranks of low-income residents are growing.
The widening chasm is made plain in neighbourhood income data released to the Star, which offers further proof that extreme wealth and poverty have taken root in the outer reaches of the GTA.
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It’s a trend that has presented challenges in communities which, due in part to lax development rules, NIMBYism and a lack of political will, didn’t grow with the needs of low-income residents in mind, said Mitchell Kosny, an expert in municipal policy at Ryerson University.
“It’s not like planners and politicians in York Region are bad guys,” Kosny said. “It’s just that all those municipalities were set up, saying, ‘Come here, because we don’t have those issues here.’ They’re facing issues that they didn’t anticipate facing 20 or 30 years ago.”
In 1980, the vast majority of York’s fledgling — and sparsely populated — neighbourhoods (defined using Statistics Canada census tracts) were characterized as middle-income, where most individuals earned close to the average Toronto-area annual income that year of $14,384, the numbers reveal.
A handful of high-income and very high-income neighbourhoods were situated in the historic districts of Markham and Vaughan’s posh village of Kleinburg. There was not a single low-income or very low-income neighbourhood.
However, by 2010, more than a fifth of neighbourhoods were considered high-income or very high-income.
Nearly two-thirds of the region’s neighbourhoods were still defined as middle-income (meaning most individuals made close to the Toronto-area average of $44,271). But low- and very low-income neighbourhoods were scattered throughout Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan — a largely hidden slice of poverty that constituted 14 per cent of the region.
“This is a national trend — not something limited to the city of Toronto,” said David Hulchanski, the U of T professor at the helm of the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership. “The fall (in middle-income areas) isn’t yet as dramatic in York, but if nothing changes in terms of our economy, we will see more and more low-income Census tracts.”
Hulchanski and his team will spend the next several years analyzing what’s behind the deepening income divide they’ve uncovered in York, Peel and other municipalities across Canada.
But the story on the ground in Toronto’s northern suburb is one of rapid — and relatively recent — change.
The green expanses of York Region, on the road to cottage country, have long attracted the horsey set (Timothy Eaton chose King City as the site of his country estate in the 1800s). However, large-scale development didn’t begin in earnest until the ’70s, when the construction of a giant new sewer pipe opened up the area for more housing.
A handful of pioneering developers built tracts of spacious homes with two-car garages and big yards in suburbs such as Richmond Hill, which was billed as being “A little north, a little nicer.”
“They knew people wanted good, safe neighbourhoods with good schools and good opportunities,” Andrew DeGasperis, the principal at Aspen Ridge Homes, said of his late uncle, Fred DeGasperis, who made his fortune transforming the farmers’ fields.
Target buyers were middle-class families, many of whom were established first- and second-generation immigrants from the Italian, Jewish and Chinese communities looking to escape the nuisances of city life.
By the mid-’80s, Markham, which boasted low taxes and a burgeoning high-tech industry (IBM was among the firms that located its headquarters there), was considered one of the wealthiest municipalities in Canada.
Residents — and local politicians — were often content to reserve their neighbourhoods for people like them.
“The general consensus is to allow mainly single-family dwellings,” former Vaughan mayor Lorna Jackson told the Star in 1985, “we want low density and so do the ratepayers.”
Provincial legislation aimed at preserving the Greenbelt and Oak Ridges Moraine in the 2000s protected pristine geological features and limited growth in York Region, making the area even more desirable for those seeking wide-open spaces.
In placid King, one of the latest frontiers for new development, the main thoroughfares are lined with billboards advertising high-end subdivisions. On Keele St., just south of King Rd., Aspen Ridge is selling its ritziest enclave yet out of a lavishly outfitted, 6,000-square-foot model home. Prices at King Oaks, which is marketed as “luxury estate living,” start at $1.2 million.
“It’s a testament to how much the 905 has grown,” said marketing manager Christene DeGasperis. “There was definitely demand for something with a level of luxury and a level of lot size that we haven’t seen.”
New clusters of poverty
Yet amid the wealth, a rise in precarious employment, soaring house prices and an influx of immigrants settling directly in York Region who struggle to find jobs commensurate with their skills, have contributed to a burgeoning contingent of residents stretching to make ends meet.
It’s a difficult proposition in a geographically diverse region with limited social services.
“If you’re up in Georgina, poor, with a transit system that is still growing and young, you’re stuck,” said DanieleZanotti, CEO of York Region United Way. “The social infrastructure has not kept pace with the physical infrastructure.”
For that reason, he said, low-income residents have begun to cluster in areas such as southern Markham, where those supports exist.
A lack of affordable housing is another major gap. As Hulchanski points out, the federal housing strategy and government incentives to build dedicated rental stock were both eliminated soon after York Region’s boom began.
While many local politicians are striving to address this shortage, NIMBYism remains a barrier.
In Richmond Hill, where nearly 7,000 households are waiting for social housing, the longest queue in the region, a new downtown youth shelter and social housing project faced fierce opposition before it was approved in June.
However, Lisa Gonsalves, York’s director of community and health services, said the region recognizes that a sea change has taken place.
“Even though we have the affluence that you see in York Region, there is an understanding of our council that is also growing around low-income,” she said.
Initiatives are underway to help newcomers connect with prospective employers, expand public transit, and raise awareness in local neighbourhoods about the needs of low-income residents, she said.
When it comes to creating more housing choices, York is reaching out to developers and pushing for the provincial and federal government to reintroduce incentives to build rental units.
“Government can’t do it alone. There needs to be a significant investment by the private sector into the rental market,” Gonsalves said.
Change can’t come soon enough for Bell. Last year, Blue Door turned away 5,500 people due to a lack of available beds — a five-fold increase over 2010.
Looking out over the farm fields surrounding the playground behind the family shelter, she said she hopes the rows of crops will one day be replaced by modest townhouses and rental units.
“I’ve noticed what’s being built,” Bell said. “My plea to developers is to look to affordable housing.”
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Rachel Mendleson
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