SAFE & INCLUSIVE STREETS Social innovation through partnership

Pauline Larsen PC Dave McAllister Senior Economic Development Manager Neighbourhood Patrol Officer Downtown Yonge BIA 51 Division Police Service ADVOCACY Re-position Downtown

DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS Re-develop Downtown BUSINESS RETENTION/RECRUITMENT Re-occupy Downtown

BEAUTIFICATION Re-make Downtown

MARKETING & DECORATION Raise awareness and expectations

FESTIVALS EVENTS Refamiliarize/reclaim Downtown

DOWNTOWN MAINTENANCE “CLEAN & SAFE” Meet basic expectations/Match competitions offerings

COPYRIGHT DOWNTOWN YONGE BIA Canada’s iconic street and its neighbourhood THE CONTEXT HAS ALWAYS BEEN TORONTO’S STREET… …AND YONGE STREET IS STILL TORONTO’S STREET TODAY… Established along iconic Yonge Street in 2001 • LIVE: +175,000 residents within a 10- minute walk, growing by 43% 2009- 2024 • SHOP: 3.5 million sf of mall and streetfront retail • WORK: +500,000 workers come into the district daily • LEARN: 110,000 students and faculty at Ryerson University • INVEST: $5 billion of commercial real estate; 44 road and infrastructure projects and private developments • RIDE: 52 million passengers at three largest downtown subway stations • WALK: 42 million pedestrians a year northbound and southbound on Yonge Street at Dundas

Prepared by the Downtown Yonge BIA And why does the BIA care? WHY SAFE & INCLUSIVE? Place-making metrics

Use and Activity • # of ads for sale and rental properties naming public space as an amenity Economic Impact • Increased assessed property values • Net number of businesses entering the district • Vacancy rates for retail & office space Public Health & Living • Crime statistics • Traffic counts Social Capital • Number of friends on the streets • Rates of volunteerism • Diversity and geographic range of users of public space

Source: DUSP, MIT Here are some examples in action

Supporting the Yonge Street Mission at public consultations in their new neighbourhood

Hiring staff from Employment programs

• In 2015, we hired three contract workers from YSM; one is now a permanent employee • Tapped into $11,000 of employment subsidies

Volunteer listings to support local charities

• Currently updated seasonally, with a focus on YSM and Covenant House and the YWCA

Building charitable partnerships

• Raising the Roof (Winter Magic); Tokens for Change (YWS) Developing a social enterprise as a revenue stream to reinvest back into Downtown Yonge AS YONGE STREET EVOLVES, HOW DO WE KEEP IT SAFE & INCLUSIVE?

Safety 3.30%

Community Homelessness Building 6.30% 14%

Diversity & Inclusion 4% Other research observations

20% of TO adults live in poverty, 25% of kids

Costly and unsustainable approach to poverty using healthcare, shelters and jails (more later)

More than 5,000 people homeless on one night in Toronto

DYBIA identified about 20% of street-involved individuals displaying unsafe behaviours

Homelessness and panhandling raised as concerns in various stakeholder surveys and research projects

Source: City of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, 2016 and Street Needs Assessment, 2013 Priority 5 – Make Downtown Yonge a truly inclusive neighbourhood

Increase the number Prioritize safe streets, Work to provides social and scope of charity laneways, parks and supports for under- events in the sidewalks served citizens neighbourhood.

Advocate for more Actively support mixed-income housing Streets to Homes’ root options in area cause approach development. Challenges to Safe & Inclusive Streets

SAFE INCLUSIVE • A lack of reporting, not a • Poverty is not a crime decrease in crime • Risk of a revolving door • Incidence of mental effect health and substance use • Lots of good programs, issues but often face • Lack of knowledge about fragmented and prioritization of calls competitive funding • Lack of understanding • Under-supply of about legal framework affordable housing and shelter beds In one night in the City of Toronto…

There are 5,253 homeless individuals:

244 447 4326 236 in correctional on the street in shelters In healthcare facilities facilities $100pp/night $64.40pp/night $363.33pp/night $144.43pp/night

$17,000 $278,594 $85,747 $35,242

$416,583.00 per night

To provide social housing for 5,253 individuals: $34,985 per night Tools for BIAs HOW TO CHANGE THE CONVERSATION Drop-in Resource guide

• Goal: Connect people in need with local drop-in services to address street-based issues • Change the conversation between businesses and street-involved individuals • Partnership with Ryerson’s Faculty of Community Studies – and more than 20 drop-in programs around Yonge & Dundas • Leverage member and stakeholder engagement for distribution and use: social media channels, website download, • 309 distributed in the first month – to Streets to Homes, police, streetfront businesses, institutional property owners, security teams, transport facilities, social agencies • 1,500 distributed by the end of September (3x more than originally expected) • The project will be part of Ryerson’s social innovation curriculum going forward •

Social Media Reach 94 engagements 84 post clicks 59,700 potential impressions 8,500 people reached (July 26-August 4) How to Report a Crime Infographic

• Partnership with 51 and 52 Divisions to ensure accurate and appropriate reporting • Provide supporting data on neighbourhood issues • Collaboration with surrounding BIA’s (Entertainment, St. Lawrence Market, Cabbagetown, Chinatown, Waterfront and Church Wellesley) • Now being translated into Cantonese and Mandarin • 53, 54 and 55 Divisions are all using the infographic and more than 5,000 copies have been distributed to police alone • Distributed to members, neighbourhood associations - but also leveraged the YIPIs (Youth In Policing Initiative) distribute to streetfront businesses • DYBIA partners with 51 and 52 Division to provide focused support for individual member properties Crime Infographic Police – Business – Social agencies SAFE & INCLUISVE THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS A new approach…or an old one?

Peel’s Principles

• The basic mission of the police is to prevent crime & disorder • The ability of the police to perform their duties depends on public approval of police actions • Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public • The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force. • Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to the public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.

Source: New York Times, 2014 A new approach…or an old one?

Peel’s Principles

• Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient. • Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence. • Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary. • The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

Source: New York Times, 2014 A community approach to Safe & Inclusive Streets

Public Police Infrastructure (Security) (Inclusive)

Community

Neighbourhood Current Safe & Inclusive initiatives

Partnered Partnered Seniors outreach with outreach with identification Aboriginal Elders Streets to Homes program

Weekly Yonge Street check-in Downtown East meetings with 51 Focus and 52 Division Partnered outreach initiatives

51 Division Neighbourhood Officers: • Partnering with an Aboriginal Elder and outreach works to engage street-involved Aboriginal adults downtown • Pilot started in Summer 2016 and takes place bi-weekly • Partnering with Streets to Home outreach workers to work with street-involved individuals • Pilot started in Summer 2016 Partnered outreach programs Seniors’ wallet program

• Started as an initiative in 51 Division with 250 wallets and inserts • Expanded to 52 Division with another 250 wallets and inserts • Now being funded and taken city-wide by the Alzheimer’s Society • Next order: 5,000 Seniors’ Information Wallets Weekly Yonge Street check-ins

• 51, 52, bylaw • Incident log pilot • Liaison with individual members on safe and inclusive issues • Data on used needles to police • Identify opportunities for CEPTED, trespass letters Discarded needles Monthly, 2016

160 Average per 140 month = 55 needles 120

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0 January February March April May June July August Downtown East FOCUS

• FOCUS (Furthering Our Communities, Uniting Services) • Innovative approach led by City of Toronto, United Way Toronto, Toronto Police Service, and local community organizations • Aims to reduce crime and improve community resiliency • Brings together existing community agencies to provide targeted, wraparound supports • Focuses Individuals, children, youth and families and places • Criteria focuses on acute, elevated risk – or cases with heightened levels of risk involving anti-social behaviour as well as victimization. Thank you!

Pauline Larsen P.C Dave McAllister Senior Economic Development Manager Neighbourhood Patrol Officer (416) 597-0255 ext. 231 416-808-5100 [email protected] [email protected]