Founded in 1967 as a means to assert resident participation in any renewal plans for their neighbourhood, the Don Vale Residents Association became a powerful political force in the late 1960s. Several of its more outspoken members, Karl Jaffary and James Lorimer being two of its more well-known members, would go on to have a major influence on city politics.

Although all of those involved in the Don Valley Ratepayers Association approved of citizen participation in any urban renewal plans, different factions within the neighbourhood disagreed over the best form of the development. Prior to the 1960s Don Vale had been a mostly working-class neighbourhood but over the course of the decade a new contingent of middle-class residents began to move in and fix up the area's older homes. Tensions developed between the long-standing working-class population of homeowners, the newer middle-class homeowners and mostly working-class renters. These factions led to a split in the ratepayers association when member Dorothy Gladwin formed the Ward Two Property Owners' Association with others who favoured privately owned high-rise development in the neighbourhood. Gladwin claimed the Ratepayers Association was run by new middle-class residents and tenants and claimed that her Property Owners Association represented the long-standing community of working-class homeowners. In 1969 the Ratepayers association experienced another split when rooming house tenant Norman Browne formed an independent tenants association to ensure that any plan maintained low-income housing. Finally, in late 1969 the Ratepayers and Property owners reconciled to form the Don Vale Association of Homeowners and Residents.

Tensions resumed in 1973 over the DACHI (Don Valley Co-operative Housing, Inc) proposal to build a subsidized co-op in the neighbourhood. This re-opened the conflict between the three factions and led to a protracted battle over whether or not to build subsidized housing and what the rental rates would be. In the end the DACHI co-op was completed and residents began to move in during the mid-1970s.

Janice Dineen, The Trouble with Co-ops (Toronto: Green Tree Publishing, 1974).

Kevin Brushett, "Blots on the Face of the City: The Politics of Slum Housing and Urban Renewal in Toronto 1940-1970" (PhD diss., Queen's University, 2001)