THE DOWNTOWN EAST COMES TOGETHER TO ADVOCATE FOR MORE SAFE, INDOOR SPACES FOR FOLKS EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS

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The Downtown East Advocacy Letter calls for urgent, temporary action by The City and others during the COVID-19 winter but also for long term solutions for people experiencing homelessness and Toronto’s housing crisis.

The Canadian winter is a force to be reckoned with, one that thousands of folks experiencing homelssness unfortunately have to face each year living on the streets. This puts many at not only risk of frostbite but death as well. This first pandemic winter of 2021, made things even worse for unhoused people, as doors were literally shut on them due to COVID-19 closures by the City of previously existing out of the cold sanctuaries like community centres and warming centre programs were suspended indefinitely. A questionable decision by the City and its staff given that many of these vulnerable folks end up at already overburdened hospitals with serious injuries and no place else to go after.

This is one of the issues outlined in the Downtown East Advocacy Letter, a document drafted and signed mid-February 2021 by multiple organizations in the Downtown East who work with, advocate and care for street homeless folks. The letter was a compelling call for the city to mobilize its resources to reopen indoor public spaces, create more spaces and get people off the streets and safe from winter, COVID19 and ultimately homelessness, pointing out that closures “disproportionately affect(s) racialized people, especially Black and Indigenous people”.

Signatory agencies and organizations include The Sherbourne Health Centre, Seeds of Hope, Street Haven, Fred Victor, Yonge Street Mission, the 519, Dixon Hall, Building Roots and the All Saints Church-Community Centre among many others. With the dire pandemic circumstances, they have seen a significant rise in street homelessness as well as frostbite cases this winter, and as Priest Director Alison Falby from the All Saint Church-Community Centre told Regent Park TV, their hands are tied when it comes to supporting the increased number of folks in need. The City’s closures of public indoor spaces and programs, has put a serious strain on these agencies while their capacity to help has significantly decreased due to COVID19 restrictions. Some, if not all of these agencies have been tirelessly working and adapting since the start of the pandemic.

The letter, addressed to multiple government officials and agencies as well as related organizations, proposes two temporary solutions for folks to make it through the winter. One: “keep all four City warming centres plus Metro Hall open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of temperature” at least until the end of March while also supplying free shuttle services to these spaces. Two: Reopen suspended public facilities like Community Centres and City-owned buildings in the Downtown East, which have more adequate hygiene infrastructure. Signatories also offer to work with the City to share best practices in reopening these facilities.

Lastly and most importantly, the Downtown East advocacy letter recognizes that although temporary solutions are needed in response to the crisis, more long term and permanent solutions to homelessness must be created. This means addressing Toronto’s longstanding housing crisis head on and creating permanent sustainable housing for people experiencing homelessness in Toronto.

Shelters and shelter hotels, the latter an initiative on which the City spent a fortune on this winter, are not only not temporary, they are not enough, with roughly 8,000 unhoused folks in Toronto in 2021 and 6,000 shelter/shelter hotel spaces. These shelter systems are only addressing the symptom and not the cause of the problem; poverty, lack of affordable housing and policy to undertake these crises.

The signatories feel that our City can do better to take care of its most vulnerable residents, it is time to stop regulating homelessness and work to eradicate it once and for all.

For more information visit https://youtu.be/IxrPc6GPow8

 

Written by
Ana Higuera

Journalist
FOCUS Media Arts Centre
 




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