Edward Keenan: When it’s this cold, ‘all measures’ must be taken,
Shelter system is full to overflowing, as advocates call out for opening of armouries
It’s been cold out there.
Cold enough that the annual Polar Bear Dip at Sunnyside Beach, an event specifically designed to show defiance against the frigid winter weather, was cancelled due to frozen conditions.
Cold enough to cause havoc at Pearson airport, where hundreds of flights have been cancelled due to the deep freeze.
Cold enough that the New Year’s Eve celebration at City Hall were shortened to just a half-hour long, with planned concerts and skating events cancelled.
“The city is taking all measures to protect the health and safety of the public, artists, volunteers and event staff,” the city government said in a news release announcing the scaling back of festivities. And understandably so. After all, it’s fr-fr-fr-freezing c-c-c-cold.
But really, it isn’t performers and partiers whose health and safety seem most endangered. I’m most concerned about the people living on the streets. Is the city “taking all measures to protect the health and safety” of the homeless?
One measure it isn’t taking is opening armouries at Moss Park and Fort York as emergency shelters.
And that is the one thing that homeless advocates such as street nurse Cathy Crowe, Raffi Aaron of the Interfaith Coalition to Fight Homelessness, Gaétan Héroux of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and 35,000 petition signatories have demanded.
The minister of defence has offered their use. Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam proposed the concept formally to city council. A majority of council voted against it in early December. Council decided instead to pursue other avenues, including opening new shelter bed space at the Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place. Mayor John Tory has said repeatedly the city’s shelter staff advise the armouries are unsuitable, and that other options the city is pursuing are better. He continues to say that.
Even as, in this bitter cold, the shelter system appears pretty much full. Family shelters have been at 100 per cent capacity every night recently, women’s and youth shelters at 97 or 98 per cent — pretty much all shelters consistently over 94 per cent. The city has a target of shelters operating at 90 per cent capacity or less, because they are when over that capacity, it means people find beds unavailable — the low percentage that remain may not actually be suitable or accessible for a particular person. Hundreds of people per night stay in “warming centres” and other drop-ins where often conditions are reported to be inhumane.
Those seeking to find shelter spaces have been told there is no room available. Multiple reports from activists and journalists say they were told when they called or visited that the system was full and no beds were available.
There has been some kind of confusing — and frankly, enraging — back-and-forth discussion involving the mayor’s office and some city staff publicly quibbling about “miscommunication” here — saying that space was available at times when the word went out to those looking for a warm place to spend that night that no beds were open.
I say it is enraging because whether it is an actual lack of beds or some kind of communication breakdown, the effect is that people looking for a place are told that one is not available — which means that for them, it is not.
On Tuesday afternoon, Toronto Ombudsman Susan Opler announced she would launch an inquiry into the communications issues and “the cold-weather needs of the city’s homeless, and whether the city is providing services in a way that ensures people’s dignity, safety and comfort.”
Paul Raftis, the shelter division’s interim manager, also announced he had ordered a review of communication issues.
In the meantime, we already know shelter demand is up 30 per cent this year. We know the shelter system is at or very near capacity — in a way that means, functionally, that there is sometimes no space for people when and where they need it. And we know all too well that it is freaking freezing outside.
Are we taking “all measures” to keep the homeless from spending the night outside?
No. I don’t think it’s possible to say we are.
I don’t know exactly how or why opening the armouries became the sole immediate focus of advocacy. They have been used before (in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004), they’re centrally located and they have showers and cots.
Still, it’s not clear to me why support for using them as emergency homeless shelters has become the one recognized litmus test for compassion.
But I do know that when it’s this cold outside, and people are at obvious risk of freezing to death, and our shelter system is full enough that it is difficult to find space to stay, then we ought to open warm places. We have community centres with gyms and showers in every neighbourhood of the city. We have libraries and civic centres. We have City Hall and the great hall of Union Station and thousands of square feet of convention and exhibition space. We have heated buildings the city owns that sit mostly empty at night. If people are freezing, let them in.
You know, if we’re taking “all measures.” Or, at the very least, we have the armouries, which have become the most obvious of options due to the strong advocacy of so many people with experience on the front lines. The armouries are large and they are close to where many homeless people already spend their days and nights. Perhaps, as the mayor and city staff say, they are not ideal. But they most certainly are better than nothing.
If someone freezes to death on the street while the shelter system is virtually overflowing, and while we as a city have refused to do the one thing activists have been asking us to do, we’ll have a hard time looking at ourselves in the mirror and claiming we did what we could.
There’s a lot we could do, if we are serious about recognizing this as an emergency, and protecting lives and safety is our priority. It’s been cold, and it’s going to be cold. The forecast for the end of this week shows a high — a high! — of -17 C on Friday. We know people are looking for a warm place to sleep. We need to find them one, now. Edward Keenan writes on city issues ekeenan@thestar.ca. Follow: @thekeenanwire