Faulkner tried to end his homelessness, inquest hears

Social housing application process was not completed before man’s 2015 death

Grant Faulkner took formal steps to end his homelessness by applying for social housing — which has a waiting list of 80,000 to 90,000 households looking for affordable places to live in Toronto — three months before his fiery death in a Scarborough field.

Faulkner, 49, died on a sub-zero January night before he had a chance to complete his social housing application process, a coroner’s jury heard Tuesday. It the second day of an inquest into the circumstances surrounding the father of three’s death.

Faulkner had been living on about $220 a month in social assistance payments and was sleeping rough in tents aaand makeshift shelters, and periodically at his on-again-off-again girlfriend’s home. On Jan.13, 2015, his plywood shelter, which was part of an encampment behind a business near the intersection of McCowan Rd. and Sheppard Ave., caught fire and he perished.

This inquest and an upcoming investigation into the death of Brad Chapman, 43, are the first probes since 2007 to examine how and why homeless people died while living in Toronto.

The inquest for Chapman, who died on Aug. 26, 2015, after he was found without vital signs in a downtown alcove near the Chelsea Hotel, was scheduled for early July at the Forensic Services and Coroner’s Complex but that date has been pushed back. Chapman was rushed to hospital and — although his belongings included paperwork with his name on it — listed as a John Doe.

On Tuesday, Gordon Tanner, the city of Toronto’s director of Homelessness Ini- tiatives and Prevention, was questioned about the city’s social housing wait list by Karen Andrews, lawyer for the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario. Tanner called the social housing wait list “extraordinarily long” and said city outreach staff still work hard to get precariously housed people like Faulkner to sign up.

“That is one of the pillars of what we do with individuals who are living outside; we want to make sure every individual has an application for supportive housing or for social housing,” Tanner testified.

“Although wait times are extraordinarily long, getting that application in aaand making sure people are on the list a are paramount for us.”

Tanner testified that because Faulkner did not finish his application process, he was never placed on the social housing waiting list. Tanner was one of three witnesses who testified Tuesday.

Dr. David Eden is presiding over this inquest, which heard Monday that Faulkner’s life began to unravel when he lost his job at an automotive parts manufacturer in Cambridge and his mar- riage ended. He moved to Toronto to look for steady employment and housing, which was difficult for him to obtain.

On Monday, Prabhu Rajan, counsel for the coroner, told the inquest that a pathologist determined Faulkner had died of smoke inhalation. Elevated alcohol levels were found in the man’s blood, a pathologist also found.