City pressed to act on homelessness
Eight more names added to memorial for January and February
With her forehead resting in her right hand, Rachel Robinson quietly wept as her friend was included among the names of the dead read out at Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity on Tuesday. Robinson had come to the church to take part in a monthly memorial for people who have died from issues tied to homelessness, including exposure, poverty, violence, illness, addiction and neglect.
Eight people, including three women, were added for January and February, along with longtime housing advocate William Easter and several people who died in 2018. In some cases, in this ceremony and as it has been done in the past, the only marker used is Jane or John Doe.
“It’s a lot of John Does and that makes me so sad,” Robinson, 46, said after the service. “Everybody needs a name. Everybody needs an identity. Everybody needs all these things just so that they can get through life. Being a John Doe, goodness gracious, that is just so sad.” Among those named was Robinson’s friend Crystal Papineau, 35, who died after she was trapped inside a clothing donation bin, and Hang Vo, 58, crushed by a garbage truck as she slept on a grate.
After the memorial, attendees marched to city hall to deliver an open letter to Mayor John Tory and paper hearts bearing the names of over 100 dead.
Homelessness and affordable housing were already on the official agenda with the discussion of a new Toronto housing market analysis during the morning session of the planning and housing committee.
The report, prepared at the request of the city’s affordable housing office, was produced by the Canadian Centre of Economic Analysis and the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) using 24 key housing indicators.
The results were “grim,” the authors concluded. Among key findings, 87 per cent of low-income households, with incomes of $30,000 or less, were paying more than 30 per cent on shelter costs. Much of the new rental stock is coming through the secondary market, mostly condos, and those high monthly costs mean middle-income earners are blocked from ownership, the authors wrote.
“Unremedied, the housing situation in Toronto will produce consequential challenges for equity, cohesion, and economic prosperity in the city,” they wrote.
Speaking to the committee, CUI director Jeff Evenson said many factors — including desiring easier access to services — mean people are cramming into certain parts of the city.
“There is no release valve for that, so we get increasing numbers of people in unsuitable situations,” including overcrowding or renting places they can’t afford, he said.