Shelter system lawsuit heading to court
Advocates calling for centres to meet physical distancing standards
At the monthly Toronto homeless memorial service on Tuesday afternoon, Greg Cook added two names to the list, including Joseph Chibala, the first person in the city’s shelter system to die from COVID-19.
“The government must act,” said Cook, an outreach worker at Sanctuary Ministries. “There are thousands of empty hotel rooms available. And frankly, hundreds if not thousands of people stuck on the street.” Overcrowding and unsafe conditions in the shelter system continue in May, more than eight weeks since the province first declared a state of emergency, said Cook.
There have now been at least 329 cases in the shelter system, which has nine active outbreaks, according to the city’s latest numbers.
Sanctuary is part of a coalition of public interest groups that has filed a lawsuit against the city and province alleging both have failed to make shelter conditions safe for the vulnerable homeless population, and that the efforts being made to relocate people out of shelters and into hotel rooms and housing are happening too slowly and for too few people.
“This is a pandemic that should demand a significant response so people can stay safe,” said Cook.
A hearing is set for the end of the month, seeking a court order for city shelters and respite centres to meet physical distancing standards, including having beds at least two metres (six feet) apart and banning the use of bunk beds.
The suit also alleges the province has failed to use available powers under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act and the Health Protection and Promotion Act to force action and provide resources, as it has with long-term care and other congregate living settings.
In risking the lives of shelter system users, the lawsuit argues, the city and the province are violating the “constitutional rights to life, security of the person and equality of Toronto’s most vulnerable residents.”
At the heart of the application is a new constitutional question: is there a right to have a safe place to self-isolate during a pandemic?
The city maintains there is a six-feet distance “between beds for physical distancing in 95 per cent of the shelter system.”
And a city spokesperson said as of Monday, 2,475 people have been relocated to achieve physical distancing in shelters. This includes moving 1,166 people into hotel rooms, 87 into interim housing and 675 into permanent housing. About 500 people have been moved into temporary respite centres.
Plans are also being made to move more people into permanent housing, including the construction of 110 modular housing units by September, and rental loans and subsidy programs are also being expanded.
However, court documents filed last week in support of the lawsuit argue at least 3,000 to 3,500 shelter residents need to be relocated to achieve physical distancing. According to the documents, the applicants are still seeking to obtain the information the city relied on to reach their stated estimate of 2,000.
A letter from the city in the lawsuit filing dated May 1 states that the estimate is based on a mid-March assessment of existing floor space at all shelter locations. “We are advised that staff included additional spaces in their estimate to account for unforeseen circumstances. We are still making inquiries about documentation,” the letter said.
The province was added to the lawsuit as a respondent on April 29. Neither the city nor the province have filed responses yet.
Both levels of government have acted too slowly so far to create safe conditions in shelters, said Jessica Orkin, the lead lawyer on the court application. “We have a number of examples where the city is saying they are sufficiently distanced, but when we look at how the layout is done, it’s not in our view,” she said.
It remains unclear whether those allegedly overcrowded locations are among the 95 per cent considered to be safe by the city, she said.
Orkin said she hopes the court process will improve the “clarity and transparency” of what the city and province are doing.
The province so far has only issued guidelines for shelters, but the application requests stronger measures.
“Some additional pressure and resources from the province could bring about the change needed more rapidly,” she said.
That could include funding for thousands more hotel rooms and other spaces, and increased testing in the shelter system.
On April 30, city council formally requested the province support Toronto’s efforts through funding, proactive testing and the establishment of a regional Greater Toronto Area plan for isolation and recovery spaces.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing said the province has “taken decisive action to support the services that help our most vulnerable populations.”
He noted that the province is providing $39 million to Toronto as part of a social services relief fund to support vulnerable groups.
One of the affidavits submitted with the court application last week came from Doug Johnson Hatlem, a street pastor with Sanctuary Ministries, which launched the lawsuit along with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Aboriginal Legal Services, Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, Black Legal Action Centre, and HIV and AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario.
Hatlem, who has long advocated against overcrowding in shelters, began documenting and publicizing conditions starting the week after the province declared a state of emergency on March 17.
Some of the problems have been fixed, but a visit at the end of April to the Dixon Hall Respite after an outbreak was declared found beds that were not separated by six feet, he said in the affidavit.
Between April 30 and May 3, Hatlem inquired about physical distancing at several shelters and respite centres. He found that six were meeting the safety standards and eight were not.
And as of May 1, he said, several shelters were still reporting near full capacity. Among them was Salvation Army Evangeline, where an outbreak was declared on April 30. There are 21 positive cases so far at the women’s shelter, according to the latest city numbers for the nine active outbreaks in the shelter system.
Toronto Public Health did not confirm whether all shelter residents were tested, or how many shelters had done mass testing.
A resident at Evangeline who was moved to self-isolation at a different shelter over the weekend, told the Star she had felt unsafe at the location for weeks and only returned to sleep there so as not to lose her bed.
She said beds in the shared rooms at the shelter are much closer together than six feet.
She believes she was exposed to COVID-19 while doing her laundry on one of the few occasions she was there during the day.
At the two St. Felix Centre respite locations there are still too many people cramped too close together and there isn’t enough testing happening, said Tommy Taylor, a shelter worker and affordable housing advocate who has been doing relief shifts there. St. Felix is known for taking the most vulnerable people in the system, who don’t follow rules or find it difficult to do so, he said.
“The risk is so incredible,” he said. “But it seems like because of the population we serve we aren’t seeing the alarm bells raised.”