Help sought in search for missing homeless men
About a dozen have recently disappeared, but no pattern has been found
Concern is growing for several street-involved men who have recently gone missing.
Since late May, there have been about 12 or 13 individuals who have vanished without a trace.
Some have since turned up, but as of late Tuesday afternoon, there are six homeless men — all of whom frequent the downtown Toronto area — that remain unaccounted for.
Longtime outreach worker Greg Cook knows or recognizes many of them.
“I started noticing (homeless men disappearing) in late May,” said Cook, who has worked at Sanctuary Toronto since 2009.
Cook said initially, he saw some missing persons posts by Toronto police on Twitter and recognized a few of the men from the streets.
After chatting with some of his colleagues and others who work and interact with people experiencing homelessness, Cook said he learned there were about a dozen men without homes who had recently disappeared.
Some of those missing men have not been reported to police.
“It’s not completely unusual for (homeless) people to go missing, but not that many at one time,” he told toronto.com Monday night.
Cook, who said he doesn’t see any kind of pattern at this point, has compiled and is regularly updating a list of street-involved men who have gone missing and those who have been found.
He attributes the rise in missing men to the fact most dropin centres and outreach programs have been closed due to physical distancing and increased health and safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Toronto’s shelter system is also in a state of flux as several facilities have closed and/or relocated in the past three or so months.
“Currently, not many drop-ins are open. People are going where they can to find what they need,” he said.
“The landscape is different, definitely — things are very different now.”
Because of this shift, he said, it’s more important now than ever to find creative ways to stay in touch with street-involved people, to help them access the supports they need.
“I just feel like we need to do our due diligence,” Cook said.
On Monday night, the Toronto Drop-In Network (TDIN), which brings together almost 60 drop-in centres throughout Toronto that serve people who are homeless, marginally housed or socially isolated, held a virtual meeting with some of its stakeholders to discuss outreach strategies, especially when it comes to individuals living in encampments. The recent influx of missing men was also on the agenda.
“We have to connect with these people. How can we do that?” said Diana McNally, the organization’s training and engagement co-ordinator.
Today, the TDIN met with the city’s shelter support and housing administration to discuss these concerns and share ideas. The group is also calling on the city to stop dismantling homeless encampments, which they say are actually safer than staying in a shelter.
As of June 8, there are nine active COVID-19 outbreaks at shelters in Toronto.
To date, there have been a total of 556 positive COVID-19 cases linked to shelter outbreaks.
Like Cook, McNally said she knows some of the missing men very well and is worried about their well-being.
She said she grew especially concerned when a few of them didn’t pick up their monthly government-issued cheque.
“It’s incredibly unusual for them to not come and pick that up,” she said late Monday afternoon.
McNally also said the increasing prevalence of lethal street drugs is something she thinks about often.
On Friday night, two of her clients died from a drug overdose.
“We’re no longer able to have daily contact (with these folks). People are on the move a lot more than usual lately,” she said.
“The typical places they may go are closed. A lot of familiar faces are not around as much as before. A lot of folks we know we haven’t seen for a while.”
Both McNally and Cook said when a homeless person goes missing, outreach workers and organizations contact authorities to help track them down, to find out if they’ve secured housing, if they’ve contracted COVID-19 and are receiving treatment, or if they’re in trouble with the law, among other things.
Currently, Toronto police are looking for three missing men:
Lebohang “Toby” Nicol, 39, was last seen May 15 near Augusta and Oxford streets;
Robert “Rob” Doyle, 50, was last seen June 6 near Jarvis and Shuter streets;
Christopher McBride, 33, was last seen June 7 near Queen and Power streets.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416808-2222, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477) or online at 222tips.com.
There are also three missing men who have not been reported to police:
An individual named John, who is known to frequent the Toronto Music Garden near the foot of Spadina Avenue. This man has been missing for about three weeks and may be staying at an encampment along the Lakeshore.
Bruce Bathgate, who was featured in the film “Lowdown Tracks,” hasn’t been seen for a few months.
An individual known as Jed, who is believed to have served in the military and was staying at an encampment near Bathurst Street, disappeared a month ago.