Watchdog to probe clearing of homeless encampments
Investigation to focus on planning and the city’s communication with the public
Toronto’s new ombudsman — the independent watchdog that reviews staff actions — will investigate the city’s clearing of homeless encampments.
“The investigation will focus on how the city of Toronto planned the encampment clearings, engaged stakeholders and communicated with the public, as well as the policies and procedures that guided its actions,” according to a press release Tuesday from the office of ombudsman Kwame Addo, whose term in office began Aug. 23. He was previously interim ombudsman for the city and director of investigations for the office.
Behind the scenes, the Star has learned the city has quietly been trying a new approach to encampments.
The ombudsman investigation was spurred by several complaints to the ombudsman about the clearings, Addo said in the release.
It will not cover the Toronto police, who were criticized for a heavy-handed approach to protesters. “This is beyond the mandate of Ombudsman Toronto,” according to the press release.
The news of an investigation comes ahead of a council meeting where councillors Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 13 Toronto Centre), Josh Matlow (Ward 12 Toronto-St. Paul’s) and Mike Layton (Ward 11 University-Rosedale) will request more information from staff about the clearings and call for a judicial inquiry into recent clearings.
The city has cleared numerous encampments throughout 2021, including large parks and smaller roadside medians.
To clear the bigger encampments in Trinity Bellwoods Park, Alexandra Park and Lamport Stadium Park, the city says it spent nearly $2 million — including $840,127 for city and private security, police, fire and paramedics, plus the removal of debris and personal protective equipment. Another $792,668 was spent on cleanup and remediation, while the city said it cost $357,000 to put fences up around the former encampment sites.
Mayor John Tory has supported the encampment clearings, citing health and safety risks to living outside, while saying that the shelter system provides a “pathway to permanent housing.”
But city data showed that only nine per cent of former camp occupants who came into the shelter system between March 13, 2020 and July 15, 2021 — or 139 of 1,536 former camp occupants — had moved into permanent or temporary homes.
Since August, the city appears to have expanded its outreach and housing efforts at a remaining encampment in the west end Dufferin Grove Park.
“It’s been a different approach the last two months,” said Sanctuary Ministries outreach worker Doug Johnson Hatlem. “They’ve been doing ID clinics and taxes for people. They’re calling it something of a pilot project, but this is really the original approach, and why they called it Streets to Homes — the idea of getting people straight from outside into housing.”
Coun. Ana Bailão, who represents the area, said the effort to house occupants of the camp has involved numerous community, housing and health organizations. She told the Star she was now also visiting the camp weekly.
“It’s like any community — you have different needs,” Bailão said when asked about the approach. “When you talk about encampments, not everybody has the same need and not everybody is in the same place.”
Winter was fast approaching, she noted.
She also stressed that the outreach in Dufferin Grove wasn’t entirely new, but an escalation of past strategies that she hopes is also taking place in other parks around the city.
“I think there is more of a hands-on approach and more of an individualized approach that we started with Dufferin Grove, but I think it’s definitely happening in other parks as well,” she said.
At least one person moved this week into a permanent home, Johnson Hatlem said. He lauded the approach as more effective, but worried that, as people in other camps heard about the project, the city might see more tents in Dufferin Grove and interpret them as a failure of the new approach.
He said he hopes decision-makers don’t use the size of a camp as a metric for success, but rather, how many people had willingly moved inside.
“Some people have accepted hotel shelter space, and now they’re actually moving people far enough along in the process that they’re getting into housing,” he said. “For our people who wouldn’t accept shelter hotels or other shelter spaces, working with the city … it’s really working and highly successful.”
In an email, the city said that between Aug. 11 and Sept. 27, five occupants of the Dufferin Grove encampment had signed leases and been given unit keys, while 11 were going to viewings or lease signings. Identification was processed and obtained for 15 people staying in the park, the city added.
Members of the public can write to the ombudsman about this investigation by emailing EncampmentsOmbudsman@toronto.ca or by phone at 416392-7062.