Ford should help T.O. out of its hole
On the crest of every pandemic wave, Torontonians are asked to make personal choices to protect themselves from COVID-19. Avoid crowds. Physically distance. Isolate.
But there is one demographic that is consistently punished for taking this public health advice to heart: Toronto’s homeless population.
This past summer, the city spent nearly $2 million clearing encampments in major parks where, understandably, several residents said they’d rather live than inside congregate settings vulnerable to virus outbreaks.
City officials are fond of citing health factors when they make the case that homeless people should move inside. Local carpenter Khaleel Seivwright’s Tiny Shelters are dangerous, they say. Living outside in general is dangerous, they say.
Living outside can shorten a person’s life span, they say.
So can COVID-19.
Amid sub-zero January temperatures in which many Torontonians are hesitant to let their dogs into the backyard, there were 50 COVID-19 outbreaks across Toronto’s shelter system.
This month at Seaton House a resident died after testing positive for the virus. And people wonder why those without homes don’t “just go inside.”
“Being able to stay home and say you have one is probably the most important Canadian social value next to our love of medicare,” nurse and homelessness advocate Cathy Crowe told Toronto’s Board of Health this week.
“This has never been truer than in a pandemic. It’s why I argue that our city, but also the board of health, must advocate for a federal emergency rent supplement program in the thousands to be able to transition people from shelters and the street and encampments, into safe housing while we wait for social housing.”
Crowe began her deputation, fittingly, with a story about a snow.
During a January 1999 snowstorm, then-mayor Mel Lastman called the army into Toronto, a decision mocked far and wide. But Crowe has a more charitable view of that decision.
“Yes, the army was called into Toronto,” she said. “But it was also in part because the board of health was meeting, and there were many homeless deputants there that day calling for more shelter. And the armoury was opened. The federal armoury.”
In other words, calling upon other branches of government in the service of keeping people safe and warm wasn’t a bad idea then and it’s not a bad idea now.
Fortunately, some city leaders agree.
On Monday, Toronto’s Board of Health approved motions calling on the federal government to “immediately expand the Rent Supplement Program so that it can be delivered to all people experiencing homelessness or who are precariously housed and fully utilize the powers under the Federal Emergencies Act” to secure or maintain existing shelter hotel space.
The board of health is also calling “for the provincial government to provide secure and long-term funding for Toronto’s supportive housing expansion program starting in 2022.”
Whether such a call results in action is another story.
Keep in mind that on the same squally day, Toronto’s board of health met to discuss policy that could curb Ontario’s housing crisis, Premier Doug Ford was driving around the city shovelling residents’ cars out of ditches for cameras and FaceTiming a media station from behind the wheel of his car.
At the risk of insulting a good samaritan, I have to wonder if the premier’s resources would have been better spent in his own office, digging the province out of a ditch.
After all, Dr. Andrew Boozary, the executive director of health and social policy at UHN, is correct when he says that homelessness in a pandemic in a major city like Toronto is an issue that demands intervention and funding from every level of government.
“Again we’re seeing people having to use public transport as a place to keep warm and stay overnight,” Boozary said referring to a photo that went viral over the weekend featuring several people slumped over trying to keep warm on a city bus in the middle of the night.
Last week, Boozary signed a “call to action” statement alongside doctors and activists on behalf of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, demanding, “urgent and simultaneous action at all levels” of government.
“There’s money for highways and police budgets,” he says. “But there’s not enough money for human beings experiencing homelessness? This is not a question of resources. We’ve seen how quickly we can mobilize in the pandemic. This is wilful neglect.”
But hey, at least somebody’s car is out of a ditch.
There’s money for highways and police budgets. But there’s not enough money for human beings experiencing homelessness? … This is wilful neglect. — Dr. Andrew Boozary, at UHN