Ambivalence is appropriate. Inaction is not.
The image above is obviously not from Toronto. The limitations of using public domain photos prevent me from finding something local to illustrate today’s topic. However, if you lived in the city last Summer, or watched any of the news coverage around the breaking up of the tent encampment in Trinity Bellwoods Park, then you will be aware of it.
In some ways, having an image from (I’m assuming based on the palm trees and highway adjacent placement) L.A. is appropriate. Afterall, most Torontonians don’t like to admit that we live in a city where homelessness is to the point where these type of camps become the best option for people.
No, that’s something that happens down there.
Except it doesn’t and it didn’t. A combination of COVID-19, rising housing costs and just the continued decaying of social services made the issue of encampments a hot topic of conversation in the Summer of 2021.
On a personal level, I saw it first hand. I live 5 min from the Trinity Bellwoods encampment that made global headlines last year. That encampment was the largest in the downtown area, partly because of its proximity to CAMH, Canada’s largest mental health and addictions hospital. The two were undoubtably linked.
I spend parts of nearly nearly every day in that park. I can tell you how many laps around it is 5km (4 1/4, using my route, if you are curious). It’s a vibrant and beloved piece of nature in an otherwise population dense part of the city.
I’m also a progressive, who has worked with disadvantaged populations in the past. I have empathy for the un-homed.
Yet, I will fully admit, that it was not always comfortable being in the park last Summer, particularly at night. The encampment was allowed to grow to the point where it wasn’t particularly safe for anyone.
So, I, like many in the area, was ambivalent about what needed to happen. On one hand, the people that were living there needed (and still need) help. On the other hand, taking a public space away from an already crowded city was not a solution.
Neither was the military-like response of Toronto Police to bust up the encampment (and then fence it off for six months, so you still couldn’t use the space). What that was, was the action of a council and a Police Force that didn’t have a plan or will to find difficult solutions to fix this very real and growing problem.
There’s no evidence that, a year later, they have come closer to finding a plan either. At the final council meeting of the term, a report on what possibly to do was accepted by council, but there has been no real concrete action over that year.
In fact, if you read the transcript on the debate about accepting the report, the attitudes that lead us to here remain — those attitudes? Indifference bordering on hostility for the un-homed coupled with a belief that the heavy hand of law enforcement is the way to address the inconveniences that causes to us. Council is kicking the can down the road to the next term and there’s little confidence that the next encampment that pops up will be handled any better than the last one was.
Look, I am not deluded enough to think I can solve homelessness and addiction and…in a blog post I write on a Friday afternoon.
But, I do know that we need a plan that is better than indifference and delay.