HOMELESSNESS IN TORONTO

I have never been homeless during my 85 years.  There was a time however in 1955 when I was 22 and had lost my job in Victoria, British Columbia. and subsequently, I had no money. I was terrified even though it was not winter yet. Then a friend told me to apply for Unemployment Insurance. I asked him what that was. He told me that since I was in the Canadian navy, they deducted money from my monthly stipend and sent it to the Unemployment Insurance Commission. Sure enough, when I went to the office of the UIC, I was actually registered and I got a cheque of $17.00 a week. In 2018 money that would amount to $160.00 in 2019. It was enough to rent a room including meals in a rooming house for the month and extra money to spend.                                                                                                 

Fortunately, my wife and I have many friends that would let us move into their homes if we were homeless. For the past 26 years, my home which I share with my wife (which was already paid for years ago) has 3 bedrooms, a living room/dining room, a large kitchen, a large family room with a kitchenette, two bathrooms, a study and work place along with a two-car garage.

 While we are living in this house during the winter months, I really have sympathy for the homeless who have nowhere to go for shelter.  One of the saddest pictures I ever saw was a photo in a newspaper of a dead man curled up in a doorway wearing no socks in the middle of winter.     

The City of Toronto has over a million people living in it and there are approximately as many as  900 to 2,000 who are homeless There may be more who aren’t accounted for.       

Many homeless youth experienced challenges in school. About 83 percent experienced bullying in school, which is four times more than Canadian youth in general and 50 percent of homeless youth reported having been tested for a learning disability. The drop-out rate for homeless youth is 53 percent, compared to the nine percent national rate A high percentage of homeless youth experience declining mental health. In a recent national survey, 42 percent reported at least one suicide attempt. If the youth was exposed to sexual and physical violence on the street, the youth was over three times more likely to experience serious mental health challenges. With problems like these, they find it difficult to find employment. Most of them don’t want to go back to their homes that thy grew up in. Hence, they are homeless. Of course, many of the homeless are adults ranging from early adulthood, middle age to being elderly.

Now I know what you are thinking, If I feel sadness towards the homeless, which I do, then why don’t I invite them to spend a freezing cold night in my home? Years ago I did this three times. One of them came back to my home while I was at work and stole my thousand-dollar color TV set. I found that person and called the police. That thief was sentenced to 18 months in jail. On another occasion, another person that I let spend a night in my home, stole my camera. The police found it in a pawn shop. The thief was caught and sentenced to four months in jail. Another person my wife and I permitted to spend a night in our home, left early in the morning and took my wife’s purse with him. I found that person and he was sentenced to six months in jail. I finally learned my lesson. Don’t invite homeless people into your home.

If you are considering volunteering to help the homeless, you might think of helping prepare food in a soup kitchen or sorting clothing donations at a shelter. While it is true that these tasks are the more traditional volunteer opportunities, there are a variety of other ways you can volunteer to help the homeless and contribute meaningfully to create a safe and positive life for all of the members of your community. You can drive around your community and when you see a homeless person wandering on a street, give that person some sandwiches or a hot drink or a blanket, jacket, woolen hats.  mitts or woolen scarfs that you don’t need anymore.   

Every weekday morning a crowd of homeless people gathers outside a storefront on Yonge Street in Toronto just north of the huge Eaton Centre, eager for the doors to open so they can get inside and be warm for the day before the store closes. There are many malls around Toronto and the areas surrounding that city where homeless people go to keep warm on cold days. As long as they aren’t a nuisance, no one throws them out of those malls.                          

Each day, about 150 youth pass through Evergreen’s door, a few blocks from the intersection at Yonge and Dundas, the crossroads of Canada’s busiest shopping district. It may also be the epicentre of youth homelessness in Canada.                                                           

Some churches open their doors to homeless people on winter nights so that they can spend their nights in a warm building. Many homeless people will go to libraries to find warmth.

On a given night, 6,000 people across Canada between 16 and 24 have nowhere to call home, representing 20 per cent of the total homeless population. In Toronto, estimates range from 900 to 2,000 nightly — far more than can be accommodated by the 489 beds in youth shelters in Toronto.

The various paths young people take to life on the street differ, but according to Covenant House, about 70 per cent of the shelter’s clients left home because of family dysfunction, which could include abuse, neglect or parents’ addictions. Poverty can play a role, but about half of the facility’s clients come from middle- and upper-income families, according to the shelter’s management.     

In 2018, The city of Toronto took additional steps to shelter the city’s most vulnerable residents that winter after high demand and frigid weather put a significant strain on the shelter system the previous year. The city opened three new, prefabricated 24-hour respite sites during the winter months. One is located in the Liberty Village area in the parking lot of Lamport Stadium, another is on Fleet Street near Fort York and the third is on Lake Shore Boulevard East near Cherry Street. As of November 15^th of that year, there were 600 winter respite spaces available, with a contingency plan to add additional capacity if required. 

Ninety-four homeless people died in Toronto in 2017. Of the 94 homeless deaths recorded, 68 were males, 25 were females and 1 was a transgender person.

Sixty of the 94 homeless people died indoors, eight deaths were recorded outdoors, while the place of death for the remaining 26 was listed as unknown.    

There will always be homeless people wandering about in our streets. Society has an obligation to assist these people by providing them with shelter during the winter months where they can get warmth and food to sustain them. If society is slow in bringing relief to these unfortunate people. then there will be more of them  dying. When that happens, we who have shelter and food to sustain us will all share the collective guilt.