By Edwin C. Mercurio
Oaks St, Toronto (CRC)- The memory of an Asian looking man begging for food and another brown woman who was extending her arm begging for change along Queen St, Toronto inspired me to write this story. The urge to investigate homelessness challenged me more when I saw a homeless person sleeping in the streets of Toronto
while snow, strong gusty winds and freezing rain with only a blanket and sewer heat to fight the extreme cold. The person was not moving. I was not sure if that person came from Asia or somewhere else. Homelessness has no face. They could be one of the two Asian looking persons I saw the past weeks in the streets of Toronto.
My curiosity took me to a forum on Anti-Poverty, Migrant Justice and the Housing Crisis in Toronto in the middle of a snow storm.
Six homeless persons froze to death last month in the streets of Toronto. At least, 1,100 homeless person took refuge in homeless shelters in Toronto these past weeks as temperatures dipped below 25 to 35 degrees centigrade.
As the homeless flock to warming centres in the freezing weather, advocate for the homeless, John Clarke an activist for the past 40 years and one of the founding members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) said in a meeting February 21 at 40 Oaks St, “Toronto is in situation that the number of homelessness in the City is mind boggling.”
The issue is not only about 1,100 escaping the prospect of freezing in the cold, but also the health consequences.
“We are now in a situation where the housing crises have reached a level of a ticking time bomb.”
The agenda of social abandonment can be seen all over the world.
The homeless in the US has reached a total disaster with people sleeping in the subways and the streets of big cities.
The streets and subways of UK, France and Germany are showing an increase in the number of homeless street people.
Cathy Crowe, a street nurse and homeless advocate said that in the 1990’s, three homeless person froze to death and it rocked the nation. An inquest was done into their deaths and the jury came out to say it was due to homelessness.
Homelessness has also brought the increase of Tuberculosis. “The disease is treatable but the bureaucracy kept quiet about the need to curtail the spread of the disease.
“Politicians did nothing to help fight the spread of TB,” said Crowe.
John Clarke stated that advocates fighting against the problems caused by homelessness need to continue the struggle and fight against homelessness.
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, is not new to the fight against homelessness and the housing crises.
OCAP tried to put the fight to the spotlight by housing takeovers of abandoned buildings around the city. OCAP and activists who joined the campaigns were forcibly dragged and summarily arrested but the campaign won a sizeable gain due to the fight.
OCAP activists put the fight on the media spotlight to attract public attention when they put cots for the homeless in front of former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s office.
Clarke also called upon the Trade Unions of Toronto to take the fight of lack of housing and the homeless. “These are people who were abandoned. We can’t win this fight unless we come together. Housing is a fundamental right that must be fought and supported by the Trade Unions.
“A defining moment in the struggles for homelessness happened in Berlin. in 1910
dozens of people died.”
John Sewell, an Order of Canada Awardee said, that politicians and the City Council has failed to address the housing crisis and the homeless in the last decade.
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