“Homelessness & Affordability Crisis”

Across Canada, the push for homeless shelters means keeping neighbours who live with them in the dark. Now they are pushing back

In theory, Toronto city staff were supposed to execute the purchase of a large, vacant commercial building in the eastern suburb of Scarborough in late October without anyone finding out about it. For a city bureaucracy not exactly known for its ability to keep secrets, it was a tall order. Before the sale had been completed, a television reporter named Alan Carter was standing in front of the building in question with a story so juicy it ran as an exclusive on Toronto’s CityNews.

This week we bid farewell to Edmonton’s downtown Italian Bakery, which has turned out to be one of those nice things we can’t have anymore. The bakery’s been in the same location in the city’s Chinatown since 1960 — our Chinatown has some Vietnam, Italian and Portuguese seasoning. In 2020, with social conditions in the neighbourhood in free fall, the building fell victim to arson, but after a prolonged renovation it reopened 13 months ago.

I had a beautiful Christmas, full of laughter and light. But through it all, I kept wondering about the woman on the sidewalk.

She is camped out on a busy street just a few blocks from my house in west-end Toronto. She sits on one of those folding camp chairs with her back to a small tree. Her feet rest on a second chair. Layers of blankets and sleeping bags cover her from head to foot.

She has been there – or spots nearby – for months. Day after day, night after night, in all weathers, she sits silent and unmoving in the same place. She wears a big hood and a vest that covers her neck and mouth, so only her eyes are visible – wary, watching. If it rains or snows, she raises an umbrella and holds it on her lap.

Homelessness soared to the highest level on record this year, driven by forces that included a surge in migrants seeking asylum, a national housing crisis and the end of pandemic-era measures to protect the needy, the federal government reported on Friday.

The number of people experiencing homelessness topped 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent over last year and the largest annual increase since the count began in 2007. Nearly every category of unhoused people grew, with the rise especially steep among children and people in families.

The report, released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, showed that homelessness had risen by a third in the past two years, after years of only modest fluctuations. The agency blamed factors such as “our worsening national affordable-housing crisis,” inflation and the end of certain aid programs from the pandemic.

Twenty-six years ago, Lorenzo Berardinetti was a leader at the dawn of a new civic era, the head of the Scarborough delegation in the first Toronto megacity council.

Six years ago, he was at Queen’s Park, helping steer the province from the helm of its justice policy standing committee after winning four elections as a Liberal MPP.

Tonight, he will have his bag searched. He will take his shoes off and have them inspected for weapons and drugs. He will sleep in a room with 23 other people.

An Ontario Superior Court judge issued a ruling Monday that the City of Hamilton did not infringe upon the Charter rights of 14 homeless people who were evicted from local park encampments between 2021 and 2023. As Canadian jurisprudence on this issue seems tinged with judicial activism, and has often protected violent encampments at the public’s expense, this decision is an unexpected victory for common sense.

California’s biggest downtown areas are crumbling under the weight of homelessness and drug addiction, causing a vital part of its economy to dry out.

Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have made countless headlines since the pandemic about their drug-infested streets where businesses are quickly pulling out due to high crime rates and low consumer passage.

But for people like Matt Haney, a Democratic Assembly member from San Francisco – who lives in its terrorized Tenderloin District – these deteriorated downtowns are vital to a city’s survival and community building.

Premier Doug Ford’s government is introducing new legislation that it says will give municipalities and police services legal tools to dismantle homeless encampments and crack down on public drug use with fines or jail time.

Ford announced the pending legislation at a news conference Thursday morning, the last day the legislature will sit before leaving for winter break.

“These encampments are taking over public spaces, with illegal drug use happening out in the open,” Ford said. “Enough is enough, this has to stop and it will stop.”

Poverty activists are condemning Doug Ford’s Ontario government for threatening to use the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ notwithstanding clause to clear homeless encampments. Invoking the clause, however, is an entirely justifiable response to a recent, precedent-setting Superior Court ruling that used shaky logic to grant encampments borderline-immunity from public accountability.