CANADIAN POLITICS ONTARIO:
UPCOMING EVENTS FROM OCAP:


Here's a notice of two upcoming events from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).
CPCPCPCPCP


Upcoming: CUPE Educational Nov.8th + Rob Ford 'Welcome' Dec.1st‏
Hello Everyone,
Two Important upcoming events listed below..
1) CUPE Raise the Rates Educational: for CUPE Members who are interested in hearing about and getting involved in the Raise the Rates Campaign
2) Give Rob Ford the Welcome He Deserves!
---------------
1)
**please forward
Why are Social Assistance Rates a Workers Issue?
Join us for the Raise the Rates & Special Diet Campaign Educational
Monday November 8, 2010 from 6 to 9 pm
CUPE 4400: 1482 Bathurst St, Suite 200
**On-Site Childcare and Food Provided

At the 2010 Spring CUPE Ontario Convention, we took an important step in continuing to build solidarity with our community allies and fighting poverty by voting to support an emergency resolution to endorse and actively support the campaigns to raise social assistance rates and to stop the McGuinty Government's cut to the Special Diet program.
Join fellow CUPE members for an educational on the Raise the Rates and Special Diet Campaign to get the word out in our workplaces about why raising social assistance rates is a workers issue and what can be done to take this issue on.
For more information, contact: 416-596-7927 / cupe4308@gmail.com
CUPE Ontario: Save the Special Diet and Raise the Rates: http://cupe.on.ca/doc.php?document_id=1114&lang=en
CUPE Ontario Statement on the Special Diet Allowance: http://cupe.on.ca/doc.php?subject_id=227&lang=en
_________________
2) PLEASE POST WIDELY -
On Dec. 1, Rob Ford becomes Mayor of Toronto. A public event is being organized by community groups and grassroots activists to keep watch on Rob Ford and his anti-people agenda.
Further details will be announced shortly, please invite all your friends.
Keep visiting http://ocap.ca/ and http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/ for updates.

POLITICAL SPORT:

SOCCER WITH A DIFFERENCE:

There's the World Cup and then there's the 'Homeless World Cup'. The latter is soccer played by homeless people, street soccer if you will, and it has its own events designed to draw world attention to the plight of the homeless. This year the Homeless World Cup will be held in Rio De Janiero Brazil from Sept. 19 to 26. this alternative world Cup is sponsored by numerous organization worldwide, including the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). The following announcement of a fundraiser on September 1 out in Vancouver comes from CUPE.

HSHSHSHSHS

Support Team Vancouver in the Homeless World Cup 2010
Aug 23, 2010 07:26 PM
Team Canada is holding a fundraiser on Wednesday, September 1 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at Doolins Pub at Granville and Nelson in Vancouver. Tickets are $15 and include a burger and a beer. The event will feature special guests, a silent auction and live entertainment.

This is a benefit and send-off for Street Soccer Team Canada which is going to Rio De Janiero, Brazil on September 15 to represent us in the 64-nation Homeless World Cup. Players have recently been homeless, are homeless, or are at risk for homelessness.

Most of Team Canada’s players were originally recruited from shelters run by the Portland Hotel Society Community Services Society (PHS).

CUPE 15 and CUPE 1004 members work for both PHS and the Carnegie Community Centre and both locals are supporting the team financially and as volunteers.

For more information call Leo Cooper at (604) 831-8412.

Watch the ad promoting the series.
For more information, visit the Homeless World Cup website.

HOMELESSNESS-TORONTO

SUPPORT YEN TANG:

Here's a communique and a request for solidarity from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) in Toronto.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Woman and Children Facing Threat of Violence Left Hanging by Toronto Community Housing‏
Woman and Children Facing Threat of Violence Left Hanging by Toronto Community Housing

Picket TCH Head Office,

931 Yonge Street,

Thursday, March 11, 11.30 AM

Yen Tang reported serious threats from a male neighbour to the police. The Catholic Childrens' Aid Society took the matter seriously enough that they wrote a letter saying that the children should not be living where they were. TCH staff told Yen that she would be placed on an emergency transfer list, a home in another part of the City was suggested and she was told that it would be ready within three months.

Not able to stay in the place while she waited for the transfer, Yen and her kids moved in temporarily with some friends in another TCH community. However, local staff informed the friend that her rental subsidy would be taken away if Yen continued to stay there. She and her children have now had to move into a place that is far from their school. They are having to double up in a situation that is not sustainable for anyone involved.

After three months, Yen visited the unit she had been promised and saw no signs of work having been carried out on it. She checked in and was told that the male neighbour was denying the threats and the transfer was now on hold. An OCAP delegation went to TCH to deal with this. We explained that the issue was not to decide anyone's guilt beyond reasonable doubt but to act decently and reasonably in the face of a very likely threat to the safety of a family. Yen was put back on the transfer list, with the usual pretense that the decision to remove her was a miscommunication.

Yen and her kids have been waiting much longer than the promised three months and a recent letter to TCH asking when the matter would be resolved has gone unanswered. This family has suffered enough and faced enough disruption. They have a right to a decent and safe home.

Please support our action to win this basic right for Yen Tang and her children.

CANADIAN POLITICS:

TWO TORONTO EVENTS:

Here, courtesy of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) are two events coming up down Toronto way tomorrow and Saturday.

CCCCCCCCCCCC

Friday: Health Care For All, Saturday: Housing For All:‏
1. Health For All:

Health Care Provision and Direct Action Politics Panel

Friday May 22, 20097-9 p.m.

Ryerson University

Thomas Lounge

63 Gould Street

2. Decent, affordable, accessible housing for all

Stop the sell-off of public housing.

May 2311:30 am

13 Trefann Street(north of Queen, just east of Parliament)

Free Meal

*****************

Health For All:

Health Care Provision and Direct Action Politics Panel

Friday May 22, 20097-9 p.m.

Ryerson University

Thomas Lounge

63 Gould Street

Free!

Join Students for Medicare and No One is Illegal as we bring together health professionals, organizing alongside their communities in the fight for health for all!

--------------

Health care professionals are on the front lines of care every day, and are direct witnesses to the inadequate resources and access to health care facing many marginalized populations in our own communities. It is during their professional lives that health care providers realize that just showing up to the clinic will not be enough to make everyone well.

This evening will provide opportunities to discuss the difference between patient advocacy and patient solidarity. We will learn from example how community members and health care professionals have used creativity to build safer, healthier communities and a healthy analysis of what it is that really makes us sick, and what it will take to realize health for all.

Panelists include:

Bethany Schroeder,

Executive Director of the Ithaca Health Alliance,Ithaca, NY (www.ithacahealthalliance.org )Bethany Schroeder will discuss the Ithaca Health Alliance which has been working for over ten years to facilitate creative health solutions for the uninsured. Their work includes providing grants for medical procedures, and the Ithaca Free Clinic, which provides 100% free conventional and holistic healthcare services to the un- and under-insured.

Roland Wong, M.D., Toronto

Dr. Wong is a community physician who works primarily with patients living in poverty. He has recently been challenged by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario regarding his professional "misconduct"because he continues to fill out Special Diet Forms for patients desperately in need. Dr. Wong has will speak on the direct link between poverty and health, and how he has successfully worked with OCAP to meet his patient's needs.

Samir Shaheen Hussain, M.D,

Solidarity Across Borders Montreal

Over the years, Samir has been involved with Indigenous solidarity, migrant justice and anti-police brutality organising, with groups like the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement (IPSM), Solidarity Across Borders (SAB) and No One Is Illegal-Montreal (NOII). He will provide a critical overview of the barriers imposed on migrant folks in accessing healthcare, and will discuss the significant potential of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policies based on his experiences with migrant children during his pediatric residency. Samir will also speak about the politicization of both healthcare workers and community members as being necessary for Health for All

Cathy Crowe, R.N.,

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, Toronto

Cathy Crowe has been a Street Nurse in downtown Toronto for over 20years. She has worked as a nurse and activist helping to found numerous coalitions that have fought for social justice including: Nurses for Social Responsibility, Toronto Coalition Against Homelessness, TB Action Group, and the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee which in 1998 declared homelessness a national disaster.

*******************

Decent, affordable, accessible housing for all

Stop the sell-off of public housing.

May 2311:30 am

13 Trefann Street(north of Queen, just east of Parliament)

Free Meal

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, TCHC (Toronto Community Housing Corporation) tenants, people on the TCHC waiting list and supporters will meet outside of one of the houses slated to be sold by TCHC to demand it and all TCHC units remain public housing. TCHC is quietly proposing to sell-off 326 apartment units and 45 single family homes that are located in sought-after neighbourhoods, primarily downtown and in the Beaches.

Many large families are living in two bedroom apartments, waiting for larger units, while TCHC is emptying select units in an attempt to to sell-off its prime real estate. These sales (and the City's displacement of poor people through “redevelopment”) means that many TCHC residents are being displaced from their schools, friends and communities - neighbourhoods that many residents have lived in for years.

TCHC says that the units up for sale are in such a state of disrepair that they cannot be fixed. We have seen many of the units and it is a boldfaced lie! Further, the units that are in really bad repair were purposely not kept up by TCHC so that they could sell the units off down the road and use their dilapidation as an excuse.

Public housing can be updated and revitalized without selling the land, forcing people from their homes and displacing entire communities.

We Demand:

Build housing, don't sell it!

Repair, don’t redevelop!

Don’t Ask, Don’tTell!

Stop the “Redevelopment” of Our Neighbourhoods

Currently, there are six large housing projects undergoing or slated for redevelopment This redevelopment is being promoted as an improvement to TCHC communities. Specifically, the city argues that the so called “mixed communities” will improve the lives of poor people.

The truth however is,that this is an excuse to take away poor people's homes that have high property values. The City isn't demanding that Rosedale be turned into a 'mixed neighbourhood' – just the places where poor people live. Further, over time, these rebuilt communities will become gentrified; we can expect TCHC to rent more of the units at market value, pushing poor people out.

Ensure that Enough Social, Supportive and Accessible Housing is Built to Eliminate the Waiting List

Over 70,000 households are waiting to get into social housing. It takes about 5 years to get a tiny bachelor unit in Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) and about 10 years to get anything else. Thousands of people are working multiple jobs, going hungry, and living in rotten conditions while they wait. Thousands of homeless people pack into shelters or sleep on the streets every night because no supportive housing is available. Accessible housing for disabled people is very hard to find and is often extremely expensive. As the economic crisis continues, this situation will get even worse. We need more housing and we need it now!

Repair TCHC Units

Nearly 60,000 units of public housing in Toronto are being allowed to deteriorate. TCHC admits that $300 million worth of repairs is needed to bring their buildings up to a minimum legal standard. People are forced to live with gaping holes, leaking ceilings, exposed pipes, peeling paint, electrical sockets that spark and infestations of rats, mice and bedbugs.

This is unacceptable, this is illegal and it has to stop!

Don't Ask Don't Tell

People without immigration status are especially marginalized in our city. People without status are forced into precarious housing, unable to access safe, decent paying work and shut out from public services. There are over 500,000 people living without status across Canada, many of whom live in Toronto. A person without status is not eligible to apply for Toronto Community Housing. Further, if a family, living in housing, has even one family member without status that entire family will be evicted.

We demand the city implement a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. This policy would prevent all TCHC workers from asking people what their immigration status is, from refusing housing to people without status and from sharing that information with immigration authorities.

**

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

10 Britain St.

Toronto, ON

M5A 1R6

416-925-6939

ocap@tao.ca

www.ocap.ca

**

CANADIAN POLITICS-ONTARIO:

KEEP PUBLIC HOUSING:

The following notice of a demonstration on Saturday, May 23, is from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).

DDDDDDDDDDDD

May 23 - Decent, Affordable, Accessible Housing For All‏:
Decent, affordable, accessible housing for all

Stop the sell-off of public housing.

May 23

11:30 am

13 Trefann Street (north of Queen, just east of Parliament)

Free Meal

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, TCHC (Toronto Community Housing Corporation) tenants, people on the TCHC waiting list and supporters will meet outside of one of the houses slated to be sold by TCHC to demand it and all TCHC units remain public housing.

TCHC is quietly proposing to sell-off 326 apartment units and 45 single family homes that are located in sought-after neighbourhoods, primarily downtown and in the Beaches. Many large families are living in two bedroom apartments, waiting for larger units, while TCHC is emptying select units in an attempt to to sell-off its prime real estate. These sales (and the City's displacement of poor people through “redevelopment”) means that many TCHC residents are being displaced from their schools, friends and communities - neighbourhoods that many residents have lived in for years.

TCHC says that the units up for sale are in such a state of disrepair that they cannot be fixed. We have seen many of the units and it is a boldfaced lie! Further, the units that are in really bad repair were purposely not kept up by TCHC so that they could sell the units off down the road and use their dilapidation as an excuse. Public housing can be updated and revitalized without selling the land, forcing people from their homes and displacing entire communities.

We Demand:

*Build housing, don't sell it!

*Repair, don’t redevelop!

*Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell!

*Stop the “Redevelopment” of Our Neighbourhoods

Currently, there are six large housing projects undergoing or slated for redevelopment. This redevelopment is being promoted as an improvement to TCHC communities. Specifically, the city argues that the so called “mixed communities” will improve the lives of poor people. The truth however is, that this is an excuse to take away poor people's homes that have high property values. The City isn't demanding that Rosedale be turned into a 'mixed neighbourhood' – just the places where poor people live.

Further,over time, these rebuilt communities will become gentrified; we can expect TCHC to rent more of the units at market value, pushing poor people out.

Ensure that Enough Social, Supportive and Accessible Housing is Built to Eliminate the Waiting List

Over 70,000 households are waiting to get into social housing. It takes about 5 years to get a tiny bachelor unit in Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) and about 10 years to get anything else. Thousands of people are working multiple jobs, going hungry, and living in rotten conditions while they wait. Thousands of homeless people pack into shelters or sleep on the streets every night because no supportive housing is available. Accessible housing for disabled people is very hard to find and is often extremely expensive.

As the economic crisis continues, this situation will get even worse. We need more housing and we need it now!

Repair TCHC Units

Nearly 60,000 units of public housing in Toronto are being allowed to deteriorate. TCHC admits that $300 million worth of repairs is needed to bring their buildings up to a minimum legal standard. People are forced to live with gaping holes, leaking ceilings, exposed pipes, peeling paint,electrical sockets that spark and infestations of rats, mice and bedbugs.This is unacceptable, this is illegal and it has to stop!

Don't Ask Don't Tell

People without immigration status are especially marginalized in our city. People without status are forced into precarious housing, unable to access safe, decent paying work and shut out from public services. There are over 500,000 people living without status across Canada, many of whom live in Toronto. A person without status is not eligible to apply for Toronto Community Housing. Further, if a family, living in housing, has even one family member without status that entire family will be evicted.

We demand the city implement a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. This policy would prevent all TCHC workers from asking people what their immigration status is, from refusing housing to people without status and from sharing that information with immigration authorities.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

MEMORIAL FOR HOMELESS MAN-TORONTO:

The following event notice is from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).

..........................

Thursday 11am: Memorial for Homeless Man Who Died on the Streets‏:
Thursday January 15

King West and Bay Street

(Southwest corner)

11am

ANOTHER HOMELESS MAN

DIES ON TORONTO STREETS

In the early hours of January 6 John Massie sought shelter in a bank vestibule located on King Street just west of Yonge Street. While in the vestibule John lit a cigarette and accidentally set himself on fire. John suffered burns to eighty per cent of his body and died later that day.John was a homeless native man who was well known in the community. He was 46 years old when he died.

Homeless people continue to die on Toronto streets. Overcrowded shelters, insufficient income on social assistance, and the lack of affordable housing have all contributed to these deaths.

On Thursday January 15 friends of John and anti-poverty activists will be gathering to remember John Massie. We will also be calling on all levels of government to address the ongoing homeless crisis in the city of Toronto. Please come and join us.

For more info, call us: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty 416-925-6939

**

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

10 Britain St. Toronto, ON M5A 1R6

416-925-6939 ocap@tao.ca www.ocap.ca

**

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-TORONTO:

GIMMI SHELTER DEMONSTRATION TOMORROW:

Winter has descended on our northern land, and, as usual, the powers that be are playing the Grinch. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) wants them to act rather than ignore. Here's their notice for a demonstration tomorrow about the need for emergency shelter.

...........................

Gimmie Shelter! Demand Winter Homelessness Relief!:‏
Nov 26: GIMME SHELTER!

Demand winter homelessness relief!

*12noon – Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Corner of Queen & Sherbourne

*HOT LUNCH PROVIDED****

Demonstration & press conference*

*Winter is coming – and the shelters are full. This is an emergency!

**GIMME SHELTER!

Demand the government ACT NOW to provide more emergency shelter and food!

The economy is crashing and people are losing their jobs – and their homes. More and more of our brothers and sisters are being pushed onto the streets, in need of safe shelter and food. But THE SHELTERS ARE ALREADY FULL! In fact, the government has recently CUT hundreds of beds from the system!

With winter setting in, this is a matter of life and death, with hungry people spending nights outside the over-crowded shelters as the temperature drops. The government MUST ACT NOW to prevent even more deaths!

*We urgently need more, *safe* beds and meals to deal with the crisis right now - in addition to decent housing.

EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO SAFE AND EASILY ACCESSIBLE SHELTER & FOOD!

* *Download the poster: *http://tdrc.net/uploads/HNW/Nov26_gimmeshelter.pdf ___________

*For more information, childcare, or accessibility, contact

TDRC: **TORONTO **DISASTER RELIEF COMMITTEE (TDRC) *

*416-599-8372 *

*housingnotwar@tdrc.net

* housingnotwar@tdrc.net*

**www.HousingNotWar.ca* <http://www.housingnotwar.ca/>

**

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

10 Britain St.

Toronto, ON

M5A 1R6

416-925-6939

ocap@tao.ca

www.ocap.ca

**

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-TORONTO:

TWO IMPORTANT EVENTS TOMORROW:

The following is a reminder from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) about two important events coming up tomorrow. Join in if you're down Toronto way.

.............................

[ocap] Tomorrow: Two Important Actions‏:
Reminder:Press Conference and Court Support

Thursday November 20th, 2008

8:30 am

Old City Hall(Queen & Bay)

Free coffee & doughnuts

******************

Toronto Police: Implement Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy for People Without Status

Thursday November 20th, 1:30pm

Toronto Police Services Board Meeting

Police Headquarters 20 College Street, Just West of Yonge Street

******************

Press Conference and Court Support ;

Thursday November 20th, 2008

8:30 am

Old City Hall

(Queen & Bay)

Free coffee & doughnuts

Matthew Rickwood, a young Toronto man, is appearing in court on Thursday with his lawyer, after being charged under the Safe Streets Act this summer for "encumbering of street".

In June, Matthew had just sat down on the sidewalk in Toronto's downtown east end, when he was approached by cops and served with a court summons. He had already been given multiple tickets, carrying fines he simply cannot pay. More to the point, he had done nothing wrong. Living on social assistance, after paying his rent and board each month, Matthew is left with $56 to survive.

In a letter sent to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, the Police Services Board and Mayor David Miller, Gary Magee, a lawyer from Justice for Children and Youth writes, "My view...is that the increase in Safe Streets Act charges is part of a practice of "proactive policing" of youth and the poor. The practice includes harassing this population by issuing invalid tickets for Trespass, Liquor Licence Act infractions, and bylaws such as"encumbering the street", "loitering", and "fouling the street."

OCAP is calling on the police to stop the harassment of poor people through the criminalizing and discriminatory practice of ticketing, and demanding that the City of Toronto take responsibility for the actions of Toronto police. We agree with Justice for Children and Youth that resources spent on charging, prosecuting, and incarcerating poor people, should be spent instead on affordable housing, parks and quality recreation and arts programming, as recommended in the recent Roots of Violence report by Mr.McMurtry and Dr. Curling.

" The priorities of the city have to change. Join us in supporting Matthew, his lawyer, and others coming to the steps of Old City Hall to speak out against rampant police harassment that is sending poor people to jail for no reason, wasting resources, and depriving people of dignity and justice.

OCAP DEMANDS:

1. That cops stop issuing Safe Streets Act and other tickets against poor people for being poor. Last year the cops laid 10,500 Safe Streets Act tickets and thousands of other tickets for things like "encumbering the sidewalk" and other 'offences'.

2. That the mayor tell the cops to back off. David Miller must tell the police to stop laying tickets against people on the streets.

3. That the City provide legal representation for tickets. If the City's cops ticket people they should provide representation for people. Right now, people are going to jail for panhandling largely because they cannot get legal aid and have no one to represent them in court. This is a tremendous injustice and it has an easy solution:

If the City is going to ticket, and prosecute people, they can provide lawyers too. ****************

IMPLEMENT DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL

(DADT)Campaign Calls on Chief of Police to IMPLEMENT a REAL AND FULL DADT POLICY:

Pack the meeting or give a deputation (present your arguments for a full Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy).

We are also asking people to send letters to the Board, a sample letter is attached to this callout, please cc all letters tonooneisillegal@riseup.net .

Thursday November 20th,

1:30pm

Toronto Police Services Board Meeting

Police Headquarters 20 College Street, Just West of Yonge Street

The Don't Ask, Don't Tell campaign is calling all allies, social service providers and immigrant/refugee communities to mobilize by packing the Toronto Police Services Board meeting to show our sincere concerns about the lack of a true Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy by the Toronto Police.

On February 15th 2006, the Toronto Police Services Board passed a limited "Don't Ask" policy which stated that Toronto Police would be barred from asking the immigration status of "witnesses and victims of a crime"without a “bonafide reason”.

In the spring of 2008, the Immigration Legal Committee of No One Is Illegal and the Law Union of Ontario presented a legal opinion as to why the Police needed to adopt a full don’t ask don’t tell policy. Unfortunately, under the current policy, many people without status have been misled into thinking that they can now access police services without fear. But they cannot.

As it stands, the Board and the Police Services are taking credit for a weak policy passed on paper. The legal opinion has this to say about the current policy:

A “Don’t Ask” policy alone does not make police services accessible to Torontonians without legal immigration status. For instance, persons working with non-status domestic violence survivors have indicated that police officers rarely learn of their clients’ immigration status by asking about it directly. Rather, a person’s immigration status comes to police attention when police request identification documents or when abusive spouses report the status of their victims to police officers.

The existing policy directs police to "not ask" about status - for some people, some of the time - but police are still allowed to "tell"immigration authorities about someone's status when they find out. Police usually find out about status in some way, whether through checking ID, manipulative disclosure from an abusive partner, or trusting (or fearful) disclosure from a non-status person themselves."

As well, research by the committee showed that immigration status often plays into racial profiling by the police: either the police use status as an excuse to harass people of colour, or they use it as a way to justify police stops that are based on the person’s race.

Toronto needs a full Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. Our communities deserve a full Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. As part of the ongoing campaign for full and accessible regularization for all non status people, and as part of an ongoing campaign for a full access without fear for all non status people in Toronto, No One Is Illegal is mobilizing to demand a full Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy by the Toronto Police.

Join us on November 20th at 1:30 pm at the Toronto Police Services Board and show that our communities are united in demanding Access without Fear.

For More information contact nooneisillegal@riseup.net or smack@tao.ca

or call 416-999-6885.

**

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

10 Britain St.

Toronto, ON

M5A 1R6

416-925-6939

ocap@tao.ca

www.ocap.ca

**

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-TORONTO:

COURT SUPPORT FOR MATTHEW RICKWOOD:

Across the country municipal authorities have responded to the increasing crisis of homelessness in Canada with an overwhelming determination to not solve the problem but to make it invisible. In Ontario the so-called "Safe Streets Act" is one such tool that is increasingly being used to try and disguise the problem, a legally sanctioned method to harass the poor and homeless and drive them from public visibility.

These legal atrocities are not going unchallenged. Here's an appeal from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) for court support for one challenge to the law. For further updates consult the OCAP website and also Homeless Nation.

.............................

PRESS CONFERENCE/COURT SUPPORT: Stop Sweeping the Streets! Stop the Ticketing!‏:
Stop Sweeping the Streets!

Stop the Ticketing!

Press Conference and Court Support

Thursday November 20th, 2008

8:30 am

Old City Hall(Queen & Bay)

Free coffee & doughnuts

Matthew Rickwood, a young Toronto man, is appearing in court on Thursday with his lawyer, after being charged under the Safe Streets Act this summer for "encumbering of street".

In June, Matthew had just sat down on the sidewalk in Toronto's downtown east end, when he was approached by cops and served with a court summons. He had already been given multiple tickets, carrying fines he simply cannot pay. More to the point, he had done nothing wrong. Living on social assistance, after paying his rent and board each month, Matthew is left with $56 to survive.

In a letter sent to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, the Police Services Board and Mayor David Miller, Gary Magee, a lawyer from Justice for Children and Youth writes, "My view...is that the increase in Safe Streets Act charges is part of a practice of "proactive policing" of youth and the poor. The practice includes harassing this population by issuing invalid tickets for Trespass, Liquor Licence Act infractions, and bylaws such as "encumbering the street", "loitering", and"fouling the street."

OCAP is calling on the police to stop the harassment of poor people through the criminalizing and discriminatory practice of ticketing,and demanding that the City of Toronto take responsibility for the actions of Toronto police.

We agree with Justice for Children and Youth that "resources spent on charging, prosecuting, and incarcerating poor people, should be spent instead on affordable housing, parks and quality recreation and arts programming, as recommended in the recent Roots of Violence report by Mr.McMurtry and Dr. Curling." The priorities of the city have to change.

Join us in supporting Matthew, his lawyer, and others coming to the steps of Old City Hall to speak out against rampant police harassment that is sending poor people to jail for no reason, wasting resources, and depriving people of dignity and justice.

Press Conference and Court Support

Thursday November 20th, 2008

8:30 am

Old City Hall(Queen & Bay)

Free coffee & doughnuts

OCAP DEMANDS:

1. That cops stop issuing Safe Streets Act and other tickets against poor people for being poor. Last year the cops laid 10,500 Safe Streets Act tickets and thousands of other tickets for things like"encumbering the sidewalk" and other 'offences'.

2. That the mayor tell the cops to back off. David Miller must tell the police to stop laying tickets against people on the streets.

3. That the City provide legal representation for tickets. If the City's cops ticket people they should provide representation for people. Right now, people are going to jail for panhandling largely because they cannot get legal aid and have no one to represent them in court. This is a tremendous injustice and it has an easy solution: If the City is going to ticket, and prosecute people, they can provide lawyers too.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-HALIFAX:

DIRECT ACTION AGAINST POVERTY IN HALIFAX:

My editing of the links has given me the opportunity to revisit sites that I often ignore. One of them is the Autonomy and Solidarity site in Ontario. From these people comes a report from the Dominion Blog (see below for link) about recent action in the Atlantic city of Halifax over the closure of a shelter for the homeless just as winter is beginning to spread his chilly claws. For another take on this see the reports at the website of the Halifax Coalition Against Poverty. Also...there you will find instructions as to what you can do in solidarity.

................................

Life threatening decision to close Halifax shelter gets direct action response:
Life threatening decision to close Halifax shelter gets direct action response

by Asaf Rashid, from The Dominion Weblogs,

November 8, 2008.
On Monday November 3rd, Halifax Coalition Against Poverty (HCAP) members and supporters occupied the Halifax office of Nova Scotia Department of Community Services (DCS) for deciding not to fund Pendleton Place, a “harm reduction” shelter located in the basement of St. Patrick’s Church in Halifax. The closure was a move that one local housing activist, Paul O'Hara, described as a “life and death” decision gone the wrong way, and many more have made clear there will be a high risk of serious injury or death on the streets of Halifax this winter as a consequence.

“As long as DCS will commit poor people in our community to death, HCAP will refuse to allow business as usual within the Department.", stated HCAP as the action was underway
During the occupation, HCAP members and supporters numbered over a dozen. At 10 am they entered the DCS offices, occupying the space and stating – with megaphones blaring – their opposition to the closure of the shelter and demands for affordable housing. The occupation lasted approximately an hour. One DCS employee who was particularly sought after was an upper level bureaucrat, Lynn Brogan, regarded as having been in the position to have prevented the closure of Pendleton Place.

At one point, a Department employee told the group that Lynn Brogan was not in the office. Later, they were told that she was in fact in the office and would come out to speak with the group, but by then the police had arrived and gave a ten-minute warning for the group to leave. Whether or not Lynn Brogan ever intended on coming out of hiding in her office is unknown, but the police time limit expired before anyone saw her and the group was made to leave the building under the threat of arrest and likely some police violence. The door leading outside was locked behind the group, then guarded by the police, limiting access or approachability to anyone else who may have needed the public services inside. There were no arrests in the end.
Background
DCS announced on October 21, 2008, that it would not be reopening Pendleton Place. For the past three winters, DCS has funded the shelter. It was initially opened in the winter of 2004/05, when anti-poverty groups created an uproar after Gordie Connors, a Korean War veteran, died on the streets of Halifax.

The decision to permanently close Pendleton Place, made just days before the shelter was scheduled to open for the cold season, was tied to the Department’s desire to focus provincial funds on Metro Turning Point and Berry House, two other homeless shelters in Halifax. The decision results in 16 new beds and extended hours at these shelters, but it is a deceptive move by the government. Although these shelters gained some services, there is a huge loss overall to the shelter system in Halifax. Just looking at the bed numbers, the loss is obvious. When it was in operation, Pendleton Place provided between 20 to 40 beds for homeless people.

“Whichever way you look at it, the decision not to reopen Pendleton Place is a cost cutting move by the provincial government which will take $150 000 out of the shelter system in Halifax.”, stated a pre-action notice by HCAP.

Losing Pendleton Place will produce a gap in the shelter system, particularly for individuals who are currently barred by court order from Barry House and Turning Point, homeless youth and those deemed to have addictions and behavioural problems.

Pendleton Place had a harm-reduction philosophy and a mandate as a “shelter of last resort”. As well, Metro Turning Point, Barry House and another shelter, Adsum House, all provide services that are genders specific. The only requirements to access Pendleton Place was for people to identify themselves as homeless and to be unable to access other shelters in the Halifax Regional Municipality. This openness was one of the reasons why many homeless would choose either Pendleton place or sleeping outside, according to Wayne McNaughton, long-time advocate for the homeless in Halifax. Some are intimidated just by the rigorous intake process of the other shelters.

“We recognize...both the need for (the shelter) and (that) the funds exist to create a diverse array of shelters, for men, for women, for families, for individuals who are using and for individual who are not; the government is simply lacking the will and common decency,” stated an HCAP member after the action.
Post-action update
Several HCAP members have been harassed by the police since the action, at least a couple receiving “Protection of Property” notices, barring them from being allowed on the property of the DCS office.

HCAP was one amongst several anti-homeless and anti-poverty groups, as well as individual advocates, devastated by the decision to close Pendleton. Of course, the most devastated are the users of Pendleton place, who are currently in dire straits as the days get shorter and the weather bites harder.

The action on November 3rd was only one step along the way in what can be expected to be a determined struggle to re-open the kind of shelter that Pendleton place was. But as HCAP pointed out in a leaflet handed out during the action, the struggle to re-open a shelter of last resort is part of a much larger struggle.

“We’re also demanding that everyone should have the right to housing. More shelters, more subsidized housing, and higher income assistance rates can alleviate suffering in the here and now but HCAP struggles for something greater: a world where peoples' right to housing is guaranteed and where shelter is not a commodity to be bought and sold for profit.”
More info about HCAP calls for action on this issue: http://www.hfxcap.ca/

CANADIAN POLITICS-BRITISH COLUMBIA:

HOMELESS WIN VICTORY IN VICTORIA BC:

Homelessness has been a growing problem in Canada, and it is likely to worsen as tougher economic times take hold. The usual response of civil authorities nationwide has been to make the problem as invisible as possible, to sweep the homeless under the carpet. Out BC way the homeless have won a court challenge against the Victoria BC bylaw that prevented them from erecting tents in public places. See THIS ARTICLE from the BC ATV News on the reaction of city authorities and the local Chamber of Commerce to the BC Supreme Court decision two days ago that struck down the city bylaw in question.

Homeless people responded rapidly to the decision, and as of yesterday a tent city has sprung up in the 'Mayor's Grove' section of Victoria's Beacon Hill Park. The story from The Hook follows below. For further info on the situation of the homeless in Canada see the Homeless Nation website.

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Tents erected in Victoria as Vancouver lawyers consider ruling:
By Andrew MacLeod

Eight tents stood together in the Mayors' Grove of trees in Victoria's picturesque Beacon Hill Park this morning as people across the province digested the court decision that struck down the city's anti-camping bylaws.

“It's a really important decision,” said Laura Track, a lawyer working on Pivot Legal Society's housing campaign in Vancouver. Pivot has a similar case pending, she said, but hopes Vancouver city hall will learn from the Victoria case.

“In light of this decision we'd like to ask the city if it makes sense to proceed with going to trial,” she said. “We hope this judgment will help them to see things more clearly.”

The Victoria decision rested on the fact there are way more people homeless than there are available emergency shelter beds. “To me I can't see what difference they're going to point to between Vancouver and Victoria,” said Track. Vancouver has about 700 shelter beds for 1,600 homeless people, she said. “We think the legal analysis would be identical here in Vancouver.”
David Arthur Johnston, who has been in and out of jail over the past few years as he's fought for the right to sleep in public places, characterized the time since the court decision came down as “24 hours of anarchy.”

Johnston, rubbing his hands together in the morning cold, said the campers will likely build a kitchen today and may soon make a fire pit for warmth. They have a portable toilet, he said, and the city may also provide facilities.

A bylaw enforcement officer paid a cordial visit to the tent sites this morning, but did not write any tickets. Police officers drove by, one said “good morning” through a loudspeaker, but did not stop.

Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe said yesterday that tent cities will not be allowed as they attract crime. He also blamed the federal and provincial governments for their failure to provide housing. “This judgment demonstrates what years of cuts to social programming and housing programs has done,” he said.

The province's housing and social development minister, Rich Coleman, is yet to make a statement on the ruling. He was unavailable yesterday and remained unavailable today.
“The judge just told the city it's been acting criminally as long as it's had those bylaws,” Johnston said, adding the police are welcome to enforce laws against criminal activity. “If they want to deal with it on a tent by tent basis, let them. If somebody's going to deal crack out of their tent they invite their own karma.”

Despite the weather, he predicted homeless people will erect more tents in the region. “A lot of people are just getting used to the information. Not everyone wants to live in a tent city.”

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. You can reach him here.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

OCAP OPPOSES U.N. AWARD FOR CITY OF TORONTO PROGRAM:

The City of Toronto has a 'Streets to Homes' program that is supposedly designed to help the homeless but is actually more akin to some sort of "ethnic cleansing" designed to get the homeless out of visibility and offer them very little help. This program is amazingly in the running for an United Nations award during the upcoming World Habitat Day ceremonies. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) has something to say about this. Here is their statement.

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OCAP CHALLENGES INTERNATIONAL AWARD NOMINATION FOR TORONTO‏
OCAP CHALLENGES INTERNATIONAL AWARD NOMINATION FOR TORONTO

The City of Toronto's 'Streets to Homes' program is a mechanism for attacking the homeless and driving them from the centre of the the City. It dumps people without supports in outlying areas and is a pretext for removing funding from the vital services the homeless need.

This program is up for one of two awards that will be announced on October 6 and presented in front of the United Nations celebration of World Habitat Day.

Below is the text of a letter that OCAP has sent to the international body that hands out the awards.

August 13, 2008

World Habitat Awards

Building and Social Housing Foundation

Memorial Square

Coalville

Leicestershire

LE67 3TU

UNITED KINGDOM

Dear B.S.H.F.,

We have learned that the 'Streets to Homes' Program operated by the City of Toronto has been entered and, indeed, is one of the finalists for your annual awards. This program may well be held up before the United Nations celebration of World Habitat Day as a model of "practical and innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems". Our organization has worked to challenge homelessness and the devastation of services to homeless people in Toronto and we are writing to urge you in the strongest possible terms to avoid legitimizing this City's ongoing attack on poor and homeless people.We say this because 'Streets to Homes' is a dishonest, pseudoprogressive component of and cover for this ugly agenda and it would be massively unfortunate for your body to assist in the deception.

The underlying context for the situation I will lay before you is a phenomenon of upscale urban redevelopment that, as an internationally focused body, you will be well familiar with. Capital is reinvesting in the central part of this City following an earlier process of "suburbanization". Commercial and high end residential development is sweeping into areas of the inner city where substantial homeless populations and low income neighbourhoods have been established. Low income housing stock is being lost and homeless people are being demonized and persecuted in the interests of this process. This is the economic and political backdrop to the '"innovative solution" called 'Streets to Homes' that you have already held up before the world and that you may hand a prestigious award to. Before you do, we want to provide you with a perspective that you would not have heard from City officials or politicians that speaks to the feelings of those who stand in the path of the redevelopment agenda. We want to deal with 'Streets to Homes' from two standpoints. Firstly, we will examine its glaring immediate shortcomings as a program that claims to be improving the lot of those it brings under its wing. Secondly, we are going to deal with the bigger question of the overall agenda of the City towards poor and homeless people and show the role of 'Streets to Homes' in facilitating this.

So, to start with a look at the immediate track record of the program on its own terms, you only have to scratch beneath the surface to immediately find factors that sound a note of caution. 'Streets to Homes' may be putting people into housing units but on what basis? The homeless population is, of course, concentrated in the central part of the City but we can see that close to 40% of those being put into units are finding themselves outside of that area. Indeed, this understates things because the available figures include the area of East York as part of the central area. This means that a definition of central Toronto has been adopted that understates the degree to which the program is pushing people from the actual core. To be placed, without living income, services and access to affordable transportation in outlying areas of the City is a recipe for isolation and inability to secure the necessities of life. This factor makes it less than surprising that, after the first seventeen months of operating this program, 94 out of 269 people had lost their first housing placement and fully11% of those placed had again become homeless or their whereabouts were unknown.

We must also ask ourselves what kind of housing are people being moved into? If the City had to show that it was housing people in units that could be deemed as adequate and dignified, it would have much less to shout about in terms of the "success" of 'Streets to Homes'. Many of the private sector units people are being placed in are of the poorest quality. In the case of placements in municipal housing units, the situation is something of a scandal. There are over 70,000 people on the waiting list for public housing in Toronto and many of them wait for over five years for a unit but 'Streets to Homes' is able to move homeless people into a Toronto Community Housing (TCH) unit if it is refused three times over by those on the waiting list. If a unit is rejected repeatedly by those who have waited years for rent geared to income housing, you can be sure it is woefully inadequate.

In the course of our advocacy work, our organization has visited TCH buildings and units that people have been dumped in that would shock anyone concerned with basic health and human dignity. We have seen people living in conditions of dilapidation and neglect in such units that are so extreme that their health, safety and social inclusion are more compromised than they would be in any homeless shelter.

If people are being housed without proper regard for location, ongoing support and any effective commitment to ensure the adequacy of their living conditions, this only reflects something fundamental about 'Streets to Homes'. It has been developed not as a solution in the lives of homeless people but as a "solution" to the problem of homelessness as it exists for those concerned with redevelopment and commercial activity in this City. The homeless are seen as a problem to extent that they are visible, especially in the central area. The intention is to remove them from view so that they are not sleeping on the streets or asking for change in areas where tourism and recreation find overt destitution an impediment to their business operations.That's why so many are being placed in units outside of the core and that's why anything that can be referred to as "housing" will do regardless of what it represents in the life of the person dumped in it. This brings us to important consideration of where 'Streets to Homes' fits into the overall agenda of the City around the homeless.

If this program were only a very shoddy and dishonest attempt to put some people into housing units, we would regard a high profile international award as ill deserved and laughable but our sense of outrage would still not be as great as it is. However, the most harmful element of 'Streets to Homes' lies in its use as a cover for a broader agenda to attack the homeless. While a process of dubious rehousing of some people proceeds, the City is closing beds within its shelter system and defunding the services that the homeless need to survive. The new religion of "housing the homeless" is utilized to hide the worsening crisis on the streets. Vital services for those who access shelters or must sleep outside are being curtailed and all complaints and concerns on this score are swept away by a chorus of ill deserved triumphalism. Yet, people are not able to access the overcrowded shelters. On the streets, they must deal with an escalating and ugly drive by the police to push them out that proceeds regardless of claims by the City that new, supportive approaches are being adopted to assist those who sleep outside or who panhandle to try and survive. Last year, Toronto police issued over 10,000 tickets to homeless people who were panhandling (a massive increase) and, as this is written, the City of Toronto is revealing a plan to crack down on poor people who collect and return empty bottles and discarded cans in order to try and survive.

That you have already made 'Streets to Homes' a finalist in your competition is desperately unfortunate. As a program for housing people it could better be called "Streets to Slums". As a cover for an agenda of social exclusion in the service of upscale urban redevelopment, it is as dishonest as it is harmful. In this most wealthy City in one of the wealthiest countries on earth, the homeless are being swept from view. Should you reward and promote such an outrage, it will be a shame on your organization and on World Habitat Day that will cry out for public exposure. Please consider this letter and reject 'Streets to Homes' when you make your decision.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

OTTAWA:

MAYDAY RALLY IN OTTAWA:

May Day, the real Labour Day, is coming soon. Down Ottawa way the Ottawa Panhandlers Union will be holding their own demo to protest the way that their city attempts to clear poor people off the streets. Here is their appeal.

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OTTAWA: MAYDAY Rally
MAYDAY is coming!

On May 1st, we take action to recognize the sacrifices made by those who have come before us in the fight for liberty and security against the forces of capitalism. For the last four years, the Ottawa Panhandlers' Union has celebrated the struggles of those who paid for their activism with their lives and/or liberty by taking action on Mayday in the streets of Ottawa to reclaim public space, and to protest the blatant abuses by police against the most vulnerable people in our community. Previous years have seen us blockading the police station, shutting down the Rideau Centre, and taking the fight directly to the offices of the BIAs who own the politicians at City Hall.

The action starts at noon at the Human Rights Monument beside City Hall, at the corner of Elgin and Lisgar, where the Homeless Action Strike will be holding a Larry O'Brien Impeachment Tea Party. Then stay at 1pm to join the Panhandlers' Union for a rally to take back the streets which belong to all of us from the combined forces of police, government, and business who have laid claim to every inch of public space in this city. Let's show them this city belongs to ALL of us, and not just the people who have the most money or can hire the most lawyers!

For more information, please contact the Ottawa Panhandlers' Union at 613-748-0460.

ONTARIO:
A SUMMER OF DISCONTENT AND ACTION:
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) has campaigned for years now on behalf of homeless and other poor people in Ontario. They have proven that direct action tactics work in this context. This summer they intend to continue their ongoing campaigns and escalate the struggle against gentrification in Toronto, with a "takeover" of a city park by the homeless. But they need your help. Please read the following appeal and respond if you can.
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Fight Poverty in the Park - Your support needed‏

WAR ON HOMELESS IN THE DOWNTOWN EAST
Appeal for Support and Resources for Fight Back
A war is underway in the central part of this City. On the one side are long established low income neighbourhoods and large homeless populations.Pitted against them are the forces of upscale, urban redevelopment - the developers, the tourist industry, the 'resident' and business associations, the cops and the politicians.




As the oversupply of housing for the well off creeps into poor areas of the City, as ruthless drive to push out the homeless gathers force. People are targeted by the cops. Those forced to beg on the streets are hounded and their civil liberties disregarded. Services to the homeless are curtailed by the City. Hundreds of shelter beds are taken out of the hostel system and the places that remain become overcrowded hell holes.Under the 'Streets to Homes' project, homeless people are dumped in tiny rooms with no resources and no support, in conditions that make even the shelters look humane.




The war on homeless people has grown uglier with a speed that shocks even the most hardened service providers. OCAP is taking the lead in resisting this outrageous situation. We held a mass panhandle in the underground 'Path' commercial network. We have taken delegations to City Hall to expose and challenge the neglect. We set up a special night of shelter at Central Neighbourhood House to coincide with the end of the 'Out of the Cold' program run by the churches. This laid bare the fact that hundreds more have nowhere to turn and must go back to the streets.




In the summer, we will defy the whole process of upscale development and its champions with a takeover of a city park for the homeless. We will make sure that the covert war to drive the homeless from view is made into a public issue and we will build up the resistance of the homeless and their allies.




For this struggle, we must have resources. We will need to produce and distribute hundreds of leaflets and posters. We will need a large supply of TTC tokens to enable homeless people to participate. Food will have to be supplied at all the events we organize, including a number of meals and snacks for the campout. The campout will also require a range of supplies and equipment.




OCAP is already fully committed to a major fight to win repairs for public housing tenants. We continue to organize Special Diet clinics that put millions of dollars into the pockets of low income people and families.We are stretched to the limit and need help desperately. Please send cheques to OCAP at 10 Britain Street M5A 1R6. (Earmark them 'Homeless Fightback') Call us at (416) 925-6939 to discuss how you and your organization can back this vital campaign. Thanks, OCAP

ONTARIO:

DEMAND THAT HOSTEL SERVICES OPEN MORE SHELTERS NOW !!

Spring has sort of come, and like the first shivering robin's another sign is that governments across the country close down their winter shelters for the homeless. The following is from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), and they call for a reversal of this annual event.

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[ocap] DEMAND THAT HOSTEL SERVICES OPEN MORE SHELTERS NOW!‏

HOW MUCH MORE CAN WE TAKE?

DEMAND THAT HOSTEL SERVICES OPEN MORE SHELTERS NOW!

By the first week of April, most Out of the Cold (OOTC) Programs will have closed their doors. This will mean a loss of 130 beds on average per night. The City has already shut down over 300 shelter beds. The system is full, and is about to get even worse.

Every spring the Out of the Colds get shut down and hundreds more people are forced onto the street. Add to that the extra 300 beds the city has shut down plus the cuts to services and an aggressive influx of cops into poor neighbourhoods.

All this adds up to a vicious attack on homeless people that will not stop or even slow down--unless we stand up for ourselves and each other and make the city back off.

PROTEST THE LACK OF FOOD AND SHELTER!

Sunday April 6, 2008 - OCAP Overnight "Out of the Cold"

4pm – 7:30am -Central Neighborhood House (349 Ontario St.)

Monday April 7, 2008 – Breakfast and Press Conference

9am – Breakfast - Friendship Centre (323 Dundas St. E)

9:30am - Press conference – please attend.

For more information contact OCAP 416-925-6939, ocap@tao.ca

POVERTY ACTIVISM:

OCAP: "EMERGENCY- HOSTEL BEDS ARE FULL":

We should perhaps be grateful that we have the time and rest to observe things like eclipses. Canada's homeless have no such luxuries in their day to day dtruggle just to exist. A windchill of -41 can be tolerated if you can get back in to a warm place whenever you please. Down in Toronto, Canada's biggest city provincial and civic cutbacks have meant that there is often "no room at the inn", and homeless people are exposed to the bitter elements to survive as they will. The following is an appeal for your help from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) about the present shelter crisis in Toronto. Their website also has a downloadable pdf entitled 'They Call it Struggle for a Reason' that goes into depth about the issue. Check it out.

" Emergency – Hostel Beds are Full Committee Room 1City Hall11amThursday, February 21, 2008

In the past 2 years 300 beds have been removed from Toronto’s hostel system Four people from OCAP and TDRC investigated the hostel system MondayFebruary 18, 2008. They visited hostels and made phone calls throughoutthe evening to assess Toronto’s hostel bed capacity. They alsointerviewed people in the streets about their situation. By 10:50pm therewere no hostel beds for men or couples in the whole hostel system,including the Out of the Cold shelters.

This is a very dangerous situation. Not only do crowded hostels createviolence and psychological damage, but many people will face the bracingcold of February and can sustain cold injuries and even perish. The Riverdale shelter closed in the summer of 2007. It now remains anempty building and should be employed to deal with this emergency. Aswell, other buildings should be made available immediately.

Deputations regarding the lack of hostel beds and homeless people’scondition will be presented to the Community Development and RecreationCommittee at 11am Thursday February 21, 2008.

**Ontario Coalition Against Poverty10 Britain St. Toronto, ON M5A 1R6416-925-6939 ocap@tao.ca www.ocap.ca** "