Tag: Alexandra Park

Claim: Pathway Inside, a new City program, is focused on those living in encampments at four priority sites, namely Moss Park, Alexandra Park, Trinity Bellwoods and Lamport Stadium, that are subject to increased health and safety concerns. The City has secured safe space inside hotel programs for everyone at these four sites.

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Fact: Pathway Inside is designed to clear specific City parks of unhoused people.

The City is using the Trespass to Property Act to clear multiple encampments. The City posted notices in March, 2021 informing people that they must stop living in the park and remove all their belongings from the park by 8:00 am, April 6, 2021 (photo below).

The City claims that Pathway Inside will clear four priority parks; however, Allan Gardens has also been served with a trespass notice (photo below).

  • Tresspass Notice. Date March 19. Moss Park. Notice outlines a number of alleged infractions to by-laws and gives residents until 8:00 am April 6th to leave the park.

Fact: Pathway Inside involves the City turning people away who are seeking a bed in the shelter system, claiming that there is no space available, while hundreds of shelter hotel spaces sit empty.

For the Pathway Inside project, a shelter hotel has been secured and rooms in the hotel are being reserved for residents from four “priority” encampments.1 The residents in these encampments are currently sheltered in make-shift shelters, but the City is demanding that these shelters be dismantled and the residents move into the shelter-hotel by April 6, 2021, or they will face legal repercussions. In the meantime, these rooms sit empty. Meanwhile, on March 18, 2021, the City was telling people with no access to shelter or a warm space of any kind that there was no room for them in the shelter system:2 a front-line worker had to pay out of their own pocket for a space in a private hostel for a person seeking shelter3 while a hotel full of empty rooms, paid for by public money, sat empty. Additionally, outreach workers have been trying to refer people to these empty rooms and all have been rejected.4

Notes:

City Claim: City of Toronto. (March 16, 2020). City of Toronto supporting people living in encampments with safe, supportive indoor space.

  1. City of Toronto. (March 16, 2020). City of Toronto supporting people living in encampments with safe, supportive indoor space.
  2. Evans, Jennifer. (March 18, 2021). https://twitter.com/nejsnave/status/1372723483772260356; https://twitter.com/nejsnave/status/1372718337692639232. At the same time there were 11 active COVID-19 outbreaks in shelters, with 204 cases. City of Toronto. (March 19, 2021). Active COVID-19 Outbreaks in Toronto Shelters.
  3. After paying for the room for two nights, the worker fundraised for a third night for this individual and for a night for two other people who were also unable to access shelter through the City. Evans, Jennifer (March 19, 2021). https://twitter.com/nejsnave/status/1372946919392165891; https://twitter.com/nejsnave/status/1373362591007830019
  4. Lorraine Lam. (March 20, 2021). Twitter post. https://twitter.com/lorrainelamchop/status/1373802832323870722

Images: Trespass notice photos: Greg Cook