Homelessness a human rights disaster

 

H

omelessness a human rights

disaster

Written by, Sharleen Cainer, BSW RSW

You might remember a month or two ago, where the Toronto Homeless folks went to court in an attempt to have homelessness declared a state of emergency. Certainly, for the individuals who are experiencing homelessness, living unsheltered on the streets of any Canadian city, particularly in winter; it is a state of emergency at the highest order. Having lost all you have in the world due to factors that you may or may not have control over is a state of emergency in everyone's mind, except in the minds of the court. Historically, before the pandemic days, January 2019 to be exact. The Toronto city councillors addressed a motion regarding homelessness and human rights brought forward by Kristyn Wong-Tam that specifically addressed homelessness.

Motion to Amend Item moved by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Lost)

That:

1. City Council declare homelessness a human rights disaster akin to a municipal emergency.

2. City Council affirm housing as a human right and our commitment to take appropriate measures to address homelessness as a human rights crisis. 3. City Council request the Provincial Government to apply to the Federal Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (known as Public Safety Canada) to establish an intergovernmental table to address housing and homelessness in Toronto with the following terms of reference: a. establish a formal table with Provincial and Federal ministers to meet with the Mayor, City Manager, and appropriate senior City Staff to determine a work plan and 6-month strategy development framework in no less than 30 days; b. identify the unaddressed low-income housing support gaps, including those of mental health and addictions, that may contribute to homelessness in Toronto; and c. establish what programs, supports, and services can be provided by the appropriate levels of government to prevent homelessness upstream and provide the current population with accessible options for dignified, supportive housing.

You may be wondering why I am bringing Toronto City Hall to you. I have two reasons. Durham Region has not discussed the issue to this extent even though Durham Region suffers the same grievances. There was one small step forward with the motion. Part 1c was carried forward. Toronto council agreed to:

c. establish what programs, supports, and services can be provided by the appropriate levels of government to prevent homelessness upstream and provide the current population with accessible options for dignified, supportive housing.

Fast forward to right about now, the pandemic hits and homelessness abounds. Now people are arguing the right to live in a tent in a park. They took their case to court, the city lawyer arguing there was no reason that people could not just stay in shelters. The judge weighing the arguments, stated We are just going to have an endless series of one might say, roundups, and very unpleasant bulldozing of tent cities and so on. Is that really in the public interest? We're bouncing a problem down the road, rather than trying to find some medium here." Supreme Court Justice Paul Schabas came back two weeks later with a ruling that stated "the group had not met the standard of establishing harm to the public interest that would justify suspending the city's ability to enforce its bylaw". Justice Schabas went on to say that he was not directing the city to enforce its bylaws and to remove encampments in city parks," stating "That will be up to the city." Justice Schabas may not be directing law enforcement to remove the encampments, but he was most certainly ensuring that the city would not be held back from acts of aggression against those who are sheltering themselves in tents on public park lands.

Last week in Hamilton, homeless people were bulldozed off the park land where they were experiencing the existence of homelessness living. Guidelines from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) are recommending that cities do not clear encampments during the pandemic individuals are going to be housed in appropriate housing units. Two doctors who are championing the cause in Hamilton are quick to point out that "appropriate housing units are not available. The Hamilton doctors (Hamsmart doctors Jill Wiwcharuk and Tim O'Shea requested) that the city please, stop dismantling homeless encampments for the duration of the pandemic until people could be moved to appropriate indoor space. An appropriate space would be one where all required services and amenities would be attainable. Much like the argument regarding the Beaverton project, there are no available services.

The position taken by many unsheltered is that they need to be located close to where their services and resources are located. The Beaverton project, which is a spin off from the Samac Project has no services located in Beaverton. The Samac Project had many services on sight or close by. Too often officials while calculating the checks and balances forget to include a needs assessment. The needs assessment will collect data from the individuals requiring the service. For example, when sending a pump to an African village, the needs assessment tells me how many people require water so therefore I know how big a pump I need to send. One thing we know about Homeless people is that they are particularly good at targeting what they need. The reason why many refused to stay in hotels is that the hotels were in isolated areas and too far for them to access their established services.

Last September 2019, the case in court put forth a requirement that the court make a ruling on homelessness by using the Emergency Preparedness criteria to gain access to emergency preparedness funds for the purposes of sheltering the unsheltered. In the fight against homelessness, the advocates put forth the following points.

- Comply with obligations under International Human Rights law to take all appropriate measures to address homelessness as a human rights crisis.

- Declare homelessness a human rights disaster and seek assistance from the province under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act.

- Request the province establish an intergovernmental table tasked with addressing the housing and homelessness crisis in Toronto.

- Convene an emergency meeting with federal and provincial representatives to develop an urgent plan of action.

- Request that the Office of Emergency Management take immediate steps to augment services for homeless individuals and seek the support of the Red Cross.

In a discussion I had with a city Director of Operations for the Emergency Preparedness Plan I learned that the scope of Emergency Preparedness Planning does not include emergencies that are the result of systemic or social issues. Homelessness is declared a social and systemic issue. What has developed is that the Federal government has come forward with RHI, the Rapid Housing Initiative. There is approximately $25 million on the table for Toronto and the GTA to submit proposals in order to access this funding, which is for temporary, emergency, immediate, modular and micro homes. The land use can be leased, owned, rent to own, and so on. The innovation on this project is really positive and very generous. The Federal government seems to have bypassed all the infighting and just declared a need to house. One step forward for us.