Winters in Toronto are brutal, down to tens of degrees below zero, but that hasn’t stopped Toronto’s political elite from making people homeless and cutting back on support services and even worse, cutting back on emergency shelters for homeless people.
Toronto’s remaining homeless shelters are bursting at the seams.
In a city that drips with wealth, homeless people are left to die on the streets or face conditions of brutal overcrowding that denies them basic dignity and jeopardizes their health.
All summer long shelters have been packed, and now as head into winter, there is a real risk that even survival spaces like the Warming Centres and volunteer-run Out of the Cold programs won’t be able handle the overflow.
The City must stop cutting shelter beds in the city centre, and open new spaces now if we are to avoid tragedies this winter.
See the film that documents the crisis, be outraged at what the Toronto authorities are doing and then help to bring pressure on those authorities to do something (see what you can do at the end of this page).
Our Allies in Toronto, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) marched through the streets in Toronto last night to demand the opening of more shelter space for the homeless just as a blizzard hit. It was brutally cold.
- If you use Twitter, send the Mayor of Toronto @JohnTory a message. Tell him that the homelessness crisis in his city is getting international attention. Tell him that people in the UK are outraged that in such a wealthy place he lets homeless people die through political neglect.
- Please Sign and Share this petition https://www.change.org/p/mayor-tory-open-the-armouries-for-shelter
- If you use facebook, go to the OCAP Facebook Page and send them a message of support