In Response to Shelter-Hotel Closures Throughout Toronto

In response to the City of Toronto’s plan to close some shelter-hotels TPRP sent a letter to each city councilor, the mayor and other stakeholders to demand that these sites stay open to ensure the safety of our most vulnerable communities. The letter states the following:

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022
RE: Shelter Closures Throughout Toronto 

Dear Councilors and Mayor Tory, 

We are writing to you today from the Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project (TPRP). TPRP was created in December 2019 as a response to the increasing gaps in support and care provided to individuals impacted by incarceration as well as those who are currently incarcerated. TPRP is a volunteer organization of former prisoners, people with loved ones inside, activists, front-line workers, artists, researchers, educators and students. We engage in direct action, public education, and mutual aid to shed light on the harms caused by incarceration and connect prisoners with social, financial, legal and health supports. We are committed to abolition and building sustainable communities rooted in community care, transformative justice, and accountability. Our members operate throughout the Greater Toronto Area and represent each of our cities’ wards.  

Our organization acknowledges that we stand on the traditional territory of many Nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabek, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples which is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. This territory is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit and the “Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant", a treaty between the Anishinaabek, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers, have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect. Living on this territory makes all people in the City of Toronto/Tkaronto Treaty peoples, including those who come as settlers, or immigrants of this generation or earlier generations, including those brought involuntarily as a result of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade.

The reason we have reached out is in regard to the upcoming closures of several shelter-hotel sites. In recognition of the aforementioned land respects, it should be strongly noted that “houselessness” was not an issue in pre-colonial times. The current housing crisis in Toronto should result in immediate action to protect the most marginalized and vulnerable individuals in our community. With that being said, we are grateful that the City opened up a large number of temporary shelter-hotel sites to navigate the pandemic for our communities who are homeless. These spaces saved lives, and provided temporary stability for hundreds of people. To hear that a number of them will be closing is distressing and will disproportionately impact the community that we directly serve - those impacted by incarceration.

Up to 30% of individuals experiencing incarceration in Canada have no home to return to once they are released. As such, recently released prisoners represent a large portion of Toronto’s homeless community due to the lack of support they receive prior to and after their release. They are also at much higher risk of experiencing an overdose or dying from an overdose post-release as their tolerance for substances decreases during incarceration. Further, given the criminalization of homelessness and poverty, people who have been released may also face the risk of re-criminalization, heightened police surveillance and re-incarceration as a result of reduced access to shelter and safe housing. In turn, the impending shelter closures risks significantly undermining peoples’ safe return and reintegration into their respective communities. Without shelters for our incarcerated kin to find solace in post-release, how will the City ensure the safety of this community? Where will the City invest the money they save from closing these shelter sites to ensure that people are not dying cold and alone on the streets? Through a series of intertwined policy decisions, the City has constructed a cycle of incarceration and homelessness for some of our most vulnerable communities. However, as the City provokes in their Toronto for All initiative, “The first step is one that we all must take – do we want to include our most vulnerable, or ignore them? Which Toronto do we want to be?”

The impacts of criminalization, carceral violence and systemic poverty disportionately harm Black, Indigenous and other marginalized communities specifically. As such, the shelter closures exacerbates existing violences and inequalities which Black, Indigenous and other marginalized communities will bear the brunt of once again. This is contrary to the City’s alleged commitments to racial and social justice as well as its mandates and obligations to protect public interests, which we remind City Councilors and the Mayor includes Black, Indigenous, racialized and all other marginalized communities.

The recommendations to double-bunk people and move congregate dorm beds closer together are narrow-sighted and dangerous. We are still amidst a pandemic and as illustrated within our jails and prisons, we know that double-bunking has created consistent outbreaks of COVID-19 within these institutions. Moving beds together - especially as another COVID variant is near - is dangerous and puts people’s health at risk. Not just the residents, but all the staff alike. People are worthy of respect, dignity and privacy. Folks entering the shelter system because they have no other option are worthy of their own room and space to decompress and self-regulate. People should not have to enter prison-like conditions upon their release or while fleeing other harm. Individuals will not feel safe or comfortable within these spaces and will opt to sleep rough. 

These recommendations will result in more large encampments in the City again. The City was so adamant on evicting encampments, and these recommendations are counter-productive. If the City does not want poverty and homelessness to be visible in the City, there needs to be other viable and safe options that make encampments become unnecessary, not criminalized. There is hardly enough affordable housing available in this City. We need an immediate supply of housing now, including the expropriation of 214-230 Sherbourne and the building of several affordable, rent-geared-to-income housing units.

In the meantime, we insist that all the existing shelter-hotels remain. Closing any sites would be detrimental to the wellbeing of our City and the health of our residents. The Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project does not support the closing of any shelter sites and we demand that you rethink this decision to protect our most vulnerable residents. 

Sincerely,

Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project
Representing Members Across Toronto
https://www.torontoprisonersrightsproject.org
torontoprisonersrights@gmail.com