Cold Comfort

Richard Smith looks out from his tent with his dog, Pixie. Smith has lived under the Gardiner Expressway near Spadina Ave. for about two years.  (Richard Lautens / Toronto Star)

Yesterday we took our two grandlads to the YWCA for some play time. Usually when they come for a sleepover we head outside to run off some steam but yesterday the vapour was from our mouths as we trotted from the vehicle to the building. The temperature was around -20C and we were all cold, despite being bundled up.

It's hard to imagine that people are "sleeping rough" in this weather, but that is a reality in Toronto and other large cities and, for all we know, here in modest-sized Belleville. There was a timely article in the Toronto Star newspaper last week called Under the Gardiner, referring to the Gardiner Expressway, a major arterial road near the lake and adjacent to some of the priciest condos in the country. It describes the small community of tent-dwellers under the shelter of the highway, people who come and go and have next to nothing.

Nearby, one of [Richard Smith's] neighbours collects wood for a stove that feeds into a tiny chimney poking out of the top of his own tent, where a single light bulb glows behind the nylon.“A lot of people don’t even realize there’s people in them,” says Smith of their makeshift homes. “We’re pretty tight, pretty good people. We check in on each other, that’s kind of the reason to be here.”

 

Smith is one of about a half dozen men, he says, who have set up camp under the Gardiner near Spadina Ave. in the shadow of some of the most expensive condos in the country. He says they’re staking out a sliver of privacy and protection from the elements in a city with a dwindling housing supply and a packed shelter system.

 
The city handed out eight notices to people like Smith, although he says he didn’t personally receive one, starting last Thursday. Officials told them to get out in 14 days, citing public safety issues. But as temperatures are set to drop to as low as -21 C this weekend, and amidst three homeless deaths in less than two weeks, advocates, and some of the men themselves, say there’s simply nowhere for them to go.

“It’s a Catch-22,” says Smith, who’s been camping here on and off for about two years after losing his apartment and job following an arrest.“They say there’s places for us,” he adds. But he’d like to see them.

It's a sin that these folk are living this difficult existence. While it's understandable that they can't stay there, where will they go. There are agencies which roam the streets during cold snaps hoping to prevent the deaths of those on the street, and there are churches and other faith groups which participate in In From the Cold and meal programs. But what is happening to those on the margins of our society can't be addressed by an extra sleeping bag or a hot meal. I have little confidence that the current provincial government cares about these folk, and municipalities are hard pressed to respond to the need.

We can continue to advocate and pray for those who are often voiceless and voteless. Stay warm.