Heartening to hear mayor provide leadership on shelters

There is a need, across the city. An emergency. It is the responsibility of us, across the city, to meet that need, Edward Keenan writes.

Thestar.com
June 20, 2017
By Edward Keenan

Late Monday night, at the end of the executive committee meeting at city hall, Councillor Cesar Palacio summed up how a lot of people feel when a homeless shelter is proposed near where they live. “There is a need for a shelter,” he said, “but the location is not a proper location.”

Virtually all of us know there is a need. The existing homeless shelters are operating at over 90 per cent capacity, and one of the largest, on George St., is closing for a years-long rebuilding process soon. People sleep on our streets, for lack of shelter. People die on our streets. There is a need.

But when it is proposed to fill that need in a location near us, suddenly many of us see fine-grained flaws in the proposal. There are already too many shelters nearby so this will overwhelm the block, or there are no shelters nearby so this one will disturb the character of the neighbourhood. Too many children live nearby. Or not enough homeless people live nearby.

Whatever the specific complaints: this location is not a proper location. We all like to sneer at those who say “not in my backyard,” until someone proposes putting a shelter in our backyard. Then it looks different.

You see it all over the city. In Leaside, a prank proposal for a shelter led to a predictably outraged response. On Kingston Rd. in Scarborough, I heard locals saying “We don’t want these people up here.” In the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood, locals were taken aback when an emergency warming shelter opened in the same building where they take their kids to daycare.

There is always some reason to object - the lack of consultation or notice, inadequate surrounding support services, the housing nearby. Often it sounds sensible, if you live nearby, if you are talking about a change to your own street.

This one, at executive committee, was in my backyard, or near it. I take my children to the park across the street from the proposed shelter a few times a week. They play hockey in the arena down the block. And I admit I have wondered, in moments I am less proud of, how the presence of a shelter may change the use of those places.

But I also recognize that in most places, shelters fit into their communities fairly seamlessly. And I also recognize that even if this one doesn’t, even if it brings challenges and problems, they are challenges and problems it is our responsibility to deal with.

There is a need, across the city. An emergency. It is the responsibility of us, across the city, to meet that need.

Still, you expect residents to kick up a fuss when something like a homeless shelter is proposed in their neighbourhood. It’s sad, but it is common. And it should be an opportunity for leaders to emerge, to talk sense, to be a voice of moral authority.

At the executive meeting, Palacio and Councillor Frances Nunziata instead were objecting to technicalities - a 10-year lease instead of a five-year one, with city options to renew at the end in case the building was still needed, as a shelter, or something else. The plan is for the 50-bed shelter on Runnymede Rd. to remain open only until the rebuilding of the George St. facility is completed, which staff members said would be 2025 at the earliest. A 10-year lease, until 2028, Nunziata said, showed dishonesty to the community.

Nunziata and Palacio seemed, during the meeting, to have convinced Denzil Minnan-Wong to support their attempt to have the lease terms renegotiated (so the term wouldn’t be so long), which might have resulted in the site being abandoned and the search for a new one begun.

All are close allies of the mayor. Palacio sits on the executive committee. Nunziata is council’s speaker. Minnan-Wong is the deputy mayor. Though they protested they saw a need for a shelter, they seemed too willing to give voice to community opposition to this one.

So it was heartening to hear Mayor John Tory stand up, addressing his allies, and provide leadership.

“I’m very disappointed that this discussion is taking place,” he said - the last member to speak on the last item at the longest meeting of the committee this term. “Because I don’t think we’re being honest about what’s really on the table here.”

He said he suspected the members supporting renegotiating knew that such a move might lead to the breakdown of the deal. To the loss of this potential shelter site.

“Let’s talk about the real issue here. Really, by sending this lease back, probably we’re going to put this arrangement that has been years in the making in peril. And I think that’s really what the idea is here.”

And that, he said, would just embolden those across the city who shout “not in my backyard!” at every shelter proposal - demonstrate to them that if they just keep shouting they will win.

“The fact of the matter is, we don’t just need this shelter, we need, I think, 10 more after this,” the mayor said. “I have to get elected by the very same people,” he said. “I’m the one, more than anyone else in this city, who when people are homeless, has to answer for it. And I’m not going to answer by saying, ‘Well, I’m terribly sorry, we just couldn’t find anywhere to put a shelter because people kept pushing back.’ ”

He talked about visiting shelters this winter, seeing first-hand the extent of the problem. “Come with me,” he implored members of his executive who might doubt him.

“I think it’s a very important decision time, just now. And it’s an important decision time for about 10 more of these we have to find in the next period of time. And I’m going to stand up and be counted on this by saying no to the motion moved by Councillor Palacio,” Tory said.

“My conscience is clear, voting for this.”

When the vote came, well after midnight, the lease agreement was approved by the committee - with the sole proviso that council vote on the matter before an option to renew is exercised a decade from now. It goes now to the full city council for final approval in July.