Homeless Shelter Lawsuit Relaunched Against Toronto

The City of Toronto is being taken back to court by a group of homeless advocates for allegedly not keeping its end of a settlement to ensure the health and safety of shelter residents amid COVID-19. 

Back in April, a lawsuit was launched that claimed that Toronto’s homeless shelters failed to allow sufficient distance between people to protect them from the spread of COVID-19. The lawsuit sought to implement 75 shelters to enforce social distancing rules.

The claim states that the standards of homeless shelters were not enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The standards required two metres distance between beds at a minimum. Homeless shelter advocacy groups say that the standards were “grossly inadequate” at protecting individuals from the highly contagious virus.

Now, a group of advocates for the homeless is taking the City of Toronto back to court. The advocates accuse the city of not keeping its standards high enough to ensure the health and safety of shelter residents and the homeless.

Human rights organizations, including a drop-in centre claim in a notice of motion filed in the Superior Court of Justice that the city has not held up their end of the deal. The claim states that shelters still have not spaced beds two metres apart, they are still offering bunk beds, and that not enough beds are available to those in need.

Greg Cook, an outreach worker with Sanctuary Ministries Toronto, says, “We believe the city has not kept their side of the settlement. There [are] beds closer than two metres, one person called in for a bed and were offered a bunk bed and there are numerous situations, especially for women, who have not been able to get a bed.”

The city is accused of violating shelter residents’ Charter of Rights and Freedoms and breaching the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Initially, the homeless shelter lawsuit was put on hold after the city agreed to carry out proper physical distancing in shelters and to provide beds to the homeless. 

However, the advocacy group claims the legal action must resume because the City of Toronto has not been implementing the proper social distancing protocols in shelters.

In the deal, the city also complied with providing a bed for anyone who had stayed in a shelter since March 11, regardless if they left a shelter for any reason.

The homeless shelter lawsuit also claims that shelter beds have become very difficult for the homeless to find during the pandemic.

“To the extent that the city has achieved compliance with physical distancing standards within the sites making up the shelter system, this compliance has been achieved via a reduction in the overall capacity of the shelter system, as compared to the capacity of the shelter system prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the homeless shelter lawsuit cites.

The City of Toronto said it would address the problematic conditions of the shelters in court later this month, but said it had 100 per cent physical distancing of two metres between beds at 75 shelters and respites as well as an additional 33 temporary sites.

“The city has complied with the agreement to use best efforts to achieve physical distancing across the shelter system and provide shelter beds to people who have been clients of the shelter system since March 11,” the city said in a statement according to GlobalNews.ca.

The city also said their efforts have included being able to transfer 3,200 people into the 33 new shelter sites as well as providing both temporary and permanent housing placements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

625 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in cases associated with shelter outbreaks since the pandemic began and four of those people have died, according to city data. 

Many of the homeless left shelters during the pandemic, because of fears of contracting the virus. As a result, tents and encampments have shown up throughout the city as homeless people attempt to social distance and protect themselves. 

According to GlobalNews.ca, a street pastor at Sanctuary, Doug Johnson Hatlem, noted in an affidavit filed in court that there have been several violent occurrences in the encampment at Hislop Park near Sanctuary.

On June 19, a woman living in a tent told Johnson Hatlem that she had been sexually assaulted. Allegedly, two days after the sexual assault, the same man lit another tent on fire.

“It was evident to me that the people whose tent had burned down, the woman reporting the sexual assault, and several other individuals were in emotional crisis. I concluded that it was important to secure indoor beds for these individuals for that night,” Johnson Hatlem wrote.

He stated he worked with a city manager to help arrange shelter beds, but there were none available. In an effort to help on his own, Johnson Hatlem said he then paid for two nights for rooms at a boarding house. 

Do you think the city did enough to ensure the health and safety of homeless shelter residents during the COVID-19 pandemic? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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