Toronto, Canada, encampment outside Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields church cleared, one person remains

One person remained at a homeless encampment outside Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields Anglican Church in Toronto on Saturday, after city crews began clearing the site on Friday night when temperatures dropped below freezing. The church is on the corner of Bellevue Avenue and College Street in Kensington Market. Some protesters gathered as the dismantling got underway Friday, and by 9:30 p.m., several Toronto police officers were seen outside the church.

The City of Toronto said in a statement Saturday that by 5 p.m. Friday, nine people had accepted offers of shelter space with wraparound supports, and one person remained on the city’s right-of-way. The city said crews removed debris and combustible materials Friday to “lessen the immediate risk” at the site. As of 11 p.m., it said, approximately half of the combustible material had been removed.

A city spokesperson, Russell Baker, said in an email sent Friday morning that the city would “service” the site that day, but clearing began later in the day. Baker said the city recognized the clearing as “a tool of last resort,” and that the accumulation of combustible and “horded” material posed substantial risk to those living there and to people in the surrounding area. He said about eight people at the site had been informed of the “planned work” on Friday and that shelter spaces were offered to everyone encamped there.

Streets to Homes and the city’s Shelter, Support and Housing Administration teams will continue outreach with the remaining individual, the city said, to “encourage them to accept help and the offer of indoor space.”

Jamie Lee Pauk, who has lived in the encampment since July, said she felt exhausted because this was not the first time the encampment had been cleared. “It’s just as if there’s like a reset button and then we’re back at this again,” she said. “It’s very repetitive and it’s frustrating.”

Const. Laura Brabant said in an email late Friday that one person remained at the encampment. “Officers are there at the request of the city to prevent any breach of the peace. They are not there to remove the person living in the encampment,” Brabant said.

Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields Reverend Canon Maggie Helwig previously told CBC Toronto that although the land is not technically owned by the church, it has been used as a churchyard for about 150 years and more recently as a community gathering spot for people experiencing homelessness. She said last month that the need for such spaces had grown in recent years because of a lack of affordable and supportive housing in the city, including a shelter system that at the time was turning away 275 people each night. On Friday, Helwig said her understanding was that people who would not accept the city’s shelter referral would be “removed from the site.” She said she wants people to know that those living in front of the church are good people.

Source: Read the original report