Where’s The Funds? OCAP Confronts City Budget
Shelters in Toronto are packed full. Over 700 people are crammed in nightly into the sub-standard back-up respite facilities. OCAP took a hidden camera into three of these facilities. The resulting video documents conditions within them. Watch video »
Shelters in Toronto are packed full. Over 700 people are crammed in nightly into the sub-standard back-up respite facilities. OCAP took a hidden camera into three of these facilities. The resulting video documents conditions within them.
On February 12, Toronto City council met to finalize the budget for 2018, and OCAP was there. By 10pm that same night, we secured a significant victory in the fight for shelters. Council voted 34-8 in favour of a motion to make the necessary funds to build 1,000 shelter beds available this year.
Mobilizations of homeless people, and their allies, have forced the City and the Mayor to dramatically shift positions. In a span of a few months, they went from downplaying the seriousness of the crisis, to acknowledging there was one; from refusing to open necessary respite sites, to opening 8 this winter; from planning to shut down the respite sites in April to budgeting money to keep them open until the end of the year; and finally, from refusing to budget money for 1,000 beds this year to doing so last night. It’s a testament to the power of fighting back.
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