Later in this Sunday afternoon on the first day of March, a fire broke out right under the Gardiner Expressway. However, it was most likely to be an accident caused by homeless people trying to stay warm. It has never been easy for homeless people in cold winter days just like today. It was reported by Toronto Star that:
‘This is the third homeless camp in downtown Toronto to catch fire in the past week.’
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/03/01/police-investigating-third-fire-in-a-week-at-downtown-toronto-homeless-camps.html
Homelessness was always a problem for the city of Toronto. It was stated in an academic journal that the average Toronto rents were increased by 30% between 1992 and 1997, in addition, welfare rates were also cut by 30% in 1995(Silversides, 1172). This could lead to the early stage of the homeless issue as some people could no longer afford their living expenses. But as of now in the year 2020, the housing price is still expected to continue to grow as I have stated in one of my previous blogs. So it has become really hard for people to find a place to stay. But what is even worse is that Toronto’s shelters are constantly running at full capacity. As in January of 2015, data collected by researchers has shown the average shelter occupancy rate was as high as 93%(Jadidzadeh and Kneebone,343). So even when the homeless people are trying to find a shelter to stay for the night, some of them would still not get the accommodation as there is just no spared beds available. But luckily, there were people with a heart of gold as shown in the second half of the Youtube video below who were paying for hotel rooms for homeless people.
A lot of the factors could contribute to the problem of the homeless and income is defiantly one of them. One common scene in Toronto is that even if one can afford the minimum quality of housing available in the city, the leftover of the income would be so few that people can’t support their basic living costs such as food or clothing. So in a lot of these cases, people would choose to stay in their friends’ house or the public shelters. As a lot shelters are often full, so alternatively in the worst case, those people would eventually become homeless.
So some people may think that the shelters should be the one to take the responsibilities and they should provide more spaces. But the fact is the shelter does not work as one single unit, government also plays a role. To the bottom of the homeless issue, it is that the government should put more effort in promoting affordable housing as well as income assistance for people in need. It is clear that the government is working to solve the issue as we can see that the minimum wage of Ontario was raised to 14 dollars per hour. So I do believe with the increasing awareness from the general public and the government, the homeless issue in Toronto should be settled in the near future.
| Sources cited: JADIDZADEH, ALI, and RON KNEEBONE. “Patterns and Intensity of Use of Homeless Shelters in Toronto.” Canadian Public Policy / Analyse De Politiques, vol. 44, no. 4, 2018, pp. 342–355. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26585557. Accessed 2 Mar. 2020. Silversides, Ann. “Homeless in Toronto.” CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l’Association medicale canadienne vol. 177,10 (2007): 1172. doi:10.1503/cmaj.071455 |
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