TORONTO – Mayor Rob Ford dismissed Thursday’s protest by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) as “nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt.”
Ontario Coalition against Poverty (OCAP) protestors set up a makeshift homeless shelter at Metro Hall Thursday morning in an attempt to bring attention to what homelessness activists say is “overcrowding” throughout Toronto’s shelters.
The mayor seemed to write off the accusations of OCAP protestors Thursday saying he refuses to “throw money at the problem” and reaffirming that there are regularly open beds in the city’s shelters.
“OCAP is wrong about access to beds. Every single night there are empty beds in our shelter system,” Ford said. “On average, about 3 to 4 per cent are empty every night.”
The city’s Shelter, Support and Housing Administration website offers a daily breakdown of the city’s shelter programs.
On March 6, there were 3,689 people who used a shelter bed. In total, there are 3,859 beds, meaning 170 beds were empty across 57 shelters.
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According to the protestors, the city’s 96 per cent occupancy rate at city shelters constitutes “overcrowding” and creates “unsafe conditions” for those using the shelters.
This homeless shelter at Metro Hall is the latest in a series of makeshift homeless shelters set up by the protestors.
In recent weeks, OCAP has occupied various spaces in city hall – including outside of Ford’s office – for short periods of time to raise awareness.
Metro Hall is sometimes used by city officials as a temporary shelter in emergency situations and OCAP is attempting to use it as such during Thursday’s protest.
“In 1999, the City made the decision to open up Metro Hall as emergency space in reaction to a shelter occupancy rate of 90%. It was done before and it can be done again now,” according to an OCAP press release.
Though OCAP complains of cuts to shelter beds, in the city’s latest budget no cuts were made and in fact, shelter services saw a small budget increase.
“OCAP again is absolutely wrong about people being turned away. People are not turned away from city shelters. City policy is to never turn away a person who needs help or shelter. Again OCAP is wrong about budget cuts to the shelters,” Ford said. “In the 2013 budget we included more funding. I emphasize more funding, not less for shelters. We added more beds – many more beds – not fewer beds as they claim.”
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