Thread by @TheAJWithers

RAPID FACT CHECK:
City Manager Chris Murray: The Saturday Debate: Should Toronto clear encampments?
He argued yes against @Fudbar and @djjohnso.

Murray's piece was mostly vague statements & light on facts. But, he made a lot of questionable claims.
thestar.com/opinion/contri…

1. LIE: our collective effort to end homelessness
It is trying to end “chronic homelessness” by 2030. This means ending homelessness for folks who have been homeless for 6 months or longer by 2030.

1b They say “end homelessness” – along with groups like the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness as part of a branding effort to convince people Housing First will work because Housing First is a neoliberal policy that requires no meaningful social change.
toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2…

2. MISLEADING: The City of Toronto has the largest shelter system in Canada, looking after more than 6,000 people each night.

The shelter system has shrunk under COVID, and under Murray’s and @JohnTory's leadership

factchecktoronto.ca/2020/12/23/cla…

3. MISLEADING: the city acquired 2,400 hotel rooms and the supports necessary to further enhance the safety of those using shelters.

This was so slow and inept people had to take them to court to force them to implement distancing.
ccla.org/toronto-must-d…

4. MISLEADING: since April of 2020, almost 1,700 people have accepted referrals of safe indoor accommodation

Many of the people referred indoors don’t end up there (14%) or leave (30%) – often to encampments

5. MISLEADING: Outreach workers made daily and nightly visits to people living outside — more than 20,000 times in the last year

5b. This number seems impressively large. But over April 1, 2020-June 15, 2020, with 10 staff a day, this = 4.5 visits/staff person a day for the whole city. This is why so many people in encampments complained they had gone for weeks/months and never spoken to a housing worker.

6. MISLEADING: the city has announced nine new supportive housing projects that represent more than 700 new homes across the city that are crucial to helping people successfully transition from living outside to safe, indoor housing.

6b. i) Future plans don’t help people being evicted now
ii) 700 units meets the needs of less than 10% of the people in the shelter system (7,575 people)
toronto.ca/city-governmen…

7. MISLEADING: Not everyone will agree on how we get there, but we must agree on one thing: housing, not living in unhealthy and unsafe conditions in a public park, is our destination

8. Most people in encampments are there because they are holding out for housing and don’t want to go into shelters which they feel are unsafe.
We might not agree how to get there but can you MOVE AT LEAST?

The City refuses to give people actual housing options.

8b. If somewhere's a destination, you have 2 move in that direction. Warehousing people in shelters/shelter-hotels after violently evicting them & giving them with a housing worker who's ineffectual b/c Toronto's in a #HousingCrisis means TO has stalled.
instagram.com/p/CQwrRltAFAq/

8c. At the same time, the City is offloading single home social housing, building “affordable housing” that will likely be unaffordable to people in deep poverty, and there are nearly 80,000 households on the wait list for #RentGearedToIncome housing.
torontohousing.ca/residents/Tena…

9. MISLEADING: Fires remain a significant risk to encampment occupants, first responders and the general public.

9b. More people died from COVID-19 in the shelter system (9) than have died of encampment fires since 2010 (7). There were 19 fatal overdoses from October-December 2020 in Toronto’s shelter system.
toronto.ca/city-governmen…

10. MISLEADING: People in encampments are also the victims of serious crimes, including human trafficking.

10b. i) The City's started making the claim about “human trafficking” but provided no specifics. Officials often collapse legal, consensual sex work with “human trafficking”
canadaland.com/podcast/28-the…

10c. ii) Shelter residents are also the victims of serious crimes, including physical assaults and death threats. There were over 10,000 incidents in the last 5 years.
factchecktoronto.ca/2021/06/07/she…

11. MISLEADING: The city has a moral obligation to continue to do all it can to provide safe, indoor options for encampment occupants and will not be deterred from these efforts of temporary shelter or, ultimately, housing.

11b. i) Encampment evictions do not preclude the duty providing safe indoor, options
ii) Violent evictions endanger those individuals you say you are working to protect

11c. iii) Why isn’t the City improving the conditions of the shelters, respites and shelter-hotels? This is a video of pre-COVID conditions – there is no indication that this is not how things will return when the shelter-hotels close in December

12. MISLEADING: In the early months of the pandemic, some were understandably afraid to come inside. Many chose, instead, to live outside where COVID-19 was felt to be less of a threat to their health.

12b. This ignores the many other reasons people won’t go into the shelter system, including the main reason listed in the report he authored: safety

12c. TRUE: In the last few weeks there have been no COVID-19 outbreaks in our shelters or hotels.
YAY!!!

12d. The City’s refused to acknowledge concerns were legit. Here, Murray acknowledges people went into parks because of COVID, not other reasons. But now COVID isn’t a risk he says concerns WERE “understandable.” So, there are no legit reasons for people to be in parks (ANYMORE).

13. LIE: Every resident of Toronto must have safe and unfettered access to their parks.

13b.Many of the parks that people have been evicted from to make them “accessible to all” are now fully fenced off or largely fenced of with #ToryFence Before evictions, people routinely and safely used the facilities in the parks.

https://twitter.com/c_shadowspaces/status/1410065977266610177

13c. B)The City destroyed a community garden when it was evicting the residents of #TrinityBellwoods
blogto.com/city/2021/06/t…