After being denied a chance to make deputations at a meeting on the Schoolhouse shelter last month, housing advocates were finally granted the opportunity to speak to the community development and recreation committee Tuesday. But their pleas appear to have done little to affect the fate of the 55-bed facility on George Street.
While the committee voted to re-allocate the Schoolhouse’s funding back into the shelter system, unless council intervenes at its meeting next month the hostel will continue to wind down operations and its bed spaces will not be replaced.
Roughly 20 of the shelter’s defenders lined up to speak to the committee, arguing that as one of Toronto’s few “wet” facilities that allows clients to consume alcohol on-site, the Schoolhouse provides a vital service for alcoholic homeless men.
But councillors concluded that the 126-year-old building, which is owned by the city but operated by non-profit group Dixon Hall, is in a state of bad disrepair and is too small to provide dignified living quarters or proper programming. The committee decided that the $300,000 it would take to fix up the property would be better spent elsewhere.
“If we could actually rehabilitate the building and expand the building, to put in more washrooms, a proper kitchen, proper counseling facilities… we would do everything we could to try to raise the funds to build it,” said local councillor and committee member Kristyn Wong-Tam. “But we can’t do it at that site.”
Closing the Schoolhouse will save the city $747,000 annually, and Wong-Tam successfully tabled a motion asking for a report on how that money could be put towards harm reduction programs or housing allowances for people with addiction issues. She also requested city staff consult with stakeholders, including Dixon Hall, on new models for improving transitional housing in Toronto.
In the same decision, the committee voted to prevent the Schoolhouse from closing down completely until the consultation is completed in November. Dixon Hall has already began shutting down the Schoolhouse however, and has been trying to move its clients to permanent housing since November 2011. As of last month, nine of the 55 men in the program had been placed in housing, while 17 others had left the system or gone to other shelters.
While Wong-Tam hopes that the studies will lead to better homeless services in her ward, others warn that Toronto can’t afford to lose any shelter beds while there remains a shortage of housing options for at-risk populations.
“There are not enough resources in any part of the system right now,” Councillor Gord Perks told the committee. “There are so many other individuals in our community who are not receiving services, that a net loss of 55 beds anywhere in the system is unacceptable.”
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty representative Gaetan Héroux said it was irresponsible for the city not to have had a backup plan before agreeing with Dixon Hall last year to close the Schoolhouse. He believes the recent death of homeless man on Parliament St. and a violent attack at Seaton House is evidence that shelters are already overburdened.
“People are dying and we don’t have the housing,” Héroux said. “Until that housing is there, and until people have enough income, you can’t be shutting down these hostels. It’s a deadly combination.”
Héroux and other activists stormed out of the meeting when it became clear that Wong-Tam would not move to save the Schoolhouse. Several of them interrupted her speech by shouting “Shame!,” “You don’t care!” and “You’re a disgrace!”
Squaring off against left-wing advocacy groups is unfamiliar territory for Wong-Tam, a rookie councillor who has already solidified her status as a rising star of the progressive faction at City Hall.
She says that while OCAP may disagree with her, there are others in the troubled George St. area who support her efforts to reform homeless services.
“There will be those who will continue to accuse me of harming the men who are living in the Schoolhouse shelter,” she said, but “on the opposite side of that I have residents as well as men who are living in [the shelter system] who have said, councillor, please do something. Don’t leave us behind.”
