On today’s show Dimitrije Martinovic interviews David Reycraft,Director of Housing, Homelessness Services - Dixon Hall,  they discuss one of the more striking and contentious developments to occur in Toronto, the leasing of hotels to fill in aa emergency homeless shelters.

While homelessness in the public eye may no longer be seen as a phenomenon limited only to certain areas of the city, it is however, in the more concentrated areas of the downtown core. With the existing stock of shelters beds compromised by the pandemic, those facing chronic homelessness have turned to the only means of shelter available to them, camping-out in tents. As these tent cities, or encampments grew, so did the realization that this was a much broader issue, one that required a more extensive response from government as this was a matter that touched on not only social services, but health care, and ultimately on both the short-term and long-term solutions for people who are facing homelessness

Sadly, any attempts at reframing the issues around homelessness, whether it is income inequality, poverty, and chronic homelessness must take into account the prevalence of narratives that both support attitudes of intolerance and promote policy making on the basis of excluding certain groups because of race, ethnicity, and economic standing. Perhaps projects like the Modular Housing Initiative can bridge some of these more superficial concerns of blending into neighbourhoods, while at the same time tackling the deeper imperatives of providing adequate, affordable, and sustainable housing for all members of our society.