Mayor Chow’s first priority should be people living in encampments

As we welcome Toronto’s new mayor, Olivia Chow, we recognize that a long list of priorities will be competing for her attention. Some, she and other mayoral candidates spoke about during the campaign, and many others did not garner much public discussion.

We suggest Mayor Chow make her first priority helping the people who are most in need. We ask her to use her power and leadership to help every person who is living in an encampment to move into adequate housing, and to do this in her first 100 days.

Estimates are that 1,000 people currently live in encampments in this city. Toronto has 25 city councillors. A little light math: 1,000 ÷ 25 = 40. So each councilor can commit to finding an adequate home for 40 people. Forty is not a big number. For comparison, if you put 40 people on a regular TTC bus, it would only be two-thirds full. Forty is achievable.

Although they would fit, those 40 people should not be on a bus. They should not be on the TTC, sheltering from the elements, trying to keep themselves safe until an officer asks them to move along. Those 40 people should be transitioning into stable and adequate homes that afford them the opportunity to live with dignity.

Mayor Chow will take office on July 12. One hundred days later, on October 20, the weather will be turning. It’s not unheard of to get snow by Hallowe’en. Getting started immediately will give encampment residents a chance to transition to an adequate home before winter.

To find homes for 40 people, councillors can call on a range of experts: people who know about housing options, social supports, income support programs, physical and mental health, and human rights. And they can call on people who have experienced homelessness themselves. Councillors can learn from the human rights-based approach taken at the Dufferin Grove Park encampment in 2021. Here, the City brought mobile, comprehensive health and social services to the people living in Dufferin Grove Park, and built relationships with and connected people to safer indoor living spaces, including permanent housing, that met their needs. It was highlighted as a promising model in Toronto Ombudsman Kwame Addo’s otherwise scathing report on the way that the City had been “clearing” encampments using an enforcement approach.

Some might argue that since encampments are concentrated in a few wards, that only councillors of those particular wards should shoulder responsibility for the people living there. If you were walking down the street and saw someone having a heart attack, would you check their postal code before calling 9-1-1? This is an emergency. While councillors should be concerned about their own wards, they must also work together for the good the whole city. That’s their job.

The mayor’s job is to lead. Mayor Chow will need to rise to her promise of making Toronto a city that cares. She needs to build on the City’s commitment to realize every person’s human right to housing. She needs to make it clear that the City will prioritize the people who are most in need. She will need to bring councillors together to work towards this common goal and ensure that they have all the resources and tools they need to get it done. Mayor Chow herself has new “strong mayor” powers that expand her executive authority to lead the municipal government in this direction. She has wisely declined to use undemocratic “minority rule” powers, which means that she will need to actively engage councillors in support of this work. As the leader of our city, the mayor will be accountable for ensuring that it gets done.

The mayor’s job is to govern. The time for campaigning is over. We have heard a lot over the past weeks about the deterioration of this city and the many ways that it has decayed over the past dozen years or more. We also heard a fair bit of cynicism about whether any mayor could reverse this trend and tackle the pile of pressing issues facing Toronto. Many take refuge behind this cynicism, brandishing it as a shield against taking action.

The mayor’s job is to show Toronto that, yes, we can make progress on these issues. We can get this done. We can make Toronto into a city that cares, that honours our human rights. Mayor Chow should start with the people who are most in need, and ensure that encampment residents can transition to an adequate home.  And in these first 100 days, she should substantially achieve this.