Read true stories that expose systemic failures and inspire urgent calls for shelter reform. Many more to come. Please share yours.
Unsafe Conditions and Overcrowding
Countless individuals face dangerous overcrowding, violence and disease, putting lives at risk and worsening mental health every day. Women face constant threat of sexual assault and rape.
Lack of Adequate Support Services
Shelters often lack proper access to healthcare and counseling, leaving residents vulnerable and unheard.
Urgent Need for Policy Change
Without systemic reform, tragic outcomes continue. A public inquiry is the only solution.
A homeless senior dying from cancer makes a final plea to Mayor Olivia Chow. She ignored it, as she always does. Copies were sent to Councillors Bravo and Matlow, top TSSS managers, the City’s human rights office and the Ombudsman. No reply from anyone. And that, in a nutshell, is why so many are dying and lives are being ruined.
Forced to pay $950 for a room in a Toronto Shelter Hotel
Why did a disabled man nearing 80 years of age and with a severe heart condition have to take out a high interest payday loan to pay a shelter hotel operator $950 for just two more nights after he was thrown out by TSSS Central Intake? It cleaned out his bank account and left him with nothing to live on.
His complaint/appeal about the City’s decision to terminate his support in the shelter hotel was ignored.
What will happen to him after this? How can a shelter system get away with acting in such a cruel way? The answer is that, in too many cases, it’s standard operating procedure. And they think nobody is watching.
Dangerous shelter forces cancer patient to live in car during chemotherapy
A cancer patient had to endure the hideous side-effects of chemotherapy drugs that included vomiting and diarrhea, while he was forced to live and sleep in his car during the coldest months of a harsh winter. He refused to put himself at risk of infection and disease at the overcrowded shelter TSSS managers insisted on putting him into.
He was left without any support from the City for five months in retaliation for the many emails he sent to Mayor Olivia Chow, councillors and senior City officials. Those pleas for help were ignored. They always are.
After his medical condition deteriorated, he was hospitalized in life-threatening condition for weeks. This is another example of why the most vulnerable often die when they entrust themselves to the kind of morally bankrupt people who run Toronto’s shelter system.
Sexual assault survivor retraumatized by irresponsible TSSS managment
A victim of sexual assault was sent to a violent, drug-infested shelter hotel which the City had claimed was safe for her. On arriving and witnessing evidence of drugs and violence with men lying on the parking lot floor dazed and hallucinating, the trauma of her sexual assault was retriggered. She became catatonic, repeatedly threw up and required urgent medical care.
Over the next year, the same TSSS top managers kept trying to force her back to that notorious shelter hotel. claiming it was “ideal for her needs.” Despite being told their actions were harmful, insulting and unwelcome to a survivor, they kept saying the same thing and insisted the shelter where she was retraumatized was best for her.
Complaints to the City and to Mayor Olivia Chow went without reply. Voice messages were never returned. A human rights complaint seeking accommodation for her disability was also ignored.
Do you wonder why so many women are assaulted and feel unsafe and unprotected in Toronto shelters? Maybe it’s because the top officials who run the system are all men. Or maybe it’s because they just don’t care.