The results and key findings from Toronto's "Street Needs Assessment" were presented to Toronto City Council this summer for consideration. As the first step in Toronto's commitment to end street homelessness, staff assertions that "the assessment provides sound information to improve programs and services and work toward ending street homelessness" are highly questionable.
The methodology used to gather this information has received criticism from a number of groups, including the Advisory Committee on Homeless and Socially Isolated People. Besides its intrusive and impersonal nature, the Street Needs Assessment did not include the "hidden homeless" --individuals and families forced to "couch surf" with family and friends, and who, according to homeless studies in other communities, represent the largest number of those without homes. The time and money spent provided little more than a head count of the homeless people who were "visible" on the evening of April 19 of this year. Even though city officials knew this limitation before "the count," they wanted numbers (of people living on the streets) to monitor the success of the From Streets to Homes project. The city claims that this assessment provides answers to what these people need.
The one clear finding from the Street Needs Assessment is that people who are homeless want permanent housing. Toronto's City Council approved spending $90,000 from the federally-funded Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (SCPI) on a flawed assessment of the number and service needs of homeless persons living on Toronto's streets to tell us what we already know --homeless people need homes! These resources would have been better used for services already in place that those surveyed said they need: Services such as help finding an affordable home, help with transportation to see apartments, help with applications, and help obtaining identification needed to apply for apartments. It would even have been better if the money had been put into immediate service to these people in the form of rent supplements, food, emergency homeless shelters, or more outreach workers to help them access these services.
If the Street Needs Assessment produced little, if any, new information to help eradicate homelessness (and it is apparent that its usefulness in solving the problem of homelessness was questionable from the start) then we have to wonder about the city's real motive. Together with bylaws banning panhandling, squeegee kids, and even sleeping outdoors at Nathan Phillips Square or other public places, the word "street" in the title may offer a clue: The city is responding to public pressure to get these people off the streets, out of public space, and out of the public eye. We --with homes-- do not want to see the homeless. We don't want to see them sleeping outdoors when we are on our way to work, we don't want them bothering us for spare change when we are walking, and we sure don't want shelters or socially-assisted housing for them in our communities. It makes us uncomfortable to be reminded that homeless people exist. It's so much easier to sanitize this disgrace by getting them off the streets.
Homelessness is a complicated and multi-faceted issue that no one is quite sure how to solve. The obvious first step would be for those in power to begin creating affordable housing --a lot of it and now. Last year in Durham Region (located east of Toronto and outside it's jurisdiction) only 55 people out of the 2500 on a waiting list for assisted housing were housed, mostly because little affordable housing has been built in the last two decades. It took almost two years to plan, approve, and complete the Street Needs Assessment, with no word as to what the next step will be. How long will homeless people have to wait?
One positive outcome from the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of Toronto's Street Needs Assessment is that people are talking more about the homeless. Homelessness may be a product of capitalism, but it doesn't have to exist. The homeless should not be living in abject poverty under their government. This is our collective problem and we need to hold elected officials accountable to act immediately, effectively, and with compassionate policies --not to just clear some homeless people off the streets.
Robyn Lee is a writer, painter, avid gardener, and Cultural Studies graduate. She is a long-time contributor to The Social Edge.
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