Strathcona residents fight for housing as shelter lease expires
Supporters call Dixon Hall’s relocation of residents “an ongoing game of musical chairs displacement.”
by Desmond Cole
A group of Strathcona Hotel residents stand outside Dixon Hall’s main office with a letter demanding housing plans and info about the shelter’s imminent closure. Photo credit: Brian Cleary
Residents of an emergency shelter in Toronto are about to be forced out, but the community agency that operates the facility hasn’t formally given them the news, or secured safe places for them to go. The city has been leasing the Stratcona Hotel on York Street for three years, but the hotel will soon return to its normal operations, according to a letter sent to staff in late March.
The note to staff from Dixon Hall CEO Mina Mawani was dated March 22, but residents say that in the more than three weeks since then, they’ve received no formal notice that they’ll be forced out. Several residents took action Friday afternoon, and travelled to Dixon Hall’s main office on Carlton street. The residents presented a letter demanding individualized housing plans, and more details about the rest of their time at the Strathcona.
Residents demanded a meeting with housing director David Reycraft, who spoke with them by phone and arrived in person shortly afterwards. Reycraft pledged that he would meet with residents in the next couple of weeks to address their demands. He said the city only recently notified his agency that residents must be gone by August of 2023.
Katy Chiapetta, who’s been living at the Strathcona for ten months, led the delegation of residents who showed up to Dixon Hall. She expressed hope that Reycraft would deliver “a little bit of action, instead of just words” about housing support. Strathcona residents have been speaking publicly about a lack of mental health supports, and about inadequate supports to find permanent housing.
A resident named Karen said she’s struggled to find housing on her own. She brought Dixon Hall’s housing worker to an appointment, only to find she was ineligible because she did not apply online. Karen said the housing worker has since refused to follow up on the unit for her. “I’m 65 next week,” she said, her voice shaking. “I want an apartment, just the basic things in life.”
Reycraft confirmed that Dixon Hall has only one housing worker to serve the 90 residents under its care at the Strathcona. He cited the unprecented housing crisis in Toronto as his agency’s main obstacle. “There is simply not enough affordable, and deeply affordable, and supportive housing inthe city of Toronto,” Reycraft said after arriving at Dixon Hall and facing questions from residents and media.
Reycraft also said “we know that some people will return to shelters” when they can no longer stay at the Strathcona. The hotel has been a site of constant upheaval recently. In March, residents attached to the city’s Homes First program received a notice saying they would be “relocated” to other local shelters, or into housing. But according to the recent advocacy letter from current residents, “in a matter of days staff started showing up at their doors in groups, giving them the addresses of a few shelters, and pushing them out the door.”
“We saw dumpsters behind the hotel overflowing with the belongings of residents who couldn’t afford storage, or who ran out of time,” the letter continued. In several videos posted in March by Encampment Support Network Parkdale, former residents spoke about being forced out without permanent housing options or support from Homes First staff.
Although Reycroft claimed Dixon Hall had helped to house multiple people from the shelters his agency runs, he couldn’t provide a number. But many residents are simply being shuffled from one Dixon Hall facility to another.
On March 16, Homes First sent a letter to shelter residents at 60 York Street saying they would be “moving to other shelters.” The letter said the change would allow youth from a shelter at 92 Peter to stay at York Street. According to the March 22 letter to Strathcona staff, the same youth relocated from Peter Street last month will now fill the vacancies created by forcing out current Strathcona residents. ESN Parkdale described the situation as “an ongoing game of musical chairs displacement.”
Michael Smith has been at Strathcona for several years. He has survived two strokes, and now lives with several health issues. “It feels like I don’t exist, they treat me like garbage,” Smith said outside Dixon Hall. “People out there, they don’t know what it’s like to be in the situation that we are in. They don’t know what it’s like to be homeless, got nowhere to go, nowhere to turn.” Smith said Dixon Hall at the Strathcona staff have never approached him to discuss housing options or other supports.
Since late 2022, city officials have announced the closure of several hotel shelters, which were leased temporarily after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those using the hotel shelters have frequently reported that they were forced out without safe housing alternatives. During the winter months, advocates shared videos of police removing residents from hotel shelters as the city announced closures and relocations. Police also continue to clear outdoor encampments, especially those in the city’s downtown core.
According to Toronto Public Health, 187 people experiencing homelessness died in 2022. The city recently announced it would stop reporting monthly deaths related to homelessness, and instead provide such data only twice a year.
A Strathcona Hotel resident holds a sign reading “Dude where’s our housing?” at a rally outside the hotel in March. Photo credit: ESN Parkdale
Correction: The original version of this story said Dixon Hall sent a letter regarding relocation to shelter residents at 60 York Street. In fact, Homes First sent the letter, and the story has been updated to reflect this.