In this week’s episode Anna Maria Higuera reports on a rally in Moss Park that tool place on April 3rd. It was organized by the Encampment Support Network (ESN) and Building Roots, to support encampment residents’ right to live in the park, pleading the City to “let them stay”. This action was taken following trespass notices served on March 19th and posted on tents, tiny shelters, trees and posts, expressing to enforce removal of encampments by April 6th.

The event hosted speakers, music and dance performances, as well as featured free food and arts and crafts activities. By engaging the community on the issue, organizers and encampment residents looked to show that the park can indeed be shared by all, opposing one of the claims expressed in the trespass notices, that encampments are prohibited because they may “create nuisance” or “interfere with the use and enjoyment of the Park by other persons”.

Since the pandemic began, encampments around the City of Toronto have grown as people experiencing homelessness look for safe and available spaces to weather this added crisis; due to COVID-19 restrictions, closures and dangers, many feel they have no other choice but to camp in the park. The city has worked to aid in the crisis by leasing hotels and converting them into shelter hotels, bringing the number of shelter spaces available to just under 6,000 while there are about 8,000 people experiencing homelessness in Toronto.

In a letter addressed to the mayor and city councillors of downtown wards, the coalition of lawyers advocated for encampments residents’ rights to live in the park. Stating their concern about the City’s approach to the PIP and what they saw as the invisibilizing of the housing crisis through potential criminalization of unhoused folks, rather than the offering of viable, in touch solutions to providing safe and permanent housing to vulnerable populations.