Pope Squat Demands

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OCAP is putting forward the following demands:

1. USE IT OR LOSE IT BYLAW

Across the downtown core, including here in Parkdale, there are numerous abandoned buildings. Some of these are owned by the City itself while others are owned by private landlords waiting for property values to rise before they begin construction. In a city with so much poverty and homelessness and with rents skyrocketing we find this unacceptable. Earlier this year the City expropriated the building at 1495 Queen Street West in order to convert it into supportive housing. A Use it or Lose it bylaw would put this type of positive step into law making it easier for the City to turn abandoned eyesores into housing. A good place to start would be the Pope Squat.

2. RAISE THE RATES

Social Assistance rates across Ontario are brutally low and the minimum wage does not provide enough to live on. The Province and the City both share responsibility for people on assistance in Toronto being unable to pay rent and eat properly. We are demanding that welfare and ODSP rates be increased by 40% in order to restore spending power to where it was before the 1995 Mike Harris cuts. Toronto welfare offices systematically deny people entitled money. Toronto City Council must instruct its welfare offices to stop withholding the benefits people are entitled to and take action to ensure this policy is followed.

The minimum wage must also be increased to ensure that people who are working are earning enough to pay rent and feed their families. It must be increased to $10 an hour at a minimum.

3. DECENT, SAFE AND ACCESSIBLE SOCIAL HOUSING

Parkdale is one of the best examples across the city of why just simply having housing is not enough. Many of the buildings, rooming houses and apartments are in brutal condition, overpriced or simply do not provide the access or support needed. We need more housing- 6,000 units immediately and 2,000 a year after that would be a great start. We also need inspections carried out and repairs ordered on all housing across the city. This means enforcing the city bylaws regarding rental unit conditions. We need rent control. We also need to make sure that everyone is given the housing they need and that means providing fully accessible housing for disabled low income people and ensuring that it is maintained as such.

4. FUNDING FOR HOUSING AND SERVICES NOT EVICTIONS AND ENFORCEMENT

The City of Toronto has put in place the Streets to Homes program as their solution to homelessness. We are all in favor of housing- we've been fighting for it for years. Though it looks good on paper, Streets to Homes offers no real solutions to the problem of homelessness. As it has been enacted, it is nothing more than an enforcement program. Many people on the streets, and many frontline outreach workers, say that the bylaws created under Streets to Homes, only help to criminalize panhandling and sleeping outside. For instance, banning people from sleeping in Nathan Phillips Square. What has resulted from Streets to Homes is more un-housed people with hefty provincial offense tickets to pay, or time to kill in jail, simply because they are poor and living on the streets. We believe that the enforcement of by-laws which restrict the actions of homeless people will never solve homelessness.

Instead we think the City should invest in housing and services for people on the street, like drop-ins and emergency shelters. The City is currently closing down these necessary services and failing to put in new investment. We demand that the City live up to its promise to build more social housing and quit trying to deter people from living on the streets by denying them their basic rights.

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