Juno News - Toronto continues to ignore the disastrous effects of its hotel shelter policy

00:00:00.000 They used to call this area young and eligible. Now I'd sooner call it young

00:00:04.860 and terrified and that's because of the shelter right behind me, the infamous

00:00:10.180 Roehampton Hotel shelter which opened two years ago amid much controversy and

00:00:18.320 was supposed to closed by now. But as you can see it's not closed yet.

00:00:24.480 How long have you lived in this neighborhood? I've lived here for about

00:00:28.720 12 years. And have you noticed the difference in the neighborhood or a

00:00:34.840 decline since the Roehampton shelter came in? Absolutely. So at the start of COVID

00:00:39.700 unfortunately I was off work and I used to be an avid runner. I prefer to run

00:00:43.560 outdoors and I remember running south and mentioning to my mother there's so many

00:00:48.400 more homeless people. I just don't understand. I've never seen so many

00:00:51.580 homeless people. And then it got to the point where they started to harass me

00:00:57.160 constantly. Every run I'd have someone swearing at me and then towards the end

00:01:01.720 my final run I had a man hurl a Gatorade bottle at my head. And luckily my

00:01:06.540 periphery saw it and I kind of dodged out of the way. So unfortunately I've

00:01:10.660 subsequently stopped running. Like I won't run outside anymore just because I don't

00:01:14.140 feel safe. When the shelter first opened police crime statistics showed that crime

00:01:19.900 had increased by 30% in the three months afterwards. Mostly centered completely

00:01:27.220 around the shelter. I called 911 because there was an attack on an Uber driver and

00:01:32.200 then thank goodness I called 911 because the perpetrator subsequently went up to

00:01:36.880 the 7-11 just north of us and smashed that place up. Completely destroyed it but the

00:01:42.220 cops luckily were already on the way so they went there and then the cops

00:01:45.520 subsequently I believe was attacked by this person. He threw rocks at him so when

00:01:50.080 I spoke to the cops to follow up they basically said it's almost a good thing

00:01:54.200 that this time he did something physically to the cops so they can press

00:01:57.220 charges. As Young and Eglinton resident Melissa Cutler would tell you it has

00:02:03.260 completely completely changed the fabric of what was once a family friendly

00:02:09.220 neighborhood. Like I refuse to run outside now. I try to have someone walk with me

00:02:14.800 because I don't enjoy walking alone anymore where it used to be my it was

00:02:18.880 cathartic for me after work I'd go outside I'd go for a stroll and it's that's

00:02:22.720 completely taken away. Well they used to joke that Young and Eglinton was Young and

00:02:26.560 Singleton. Eligible. Yeah Young and Eligible. Exactly. Completely changed. Melissa has been

00:02:33.040 terrorized and was recently assaulted by a homeless man who appeared to be under the

00:02:39.640 influence of drugs. You were personally you had a personal experience with somebody

00:02:45.940 who you believe might have been from the shelter in March of this year. Can you

00:02:50.680 tell me about it? Sure so Cooper and I were walking coming back from our walk it

00:02:55.720 was a sunny but cold day in March and we were basically two seconds away from home

00:03:00.880 I was looking towards Cooper because I thought he might have to go to the bathroom

00:03:04.300 facing towards Young Street so my back I guess towards the man who came at me at

00:03:09.580 the last second I turned and saw a taller than me and I'm quite tall almost six feet

00:03:14.920 man kind of crouched down in this weird position coming at me like a linebacker

00:03:19.480 and he basically pummeled me into thank goodness a construction fence that was

00:03:23.860 shielding me from falling into Young Street and oncoming traffic. That happened in

00:03:28.240 March and the police have done nothing she says. So I followed up with them

00:03:32.640 probably a total of four times twice via email twice via phone call and then they

00:03:37.840 subsequently called me once to basically say that they're just so busy they're

00:03:41.420 just so overwhelmed they didn't have a chance to check surveillance if I could

00:03:45.520 check surveillance that would be helpful nothing I sent them pictures because I

00:03:50.920 believe I saw him the following week doing that same bizarre kind of crouch and run

00:03:54.880 that's what caused me to my attention to turn towards them nothing too busy.

00:03:59.560 Earlier this year Toronto City Council in a rather secret vote one you'd call

00:04:07.480 hidden in plain sight voted to extend the leases on a number of shelters

00:04:13.180 including the Roehampton. This shelter will be in place leased till the end of the

00:04:18.620 year but I'm telling you they're not going to put shelter people out on the 0.98

00:04:22.300 street in the winter. And have you brought this to the attention of your

00:04:27.220 politician of the mayor anybody? So the attack on me physically was the last straw

00:04:32.680 even though there had been altercations almost you know every day I get sworn at

00:04:37.060 out but it didn't really faze me I was unfortunate but that physical attack was

00:04:41.260 so violating that I that was my last straw I wrote a letter to John Tory and I

00:04:46.220 CC Josh Matlow excuse me and John Tory did not respond but Josh Matlow did and what

00:04:52.760 did he say? He was very empathetic towards me he was very kind on the phone he

00:04:58.820 basically abstained from any responsibility he claimed that he didn't

00:05:02.660 know anything about these shelters he had nothing to do with it and he

00:05:06.680 actually assured me that they would be removed by the end of this year so I was

00:05:10.700 like can you make that a promise and he was like yeah by the end of this year

00:05:14.240 there won't be any more shelters I'm like well where are they going to go?

00:05:16.520 He didn't know. Our politicians most especially Mayor John Tory have turned a

00:05:22.680 blind eye to the changes in the neighborhoods surrounding these

00:05:27.440 shelters and it's a travesty it's unsafe it's unfair to the local residents and

00:05:34.160 I'm not sure they're going to do anything in the near future. For True North I'm Sue Ann Levy.

00:05:44.240 so

Juno News - July 16, 2022

Toronto continues to ignore the disastrous effects of its hotel shelter policy

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