Juno News - June 18, 2022


Toronto’s hotel shelter policy is wreaking havoc on residents


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

146.51357

Word Count

706

Sentence Count

41

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.640 Crime, lawlessness, feces and urine everywhere.
00:00:06.800 This shelter behind me has completely changed the Esplanade neighborhood,
00:00:12.160 a tourist spot and a historic district.
00:00:16.560 This shelter at the Novotel Hotel was supposed to be
00:00:20.960 only a stopgap measure of a year during the COVID pandemic.
00:00:25.120 It is now going into its third year and the residents who live right beside it and around it
00:00:33.200 say they've had enough. They're terrified, they're afraid to go out at night
00:00:38.320 and they have witnessed enough EMS vehicles day and night to last a lifetime.
00:00:46.800 There's thefts, there's assaults happening.
00:00:49.760 A lot of break-in and a lot of windows, restaurants being break-in in.
00:00:55.520 In the middle of the day I was coming home from doing groceries,
00:00:58.560 walking up this street, I was being followed and he walked down Church Street,
00:01:03.840 followed me along here and I took shelter in the restaurant.
00:01:07.600 Yeah, I saw people, three or four people with needles just slumped over on the ground
00:01:14.240 and this is in the broad daylight, this is like on a Saturday afternoon.
00:01:17.360 The noise level has gone up because the fire trucks
00:01:20.480 and the ambulances that have to keep returning.
00:01:22.640 Bindia, the Indian restaurant, friends of ours own that
00:01:26.480 and they've already been broken into six times.
00:01:29.680 I mean that's outrageous, you can't run a business under those conditions.
00:01:34.000 A lot of the people in this neighbourhood, I've noticed they've become timid.
00:01:38.640 We don't feel as secure because once I was followed a little bit too close by someone.
00:01:44.960 Now I don't, A, go out at night unless I have my son-in-law with me or a male escort.
00:01:52.720 I never go out, not even with my daughter, not even two females.
00:01:57.360 Safety is a big issue, hearing the sirens all night, not being able to walk at night,
00:02:01.760 having defecation all over the street.
00:02:04.240 Since we are also a tourist area, it's not a very good image.
00:02:09.120 They've set our recycle bins on fire in the past.
00:02:11.760 We've had to hire extra security guards to walk at night, which will make our fees go up.
00:02:16.880 This shelter and another were the subject of a recent Auditor General's report
00:02:23.520 in which she noted that the city had wasted 15 million dollars giving money to the owner of this shelter,
00:02:35.760 the Novotel, the Silver Hotel Group, for vacant rooms and other amenities that weren't part of the contract.
00:02:45.440 The question remains whether the city will ever recoup that money.
00:02:50.080 I believe, in my opinion, our mayor, John Tory, has left us out to dry.
00:02:56.480 The city is not helping. It's pouring money into there, but it's ignoring the real basic situation.
00:03:03.200 16 million overbilling is not an error. I mean, that's stealing and that should involve jail time.
00:03:08.320 So where's the collection of that money? Where's the suing of the hotel owners over that?
00:03:12.560 I used to like John Tory. I think he seems to be like a genuine, caring person,
00:03:17.440 but his direct policy has caused a neighborhood to be in sort of an unstable situation,
00:03:24.480 which is unfortunate, and I don't see any response from him.
00:03:29.760 Our residents have not been given an opportunity to be heard at City Hall.
00:03:36.240 Their issues are ignored, glossed over.
00:03:39.440 I tweet out and I've heard from one of his PR people, Brad Ross, who said,
00:03:46.880 they have every right to be here. I said, that's about all I've gotten. No response from Tory.
00:03:53.120 He doesn't have a town hall meeting. We don't know how he feels about this.
00:03:56.000 There's a bit of arrogance on the part of the person who was our previous councillor, Joe Cressy.
00:04:02.720 He chose to ignore people he did not agree with. So as a taxpayer, my question is,
00:04:09.920 why are we not using existing property to shelter the homeless if we can't find housing for them?
00:04:15.840 Why are we paying lucrative million dollar contracts to hotel owners?
00:04:19.600 Several residents noted, and I believe as well, that Homes First, the operator of the shelter,
00:04:25.280 is not managing it well. The homeless people are given a free ride while residents have to pay the price.
00:04:34.880 When is this all going to end? Who knows? For True North, I'm Sue Ann Levy.