Toronto clears out large encampment at Trinity Bellwoods Park

Toronto is clearing out a longstanding encampment at a popular park in the city’s west end forcing the residents to pack up their bags and seek shelter elsewhere.

This morning, security officials were seen at Trinity Bellwoods Park enforcing trespass notices issued by the city on June 12.

Residents were told that they must vacate the park and were given time to pack two bags of belongings. The city says all other personal items will be collected and stored for up to 30 days for future pickup.

“Camping in city parks is unsafe and it is not permitted, frankly, under city bylaws,” city spokesperson Brad Ross told CP24 Tuesday morning.

“Parks need to be accessible and safe, and available for all residents of the city, including people who are experiencing homelessness. The difference here is that they cannot set up tents and cabinets.”

There are an estimated 20 to 25 people living in the encampment with approximately 65 structures at the park, according to the city.

Ross says the city decided to enforce the trespass now after countless attempts of asking the residents to seek indoor shelter.

“At some point, you know, when we issue a trespass notice we have to enforce it. And we have been engaging with people living in encampments continually,” Ross says.

“More than 20,000 times in fact since the start of the pandemic to encourage people to come inside where it is safer. And so today we are exercising the city’s right, in fact the courts agreed last fall that the city can enforce its parks bylaw where camps aren’t permitted,” he says.

Toronto police are also on scene to “keep the peace.”

Community outreach worker Lorraine Lam says the city is using violence to make the residents leave.

“I think that health and safety, the way that the city is framing it is very narrow, they’re not actually offering people really adequate spaces. The way that the city is approaching is really violent. We’ve counted over 100 police officers there and three bus loads of private security,” she says.

The encampment residents are encouraged to seek temporary shelter at city-run indoor spaces where they’ll have access to meals, harm reduction, physical and mental health supports and a housing worker.

The city says there are more than 6,000 shelter spaces available in Toronto.

Ross says the goal is to get residents experiencing homelessness into affordable homes.

“We want to house people and having people come inside is the first step in ensuring that people can get safe, affordable housing,” he says.

An encampment resident who goes by the name Sue has lived at Trinity Bellwoods for 10 months and told CP24 that living in city-run shelters is not a safer option.

“I think they know that they’re absolutely mistaken, that it’s safer moving into shelters. My understanding from everyone I’ve heard from is there are not enough shelter spaces even with softening lockdown there still are not enough shelter spaces for the huge number of homeless people in Toronto,” Sue says.

Lam adds that many residents would rather live in encampments instead of facing violence at shelters.

“Data has shown that shelter violence has increased in the last year so why would people want to go there? So there definitely will be people who won’t want to go and will stay in the parks. I’ve seen from personal experience that they’re threatened with arrest so the options are ‘do I go to jail or do I go to a congregate setting where I don’t feel safe?’

As of Tuesday morning, three encampment residents at Trinity Bellwoods have agreed to move into city-run shelters.

The city has maintained that encampments are not a solution for homelessness as there could be serious health outcomes for individuals who live outdoors.

Since April 2020, nearly 1,700 people staying in encampments have been referred to indoor, city-run spaces.

Ross adds that the spread of COVID-19 is also a serious concern in encampments.

Many encampment residents have said that they prefer to live in their own outdoor space to avoid potentially contracting the virus at city-run shelters.

Last year, the city expanded its shelter system by adding hotel rooms for homeless individuals to access during the pandemic.

To date, the city has vaccinated more than 11,300 people experiencing homelessness and those who work in the shelter system.

“We have zero outbreaks today in the shelter system so it is safe to come inside with respect to COVID-19. It is also safer with respect to things like fires and encampment fires. We’ve seen 114 encampment fires alone this year,” Ross says.

In 2020, Toronto fire crews responded to 253 encampment fires, a 247 per cent increase from the same period in 2019.

Since 2010, seven people have died as a result of fires in encampments across the city.

The city says there are approximately 60 to 80 people and more than 200 structures at encampments across the city, including at Lamport Stadium, Trinity Bellwoods Park, Moss Park and Alexandra Park.

The city’s priority today is to clear out Trinity Bellwoods Park, but Ross says it will continue to encourage encampment residents to seek shelter indoors.

“Our focus today is Trinity Bellwoods Park. We will continue to enforce parks bylaw and ensure first and foremost that people have the opportunity to come inside and be safe.”