May. 21, 06:54 EDT Secret video shows shelter overcrowding
By Kerry Gillespie
City Hall Bureau

PACKING THEM IN: These video images were taken in the third week of March at a
shelter in an undisclosed location in Toronto, the Toronto Disaster Relief
Committee says. It wants more shelter spaces opened in the city.The bodies are
jammed together, men and women, on the floor in a windowless basement.

A man, coughing, stumbles around sleeping bodies trying to find room on the
floor for his thin mat and sleeping bag.

These are images from a grainy video taken secretly in a Toronto shelter around
11 p.m. There's a blur of bodies



? dozens in sleeping bags, others wrapped in
blankets, still more on metal chairs talking at a table. The bright lights stay
on all night.

Today, the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, a four-year-old group of activists
working to house and care for the homeless, was to publicly release the
one-minute film taken by a film crew for a documentary on shelters. The video
was then passed on to the relief committee. Members say it graphically shows the
problem of overcrowded homeless shelters.

A spokesperson for the committee would not identify the shelter or its location,
saying it fears the facility would be closed down or blamed for the jammed
conditions. The spokesperson insisted no one in the shelter could be identified.

"What they're offering is emergency shelter. It's not their fault and it's not
the only place that looks like that," Cathy Crowe, a street nurse with the
committee, said yesterday.

The conditions in the video, which shows people so close together that many are
touching, violate even the United Nations' requirements for refugee camps, Crowe
charged.

U.N. standards for camps call for 4.5 to 5 square metres per person. The relief
committee superimposed a square that size on the video and it shows four people
sharing that area.

"The video tells a story that shouldn't exist," said Crowe, a founding member of
the relief committee, whose aim is to have homelessness declared a national
disaster. Other founding members include David Hulchanski, professor of housing
at the University of Toronto, John Andras, vice-president of Research Capital
Corp. and Rev. Dan Heap, a former New Democrat MP, according to the committee's
Web site.

The video was taken in March, but the situation hasn't changed, the relief
committee says.

It has been trying, without much success, to get Fort York Armoury opened as a
homeless shelter. Committee members hope that releasing the video will change
that.

"I don't think the average person will think that's acceptable ... the images
are just body, body, body," Crowe said.

Toronto city council was expected to debate today or tomorrow whether to ask the
federal government for the use of the Fort York Armoury. The city has leased the
building, on Fleet St. W. across from Exhibition Place, to the federal
government for $1 for 100 years.

Defence Minister Art Eggleton has said the armoury could be used as a shelter if
the city makes a formal request.

The building, which is used by the Queen's York Rangers militia regiment, has
been used as a shelter before, from July to December, 1999.

But John Jagt, director of the city's hostel services, says if it is used again,
it should be for at least a year and under different conditions.

"The last time it was a shared use. You had the military doing drills and
ceremonial things at one end of the parade floor and homeless people trying to
sleep at the other end," Jagt said.

The building was only available overnight until 7 a.m. and staff had to pack up
and stash everything away each morning.

"Flop on a mat and we'll give you a muffin in the morning. That's not the way we
want to run shelters anymore," Jagt said.

It would cost at least $200,000 to set up a full service shelter with beds,
footlockers, privacy screens, showers, counselling services and an infirmary,
Jagt said.

The city would also have to hire more staff. To run a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week
shelter takes about 45 staff members, he said.

It wouldn't be worth putting the money and effort into opening the armoury as a
shelter for anything less than a year, he said. If the go-ahead is given for the
shelter, Jagt said he has the money in his budget.

The city has about 3,000 shelter beds for singles and the armoury could
accommodate 200 more, Jagt said.

It's important the building not be a "flophouse" but a full-service shelter, he
said.

"If you look at a population of 200 that would be staying at an armoury,
probably 100 of them should be seeing a doctor soon," Jagt said.

Health issues are one reason the video is so disturbing, Crowe said.

Overcrowding in shelters increases the risk that a relatively healthy homeless
person will become sick. The video shows a dramatically increased risk of
spreading tuberculosis and other infectious diseases and infestations such as
scabies and lice, Crowe said.

In March, the city's community services committee decided that council should
seek permission to use the armoury on an "ongoing basis." The entire city
council is expected to vote on the issue this week.

Councillor Olivia Chow, vice-chair of the community services committee, said
council has a policy that, if shelters are more than 90 per cent full, city
officials should be looking at other options.

Shelters for single men are now about 95 per cent full, said Chow (Ward 20,
Trinity- Spadina).

Even with spring here, the problem won't go away because the number of shelter
beds available is declining as the weather warms. The city has already lost
about 300 spaces operated over the winter by churches and charities.

"Just because the winter is over doesn't make it any easier for people sleeping
outside," Crowe said.

Will publicly releasing the video help get more shelter beds opened?

"I hope so," Crowe said. "It's our last card."