Adamo D’Addario, Seneca College
Community worker, Sid Jackson, says “people are crying, they’re just like … ‘Our friends are going to die, I might die’” after residents were given notice of eviction at Toronto’s Novotel. The COVID-19 pandemic saw an increased number of outbreaks in homeless shelters in the city. Many of the people experiencing homelessness opted to relocate to encampments in parks around the city. As a result, these encampments faced frequent police sweeps and evictions.
The City of Toronto decided to lease out hotels in 2020 to provide temporary housing to people during the pandemic. One of these hotels was Novotel which, according to CTV, plans to convert the venue back into a hotel in the new year. Residents have been given until December 6 to relocate while the city works to provide them with alternative shelters and permanent housing.
However, it has yet to be seen if the City of Toronto can meet this demand because between April 2020 and September 1, 2021, only 8% of encampment residents made it into permanent housing. Should this number remain persistent then a whole new set of challenges could arise for the residents of Novotel in the coming months.
According to Toronto Public Health, three people who were homeless died from hypothermia between 2017 and the first half of 2021. Last winter physicians and outreach workers at St. Michael’s Hospital reported seeing an alarming rise in the number of homeless individuals coming to the emergency department seeking shelter and suffering from severe cold-related injuries. These injuries include frostbite, painful foot infections, and life-threatening hypothermia. With winter looming around the corner this could present major challenges for those without shelter this coming winter.
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