A thread in which I bury the lede down in tweet 15 (spoiler alert: news stories like this literally endanger peoples' lives). https://twitter.com/TinaYazdani/status/1262863844696784897

1) The story argues that homeless encampments in the Church/Wellesley neighbourhood are making the neighborhood more dangerous for residents (evidently, people without homes don't count as residents).

2) The woman who is featured (also named Kathleen) shares some really awful, violent, frightening things that have happened to her. What happened to her was wrong. It should not have happened.

3) I actually share her concern about violence in the neighbourhood. In the past year and a bit, two people I know were murdered in this neighborhood. They were both homeless.

4) I also know many (if I had to guess, upwards of 30) people who have been assaulted, attacked, and harassed by other residents or city officials in this neighborhood. They were all homeless or poor. None of that should have happened. It was wrong.

5) So this woman and I have some common ground. We want less violence in the neighbourhood.

6) But here's where this story makes me really heartsick and afraid. I'm not going to pretend to be unbiased here. I am barely holding back tears as I type:

7) This story falls into an easy, callous, and irresonsible trap: it makes homeless people the problem. You know, those people they film with a blur, skirting around, faceless, nameless, and dehumanized. And there is so much I could say about this, but I'll try to keep it short:

8) The person (or persons) who assaulted/harrassed this woman do not represent the entire population of people who are homeless in the downtown Eastside (DTE). They are individuals who did a bad thing. But the problem gets framed as "the homeless people."

9) As I have already touched on, people who are homeless are way more likely to experience violence.

10) This kind of rhetoric masks the real, catastrophic problem : in one of the richest cities, in one of the richest countries in the world, we let thousands of people go without housing. That's the problem.

11) Is there more violence around encampments? I don't have stats on that. But even if that's true, the guy in a tent isn't the problem. The problem is the fact that there is literally nowhere else for them to stay (I have receipts for this, if you think I'm exaggerating).

12) Let me be clear: saying that "homeless people" are the problem would be like if someone cut off my arm and said "The problem is, there is blood all over the floor."

13) This analogy is actually especially apt, because I know a lot of people who are poor who have been evicted from their homes in this neighbourhood to make way for luxury condos.

14) So wealthy and middle class people have helped to fuel a problem, and now they(we) are pointing the finger at the people who have actually sustained the greatest harm.

15) The main reason this kind of thing gets me so angry, and afraid, and frankly a little unhinged, is because this kind of news story can, literally (I am using that word very intentionally) kill people.

16) A few months ago, our city councillor responded to complaints in the neighbourhood around Sanctuary by demanding that we take down the tents of a few people who were staying on our property. That's her prerogative, it was a bi-law violation. Ok.

17) There were promises made about housing, and shelters in the interim. The shelter options were mostly a disappointment, and so far (months later) only one person from the original group of around 7 has housing. Two others are dead.

18) They died of overdoses. Back at Sanctuary, there were always people and Naloxone around. At the time they died, they were both alone at places where they were crashing temporarily. No guarantees, but I don't think they would have died if they hadn't been evicted.

19) I helped to take down their tents, both of them. I felt like I had to, because of complaints and news-stories like this one. I allowed myself to be optimistic that promises from the city about supportive, realistic housing options would come to fruition.

20) I am never going to take down another tent again.

21) And neither should the city.

Not until we have reckoned and solved the real problems.

22) No affordable housing. Gentrification. Stagnant, punitive social assistance. Colonialism. Racism. Healthcare and mental healthcare inequities (although in my experience, homelessness and poverty cause mental illness and addiction at least as often as the reverse).

23) The continued and increasing fact of homelessness and poverty in our city is a choice we make everyday.

We can't solve it by tearing down encampments.

24) Where can they go?

"Are there no prisons? No workhouses?'

I hope and pray we can do better than that.