In my neighborhood there are a few areas where the homeless crash out at night. Down the street there are various alleys and doorways that are used, but here, right here, there are two choices: the park or the empty lot.
The particularly scary hobos frequent the park for some reason. They occasionally hassle passersby and their dogs, and are probably not the safest bedpartners. In addition, if you sleep in the park, the police hassle you since you're not really supposed to legally live there. It's easy to just say “well that's ok, people should sleep in the shelters instead.”
If you sleep in a shelter, you put yourself at risk for rape and theft, plus, to many people, it's degrading. Toronto, being Canada's largest city, also has many of Canada's best hospitals, and people from all over the nation come here for treatment. Many that I have met are older, unable to work, and just barely getting by on veteran's pensions and things like that. They can afford to come up here, but they can't afford a hotel for months on end.
Since staying in the park gets you beat up by the police, and shelters are just not safe, they stay in the empty lot. Because it's private property, the police can't usually throw you off it without a complaint from the landowner or a resident. When I bump into these guys on my walks I talk to them, and all the ones I've met are totally nice and simply looking for a safe place to sleep.
Anyway, when I got up this morning and went outside, I saw the crazy lady yelling and freaking out at older Chinese guy that was sitting in the lot, telling him she was calling the police and that he had to leave immediately. I walked over and told her to fuck off and leave him alone and tried to explain to the guy that she had no authority to throw him off the lot, but I don't think he totally understood English and he ended up leaving.
It really makes me angry to see that… There's a massive piece of unused real estate. Who does it hurt if we let a few harmless people crash there? It's not specifically on the same topic, but it reminds me of a life-changing book I picked up while I was living in Philly: Merchants of Misery. It's all about how large corporations, the rich, and banks live off of the poor, and pretty much exposes our current capitalist system as a pyramid scheme.
I'm off to Artik — they have a t-shirt sample for me. I'll print a picture upon my return.
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