City of Toronto spent almost $2M clearing homeless encampments

By News Staff

The City of Toronto says it spent almost $2 million removing homeless encampments at three parks this summer.

In a release issued late Friday afternoon, the city said it cost a total of $840,127 to remove trespassers from Trinity Bellwoods Park, Alexandra Park and Lamport Stadium as well as the removal of debris, erecting fencing and hiring private security.

An additional $792,688 was then spent for what the city calls “unprecedented action” to make the park grounds usable again for the general public. In Trinity Bellwoods Park alone, the city says it removed almost 30 metric tonnes of general debris and almost 25 metric tonnes of contaminated grass, soil and sand.

The city maintains encampments “contravene several chapters of the Municipal Code and are not a solution to homelessness.”

“The city has released the costs of the three large encampment clearings so as to be fully accountable about what was needed to make sure city staff, homeless residents and the public were kept safe from protesters absolutely hell-bent on confronting authorities,” Mayor John Tory said in a statement Friday.

“The information released also shows the cost of repairing our parks from the damage caused over time by the encampments, in addition to the sacrifice made by many Toronto residents who were denied use of these public spaces for an extended period of time.”

Since the start of the pandemic, the city says it has referred 835 people from four major encampments to what it calls safe inside spaces.

The city said nearly 6,640 people experiencing homelessness were moved from the shelter system into permanent housing from April 2020 to August 2021, and more than 1,898 people staying in encampments have been referred to safe inside spaces.

On Thursday, police asked the public to help them identify eight people wanted for criminal offences in connection with protests at a July 21 encampment clearing at Lamport Stadium Park. They said multiple people threw objects at officers and assaulted them.

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