Advocates call for general manager of city’s shelter system to resign
Posted July 17, 2023 9:29 am.
Last Updated July 17, 2023 2:02 pm.
Nearly two dozen prominent advocates have issued an open letter, calling for the immediate resignation of the general manager of the City of Toronto’s Shelter Support and Housing Administration (SSHA).
The advocates are calling on Mayor Olivia Chow to fire general manager Gord Tanner if he does not resign.
This comes after a group of asylum seekers have been forced to sleep on a downtown sidewalk outside the city’s shelter intake office at 128 Peter St.
The group says it is speaking out as a result of the refugee housing crisis and mismanagement of the shelter system.
It says the city’s denial of shelter to refugees is a direct violation of Toronto’s Sanctuary City police and it “perpetuates a zenophobic narrative.”
“Tanner claims he wants to work in partnership and move forward with the community. The only way we can consider moving forward with SSHA is if he is gone,” Greg Cook, an activist and a frontline worker at Sanctuary, says in the letter.
“Further, if he doesn’t resign, we will quickly see what kind of commitment to the community, including its unhoused members Mayor Chow has if she doesn’t initiate Tanner’s firing, restore the Sanctuary City and Shelter Standards policies and implement a moratorium on encampment evictions immediately.”
Meanwhile, Mohamad Fakih, the owner of Paramount Fine Foods, says he has volunteered to pay the cost of temporarily housing the refugees until the issue is resolved by the government.
The city has been turning away refugees and asylum seekers from its at-capacity shelters since June, referring them to federal programs.
Chow met with provincial and federal leaders last Friday to discuss ways to resolve the crisis. She said they agreed to bring specific actions to a senior operations and crisis management table on Tuesday.
