Is AV ready to go? >> Is that a green light for everybody? >> Okay, good morning everyone. My name is Elizabeth McKisac. I am the chair of the housing rights advisory committee and the clerk has confirmed that we have quorum. So I'd like to call meeting 11 of the housing rights advisory committee to order. Welcome everyone. Um this meeting is being held with committee members and staff participating both by video conference and in person at city hall in committee room number two. Members of the public may also attend in person or observe the meeting on YouTube. Because we are meeting in person and remotely, I ask for your patience with any delays and technical issues. If you are registered to speak at today's meeting, please listen for me to call your name. I will call speakers in the order that they appear on the list. The list of speakers can be viewed online by visiting the housing rights advisory committee at toronto.ca/counsel and by clicking on the speakers box for today's meeting. I request that staff and invited participants as well as all observers joining remotely keep their video turned off unless they need to speak or answer questions. And this will make it easier for me as chair to see the members as we debate and vote on the agenda items. Members, uh for quorum purposes and participation in the meeting, it is important for you to keep your cameras on. Period. I also ask that your microphones are muted unless you wish to question staff or to speak to an item. If members wish to speak to an item, please raise your hand or unmute your microphone and indicate your intention to speak and I will put you on the list. When voting on an item or a motion, I ask members to raise your hand to indicate your vote. Uh that's both in person and online. And I remind members that if you have any motions on the agenda items, they must be submitted in writing and can be emailed to staff at hactorronto.ca. So with that said, I'd like to begin by uh offering a land acknowledgement. Although we may be meeting in different locations today, the housing rights advisory committee would like to acknowledge the land where we are meeting. It is the traditional territory of many nations including the missagas of the credit, the Anesnabek, the Chipawa, the Hodnosoni and the Wendat peoples and it is now home to many diverse first nations, Inuit and Matei peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Missagas of the Credit to the committee. May I now have a motion to confirm the minutes from our meeting on April 8th, 2026? Thank you, Joy. All those in favor, may I see your hands? Carried. And before we move on to the items of business on today's agenda, there are three new business items I need to bring to your attention. First, uh, a human rights based guidelines for hosting future mega events. Is that Yes. Um, that will be added as an item to the agenda. Are there any questions or discussions? All in favor of adding this item to the agenda, may I see your hands? Chase, is that your hand? Thank you. Uh, that carries. The next item is a chair's update. That didn't get included in the original agenda, so I'd like to add that. Um, are there any questions or discussion about me providing a chair's update? Great. Um, all in favor of adding this item to the agenda. May I see your show of hands? Great. And that is carried. And the last new business item is a leave of absence from the housing rights advisory committee. Um, are there any questions or discussion on this item? Seeing none, uh, all in favor of adding this item to the agenda? Nicole, are you Oh, I see. Okay. my glasses. Sorry. Um, and so that carries. Thank you very much. I would also like to recommend that we reorder the agenda so that it flows more logically. So, I'm now going to suggest because we've added a few things that we will begin with item 11.6, which is the chair's update. This will be followed by item 11.7 which is the leave of absence followed by 11.1 working group one update followed by 11.2 2 which is the presentation from the Toronto underhoused and homeless union followed by 11.5 which is the human rightsbased guidelines for mega events followed by 11.3 which is uh priorities for ATRA going forward and finally with 11.4 which is a report back from MLS on the ombbudsman's recommendations. Um, are there any questions or discussion about the reordering of the agenda? Seeing none, I would ask then for all in favor of reordering the agenda, may I see your hands? Thank you. Hi Be. Thank you. Terrific. And that is carried. Wonderful. So, uh, the first item therefore is my update that I'd like to share with you. It has been posted online, but I will read it. Uh for the sake of everyone who may not have had a chance to see it, I want to begin by sharing that Diana Chan McNal, member of this committee and chair of the supporting unhoused rights holders working group, recently announced that she is running for city council in ward 4, Parkdale High Park, and therefore will be taking a leave from the committee during her campaign. Diana has had a significant impact during her time on HRA, particularly with her advocacy for the rights of people living in encampments and for improved system navigation and access to justice. We are grateful to her contributions and would like to say thank you. Next, I want to take this opportunity to talk about a significant legal ruling that recently came from the Ontario Superior Court and in a court case involving the regional municipality of Waterlue. Most of us haven't read the court's ruling, including some of the people who are commenting loudly about it in the news. So, I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about what the ruling does and why it matters. The ruling is significant. It is a milestone on our path to the right to housing in Canada. In it, the Ontario Superior Court affirmed that municipalities have the duty to uphold the human right to housing. What does that mean? In this case, the court said that a municipality cannot prevent people from sheltering outdoors in public spaces while also failing to provide enough adequate alternatives. Cities can't simply evict people from an encampment. It must ensure that people have another adequate place to go. This can be an emergency or interim alternative or it can be a longerterm alternative. The ruling is clear that cities are permitted to move people from public spaces when they can ensure that people have an option to move into a shelter or even to an alternative camping site that provides for basic health, safety, and dignity such as washrooms and sanitation. The court also ruled that people who are experiencing homelessness have rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms just like any other person. It ruled that governments cannot discriminate against people on the basis of their homelessness status. Meaning you can't discriminate against someone just because they don't have a home. Until now, people who are experiencing homelessness did not have the same legal protections as other groups. This ruling establishes in law that homelessness is similar to other conditions that are protected under section 15 of the charter of rights and freedoms and therefore has the same equality protections as we have for race, sex, disability or national origin. Further, the decision also confirms that rights to life, liberty, security, and the principles of fundamental justice must be interpreted in light of Canada's international and domestic human rights obligations, including the right to adequate housing. This means that governments must address the housing crisis as a human rights crisis. The court's decision matters. It matters because it protects human rights in law. It matters because it specifically protects people who are experiencing homelessness. It matters because it compels municipal governments to act to implement the right to adequate housing. Practically speaking, it means that governments can't relegate rights based strategies and plans simply as policy aspirations. Governments are accountable for delivering in a tangible way on the right to adequate housing. They must deliver human rights outcomes for everyone in their city. The city of Toronto has already been moving in this direction. In 2020, it recognized the right to housing in its housing charter and action plan. It has begun the establishment of the early cornerstones of accountability, including a deputy ombbudzman for housing as a human right. And this committee itself, it has started applying a human rights lens to its housing policy and programming, including the interdivisional protocol for encampments, which commits to meaningful engagement with people living in encampments about the decisions that will impact their lives. The city is building an education program for staff on how to build a human rightsbased approach to its work. The city has been using its tools and resources to implement the right to adequate housing. For example, it has used bylaws to regulate multi-tenant houses, which are some of the most affordable rental housing in the city. It has used its bylaws to protect tenants against rent evictions. It is doing repairs on rental apartments that landlords have neglected for years and sending the landlord the bill. In these ways, the city is strengthening and enforcing tenant rights. But this work is by no means complete and it is imperfect, but it is having an impact. As the chair of this committee, which is quickly coming to the end of its first term, I urge the city of Toronto to continue this work and to build on this momentum, to be a leader among municipalities in Canada, to bring along other orders of government to enable the necessary resources, and to demonstrate how we can have impact together and realize the human right to housing for everyone in Toronto. That's my update. Do I need a motion for that? So, could I please have a motion to receive that update? Are first, are there any questions or discussion? >> Chase, is your hand up or are you just ready to vote? Your hand is up. Please go ahead. >> Sorry, I was just ready to motion. Oh, >> okay. All right. So, then I'll take the motion from Chase to receive the report. Thank you. And all in favor? and carried. Thank you very much. Okay. Um the next item as discussed is 11.7, a leave of absence. Uh members, I would say that this item is is to acknowledge that our former member Diana Chan McN mentioned has had to take a leave of absence from the committee as she has registered to run in a municipal election. Are there any questions on this item? Okay. Are there any speakers to this item? No, there are not. So, I would ask someone please to move to receive the item. Thank you, Annie. And all in favor? Terrific. Thank you. And that is carried. The next motion, oh, sorry, the next item then, uh, we will move to working group one update. Um, and I'm going to provide this update. Ordinarily, it would have been Diana Chan McN who chairs this uh working group, but she's no longer on the committee. Uh, the working group uh met on May the 7th. It includes uh Lindsay B, myself and Diana at the time, and we really had uh three items. One was we had a consultation on shelter user advisory group um which uh city staff and community partners from the Toronto neighborhood group presented to the committee on what the service user advisory group would be doing in terms of scope how the membership uh would be comprised. This is a an advisory group to provide feedback on um on the experience in the shelter system um in order to help inform uh city policy and and program going forward. Uh the city has outsourced the management of this committee of this uh advisory group to the neighborhood group and they walked us through where they're at in the process. They don't it is not yet populated. So they talked about what they are planning to do. Um in that respect um there was feedback to from the working group to um uh members of from Toronto Shelter and Support Services and the neighborhood group uh flagging issues such as ensuring that there is sufficient training to all members of the advisory group so that they are able to participate effectively. Um we talked uh we talked with staff and TNG about the potential for a co-creation of the agenda so that it would be a meaningful um it would be a meaning meaningful content and input and process for the members of the advisory um and they wanted more detail uh on the structure and relationship to be formalized in the terms of reference. Um I think by and large people are very pleased to see this working group in place or this advisory group in place. Um and it will be important that the terms of reference are set well. Um that people are well prepared to to participate effectively. Um and that we have an effective uh feedback loop. Um we also um had a presentation from the Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union. Um they walked the working group through uh what their uh group has been working on, who they who are the members. Uh so their history, their mandate, their key priorities. Um and they also talked to us about their current key uh concern in the city which is the displacement of people sleeping outdoors in and uh concerns around uh the arrival in the city of FIFA. um and that what that is what's happening to people who are unhoused um in Union Station, but also more broadly as we come closer to the games being part of the city experience. Um as a result of that presentation, we thought that it would be appropriate to invite TuHu um the Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union to uh come to this committee meeting. So we will be hearing from them shortly uh directly to the full committee. Um and then finally in preparation for um the wrap-up of the housing rights advisory committee each of the working groups um began to assemble some of their thoughts around priorities for going forward. I will bring that forward when we have that broader discussion in item 11.3. Um so I'll leave that part for there. I do want to acknowledge um that we have received um submissions um on uh item on this item and with respect to the working group's mandate uh I'd like to acknowledge Rachel Waller and I think also we've al uh and her comments I think very much aligned with some of what the working group uh provided as feedback uh but also concerns around access to justice the complaint system um and issues of scope uh and structure and duration. So I would like to just note that those uh comments are uh taken um and will be shared with TSS and TNG going forward. Um so that is the report from working group one. Um are there any are there any speakers to this item? I don't believe so. There are not. So are there any questions uh or comments from the committee? Okay, seeing none, I would ask then for someone to move to receive the item. Thank you, Annie. Uh, and all in favor, show of hands. Thank you very much. Okay, so with that done, um, our next item then is 11.2. Um, I'm just trying to find it on my agenda because things have moved around. Um, bear with me, please. This here. Okay. So, 11.2 is a presentation from the Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union. Um, I would like to welcome them to the floor. Okay, thank you. >> And do you have any slides or are you speaking? >> Okay. Do we need any help getting those lined up? Okay, we're going to take two minutes while we assemble and get you ready so we can everyone can breathe easy for two minutes and Okay, it's working. So over to you. >> Yeah. Ready. >> Hello. Thank you for having us. We'll start by introducing ourselves. I'm Sebastian Dormier to whose chapter organizer. Having spent five long years experiencing homelessness in Toronto's harsh year round weather conditions. I bring lived experience and firsthand insight to my advocacy work. I'm committed to amplifying the voices, needs, and concerns of the growing homeless population and working towards meaningful change. >> Good morning. My name is Amro. I'm a tour organizer and drop in organizer. Over the past one year and a half, uh I have experienced homelessness. During this time uh I have learned that uh a lot of issues about homelessness and homeless issues and the challenges around it which I can't uh learn from uh school. So I have understanded many individuals experiencing homelessness are uh strong, knowledgeable and highly skilled yet they are denied the opportunity or they are overlooked due to the stigma. uh in relation to uh homelessness. I believe that if I believe that if we are uh empowered and given the opportunity uh we can be successful for in our life, we can also be uh helping others. So, Toui Tou is committed uh to empower and uplifting the uh people experiencing homelessness by recognizing uh their strengths. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Eddie Estban. I am the uh administrative and programming assistant for the Toronto and Underhoused Union. I am an immigrant from the Philippines naturalized citizen of Canada since I was uh 4 years old and I've been experiencing underhousing stuck in the same apartment since I was 4 years old. And um I'm 31 years old now. So I'm here with to today to talk about the uh different forms of oppression that unoused and homeless people face uh for my own personal lived experience and uh and grateful for having space here today. Hi, I'm Rachel Butler and I have um been working alongside these folks and others around housing advocacy for around 5 years. As people with lived As with lived experience of homelessness and housing insecurity, we understand firsthand what what is needed to improve our lives and create lasting solutions to homelessness. Too often, however, our voices are overlooked and our experiences dismissed. We are union building collective power through the active participation of our members and creating meaningful change within the systems and institutions that shapes our lives both public and private. Our membership is made up of people who have experienced homelessness and under underhousing in many forms. Some of us have lived on the streets or in encampments, shelters and respites uh respits. Um others are living in transitional or rent geared to income housing or our tenants facing unsafe living conditions, neglect, discrimination or hostile landlords and building staff. Together we advocate for dignity, housing justice and the right for every person to be heard. Okay. Uh who have uh over 300 members and uh there is no fee but participation and commitment and shared purpose. We uh currently have 15 dedicated executive members serving six months who has three uh new part-time staff members. Our general meeting uh conducted every month creating a space where voice are heard, ideas are shared and action is planned. In addition, our uh our shelter and dropping shelters uh drop in chapters meet uh weekly or where whenever needed. Most importantly, Tou is committed to consistent outreach. We go to shelters, encampments and dropins. to is a rapid response team for homeless issues where wherever in the town we are um we hear about the problems affecting homeless people for example union station to who is there listening supporting organizing and advocating for dignity and justice to who is a growing movement built by homeless people and working for homeless What does to who do whose members work together? We share our stories as a catalyst of change. Uh we organize organize around issues that matter to us whether it's smaller issues like day-to-day things or bigger picture issues. We build capacity and educate each other. Um, we work with unset housed people about where they are and about what they actually care about. We never organize against each other. We organize around the systems. Um, we are resource advocates and we share resources with each other and we are nimble and we do rapid response. So, Tu turned three years old just a couple of weeks back on May 23rd. We had been founded on 2023 and uh we had uh been inspired by the National Union of the Homeless and had taken uh some uh what's called consultations or advice on how to form TUO from uh the leader at California. So with this startup, we were able to create uh the Toronto owner house and homosian on May 23, 2023 at Alen Gardens Park just here in downtown. I believe the membership was over 60 members uh within the first few days of organizing there. We had organized for water supplies during the heat waves. We uh had distributed or rather we had provided a self uh self-defense classes and we also provided a community uh I need to review this part uh yeah we constructed a community builtin board we had taken some actions there and uh yeah it's very fun memory for us and we're continuing to this day. So over the past three years, TUHU has done a lot. This is just a small example of some of the stuff we've done. So we participated in the people's assembly of housing justice, housing for whom campaign and press conference. We've consulted with the city of Toronto and TSS. We've met with Mayor Olivia Cow. Um we've um came up with alter we're working on coming up with alternative shelter complaints process and our shelter for everybody campaign. Currently we have uh three chapters. Um one at Maxwell Megan uh which is a shelter. Uh we have All Saints, All Saints Church and uh Parkdale. In Parkdale we have Park. So more recently uh we held a campaign and it first began with uh doing an an investigation to check out the a lead received from a legal ally at Union Station. We had heard there had been some uh displacements going on, some security intensity increases. We checked it out and uh were alarmed to easily confirm it within our first visit. Uh we didn't even have to go looking that hard. And uh through our six weeks thereafter of outreach providing socks, food, uh water, uh arm reduction supplies, we had been able to identify from the respondents after asking a single question. Uh have you noticed any security escalations? The 90% have either directly witnessed it uh security escalations or have uh what's called directly experienced it. And uh there's more new stats to be held there. Uh look forward to long report. You can find our short report at tuun.ca. Uh I would just like to say that we're going to be sticking with this slide for the rest of this presentation. Uh because the rest of this campaign is kind of what we're in millat right now. We did we did hold a after collecting enough uh of the evidence we needed and prepared our report which is over here. Uh yes, thank you for holding that up. Uh we have been coordinating to escalate our actions starting with a uh rally that we held. Was that the first one? Yeah. the rally that we held on Tuesday at uh Brookie Park where we had invited the press and allies and outreach workers to uh take a stand and have these voices showed up. Some people are, you know, obviously having their human rights violated as uh was described earlier. You know, the court had already ruled that you can't discriminate against homeless people and yet we're seeing, you know, blatant discrimination against homeless people. They're being dragged through piss uh as they're being uh forcefully escorted out with their pants down from washrooms and uh you know they're being insulted and goatated into giving them a reason to you know kick them out and say that you're trespassing because you're doing so and so but only after goating them after profiling them for how they look. So uh yeah >> do we have permission to share the report with we have physical copies here. Just is that allowed? >> Yeah, we can try to hand them across. >> That would be great. Thank you. If someone could just >> And if you don't get a copy again, you can access our report at tuhunion.ca. It's the first link at the top. >> So, as Eddie said, we had a rally on Tuesday morning. Uh we believe it was really successful. Our primary goal was to validate the experiences of the people we spoke to and other unhoused folks and I do think that that was achieved. Um we had four speakers um from TUHOU present the report to the public and the press and then we had four formal speakers including Dr. David Roberts, a professor at of urban studies from uft. Um, Simon, I'm not sure how to pronounce his last name. Bestro, I apologize. And many others with lived experience. Um, I I we have recordings of their speeches, which I highly encourage you to check out because I think everyone had a really important take. Um, yeah, I think it was a really, really lovely validating success and we're really happy with that and we're going to continue to focus on this issue since FIFA hasn't even started yet and there's clearly a lot of brutality. >> Um, so as Rachel was saying, uh, we did prepare some footage. Uh, of course, a lot of it is already covered by other media broadcasters right now, but we did recently create a YouTube channel, so you can review our own footage of that prepared by our allies. It's also just to TUN. >> And unless the other two have something to add, I think we're good. You want to add? No, you're good. So, I think that is our presentation today. Thank you all very much. So >> thank you very much. Um I appreciate the presentation and um appreciate the time that you have taken to bring it together and to to come here this morning. Um before we move to questions from our of our presenters, uh we do have registered speakers that would like to address the committee. And so I would now like to go to um the speakers list which will be in the order that has it has come in. Um so I'd ask you to to clear those seats for the moment so that the people who are deputing or asking uh speakers can can take the seat. First on the list is Diana Chan McNal and she'll be followed by Brienne Swan. I'm addressing you from the other side now. Um, you should know already uh since I've been on this committee. My name is Diana Cham McN and I am a former member as well as a longtime frontline worker with homeless people. I am very very deeply concerned about situations of egregious human rights abuses against people sheltering at Union Station. Uh, I've watched the videos and I've heard the testimonials from people and what they've experienced and what they've seen and it is utterly egregious. What I've heard and what you will continue hearing from my fellow deputants are unconscionable actions taken in the name of enforcement. I will let the stories of others speak for themselves, but I will say that there is no moral or legal justification for what I am hearing and I have grave concerns that the situation will actually escalate ahead of the FIFA games in just 2 weeks' time. I know that the city of Toronto has deployed outreach and crisis workers to Union Station to provide supports to people sheltering there. And I applaud this work and support the work to bring those resources and care for people that meet them where they are at. And that we prioritize support, not enforcement first. At the same time, I also know that Metroink security officers who are not city workers are undermining that work by violently assaulting and removing people from the station. We have different groups at different levels of government with conflicting mandates right now. one of which is is causing extreme harm to people on the ground. People being assaulted and violated are not discerning what level of government is actively harming them and it will lead to further mistrust between unhoused people and all workers not just the security who are interacting negatively with them. Now I know that the city cannot direct Metro links. I'm very well aware of that and this is the challenge. But I am obligated to ask where is the city's human rights action plan ahead of the FIFA games which begin in again just two short weeks. The city is mandated by FIFA to have a plan in place and that work as I understand it has been done and an action plan has actually been drafted but we have yet to actually see it released. It is imperative that a human rights action plan be put into place immediately and that the city do everything in its power to work with Metro Links to ensure that people's rights are respected and upheld for the duration of the games and beyond. In light of the recent ruling in Kitchener Waterlue which was just referenced which enshrines full constitutional protections to homeless people as an equity seeking group. We are also on the precipice of governments being legally obligated to provide reasonable housing and shelter to go to before evicting a homeless person. All to say this could spell the beginning of an end to forced evictions and discriminatory laws and bylaws that undermine homeless people's charter rights. And for this reason, I again urge Toronto to act swiftly, be proactive, and implement a human rights action plan to ensure the safety and welfare of homeless residents in Toronto. At the same time, we must do better when entering into contracts for large largescale events like FIFA. The auditor general in a report that was released in June 2025 recommended updates to the city's major events bidding and hosting strategy to strengthen governance and oversight. And I would argue that this update should include a further strengthening of guiding principles that assure alignment between the city's own policies and directives like the interdivisional protocol and encampments and major events. Anti-displacement policies must be in place to ensure that homeless people and people who are precariously housed, especially in communities that are in close proximity to the event venues, are not pushed out. After all, major sports events, games, festivals, this should be a source of pride and joy for all Torononians. Everyone should be able to participate, celebrate, and enjoy without the prospect of being harmed or removed. Thank you. Thank you, Diana. And thank you for staying under five minutes. Are there any qu are there any questions for Diana from the committee? So, Rocha, you look like you have a question. >> Yeah, sure. Thank you for that. >> Not working. Hi. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. Um, I I just really was curious about um why there is a delay um in terms of um the human rights protocol to dealing with uh mega events uh you know at the city's level. I'm just wondering it's uh the games are coming up in I think less than two weeks or so or around two weeks. Um so it's a pretty urgent matter. So I'm just wondering if you have any insight into um why there might be a delay and what we can do to support um support uh your recommendations. >> That's a good question and perhaps it's one for city staff, but we know that one actually has been drafted and the city of Toronto happens to be the last city in North America to actually release this plan. Uh if I may, I think it's ludicrous that uh FIFA uh is doing better than we are in this moment that they're requiring this plan and yet we do not currently have it. So I might defer to staffer in the room if they are able to answer that question. We go to staff now or later. >> Okay, we will we'll call on staff after the speakers to answer that question because I also would like to have the answer to that. Thank you. >> Thanks. Are there any other questions for Diana before we go to the next speaker? >> Okay, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Um I now invite the next speaker, Brienne Swan. Um she's online, so let's go to the online. >> And I would remind speakers that there's a 5m minute limit uh to the deputations. Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Reverend Brienne Swan and I serve as minister to East and United Regional Ministry. At our Eastminister campus on Danforth Avenue, we operate an out of the cold program and at our Glen Roads campus on Gerard Street East, we operate Nourish East End which includes a weekly food bank supported by daily bread as well as community meals. However, knowing that charity models continue to abdicate governments from doing their jobs, it is actually our deepest desire um the deepest desire of our entire ministry that programs like out of the cold and food banks will someday no longer be needed. And I don't mean to imply that I'll be saying anything that hasn't already been said by two members. I simply wish to emphasize the support of my community of faith. East End United Regional Ministry supports the asks being brought forward by the Toronto Underhoused and Homeless Union as outlined in their report, Safety for Whom. After a particularly difficult winter, we especially support the indefinite postponement of shelter closures and supervised consumption site closures. We have seen over and over again that without safe places to go, harassment towards those who are underhoused escalate in public spaces. The closure of spaces does not solve homelessness. They simply displace people while treating human beings as objects to be shuffled out of sight. And they allow Toronto to perpetuate a lie to the whole world that we are not in fact a city with an inexcusably large number of people who have no choice but to sleep rough. An international tournament doesn't make people disappear. And I'm grateful for to role in exposing this lie. We also support the immediate creation of 247 respbit spaces before and during World Cup events. As TU has stated, these spaces must be safe, engaging, and properly resourced. The idea that Toronto would pre prepare to welcome the world while failing to prepare dignified, welcoming, and resource spaces for unhoused residents emphasizes a painful truth that so many know well. Too often the experiences of unhoused people are treated as less important, less valid, and less worthy of planning than the experiences of tourists, fans, and people who already have somewhere to go. The idea that those who are experiencing homelessness wouldn't perhaps also be wishing to engage around FIFA activities demonstrates that those who are experiencing homelessness are often seen once again as objects and obstacles and not neighbors and community members as well. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, which is a metaphor we use a lot in my context. But Toronto has a choice right now. We can hide poverty or we can tell the truth about it and then do something about it. Not simply as an issue, but responding meaningfully to the needs of a demographic of neighbors who are part of our city's life and fabric. Thank you. >> Thank you, Brienne. Um, are there any questions for uh Brienne from the committee? Joy. Um, >> hello Brienne. As a neighbor, uh, to East Minister, um, uh, it's great to see you here. Um, you you mentioned, uh, the engagement of your church, brought this group of faith, um, working on this issue and I was wondering what you had found, um, effective in that. are working. >> In other words, what are the recommendations you would give to other churches >> if they wanted to mobilize around this? >> So, I mean, taking my my first would be taking the lead from groups like TU who have the lived experience to be able to inform. Uh but the the I would hope that churches would be mo like one of the things and Joy I know you know this is that our ministry is trying to um mobilize around actually creating or or partnering on creating um some long-term resourced sustainable housing. and we would love to work with other churches who would also like to be doing that while being careful again not to abdicate governments from actually doing the job and the role that they are meant to be doing as well. So, I'm not sure I I don't want to get into a situation where faith groups are simply um propping up the social safety net again and again and again and again because I ultimately, you know, it is the government's role to make sure that people are are cared for. But we are willing, we would love to partner with other other churches around um using the resources that that lots of faith groups have around create creating long-term sustainable housing solutions. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? Yes, Chase. On the same note, for um for the less fortunate that are living in the streets lately, I've seen a lot of extra discrimination just because of the fact and possibly because they want to clean them off the streets before the fever comes, which um I I believe is, you know, inhumane, but maybe if they cared, they could possibly have a program where these these less fortunate could even make a couple books and and help out towards uh cleaning the city and making it a better city for when FIFA comes. Um that's just what I think. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chase. Um are there other comments or questions from the committee? >> Then uh thank you very much, Brienne, for taking the time to join us. I also want to acknowledge the leadership um that faith communities are taking on this while affirming uh Bri uh Brienne's comments that um it must not fall to charity um that there are duties um uh duties on the part of governments in the state to to be doing this work. So um thank you Brienne and I also appreciated your comments on centering the voice of lived experience as as to who has done. Um, next on our list is uh Sebastian uh Dormier. Sebastian, you have five minutes. Over the next few months, Toronto will be placed on the world stage as FIFA arrives in our city. Promoted as a celebration of unity, community, and the love of of sport, and as an opportunity to showcase the very best of who we are. But if you go to Union Station and speak to the people living through these so-called preparations, you hear a very different story. You hear stories of homeless people being forced out of public spaces. People being beaten in washrooms and dragged into the streets. Security treating homeless homelessness itself like a crime. This is not a unity. This is ruthless displacement. People are being kicked out for sitting too long, ticketed repeatedly despite having nowhere else to go, and humiliated for simply trying to survive. For many of us, these stories are not shocking because we have lived them ourselves. I know this reality personally because I've spent 5 years homeless, homeless in this city. I know what it feels like to search for warmth in the winter and be treated like garbage for just trying to survive. I know what it means to never truly rest because of at any moment. You can be removed, harassed, or punished simply for existing in public while homeless. At Renfor St. Renfor G station, special constables gave me only seconds to leave before throwing everything I owned out onto the wet snow as if neither my belongings nor my life had any value. And at St. Joseph's Health Center, a place where a place that is supposed to represent care, safety, and healing. I was sick and vulnerable when security officers dragged me naked from a bathroom stall, marched me through a crowded hallway in a full view of strangers, leaving people to assume I had done something terrible. Those experiences never leave you. So when people at Union Station say they are being beaten, harassed, and terrorized by security and law enforcement, I believe them because I know exactly what it feels like when a city stops seeing you as a human being and starts treating you like the problem to remove. And that big and that brings us to a deeper reality. What does this say about our city? It says that in Toronto, homelessness is too often treated like a crime instead of a humanitarian crisis. It says that vulnerable people are being pushed out, silenced, and dehumanized simply for trying to survive. It says that during a housing and overdose emergency, we are choosing punishment and intimidation instead of compassion and care. The world is coming to Toronto. And when people arrive, they won't just see our stadiums and celebrations. They will see how we treat our people, people struggling to survive in the city. So, what kind of city do we want the Toronto to be? Thank you. >> Thank you, Sebastian. You want to just stay there for a second in case there's any questions? I I want to start by saying thank you and I appreciate um sharing what you did. It takes a lot of courage >> uh to share what has been traumatic and and the lived experience of of being homeless in the city. So, thank you for that. Um are there questions from any members of the committee for Sebastian before we move to the next >> Joy? Not a question. I just wanted to thank you also for uh being here and speaking. Thank you. >> It's important for us to hear this. It's important for everyone in the city to hear this because what it does is it shines a light on what people don't want to look at and these are fundamental human rights. And thank you. All right. The next speaker on our list is Eddie Estban. Hi, my name is Eddie Estban, current admin assistant for the Toronto Underhousing and Homeless Union. Like many Torononians here today, I'm a firm believer that with hard work, a person can achieve great things for both themselves and society. But what happens when you do everything society tells you to do and your life still falls apart? That was my experience after struggling to find work for 3 years. Hundreds of applications, resume revisions, cover letters, networking attempts, job fairs, interviews, skill development, career counselors, cold messaging. After all this, one thing became clear. There are no jobs left. Only humiliation rituals. ghost job postings collecting our data and interview rounds. Automated rejections reminding us hardworking people we have not debased ourselves enough and we continue to swallow the same reassurance. Keep trying. You'll eventually land one. What else sounds familiar? You can no longer pay the entry fee to spend time with friends. Your family only looks out for themselves and you can only count on yourself. But when your body breaks down from overwork without anyone to catch or fall, what options are you left with except desperation and despair? If hard work is not enough, then you must simply work harder. If you cannot, then you're simply lazy and deserving of your suffering. But does this continue to make sense when you finally start to look at your fellow Torononians? Youth unemployment is at its highest point since the mid1 1990s, and these statistics are distorted through precarious gig work. and by excluding long-term discouraged workers from unemployment figures. But we continue blaming ourselves and those suffering even worse economic violence. Us poor people overworked. Us jobseeking people drained. Us suffering people underhoused. Us traumatized people unhoused and now policed at Union Station. I know most of us feel this crisis, the unemployment crisis, the unaffordable living crisis, the unaffordable housing crisis. But why are we pointing the finger downwards instead of upwards? Why do we idolize and not condemn the self-enriching politicians, billionaires, and mega corporations like FIFA who don't feel the crisis and instead make the life more exhausting and wretched for the rest of us? My fellow two members are speaking today about the violence homeless and underhoused people face. For my part, I hope I've shown the other Torononians who feel this crisis a glimpse of where your concerns should be. You're not behind those gold gates. You're on this side here with us. I'd like to slip into my deputation that um as you fellow Torantonians are here with us. We uh 90% of respondents us 90% of Torononians are feeling beaten down by security. Uh we are being profiled and kicked out of publicly funded spaces. Union Station was built by federal agencies in the past and yet we're being kicked out and being ambiguously told some for some reason it's a private space. That's completely unclear despite the history pointing that it's a public works project. We're being treated less than human, less than animals. You wouldn't kick an animal down, but you'd kick us humans down. You kick the door down. You drag us through piss. You treat us like nothing. Like you're not one of us. like we're not on the same side here and you evade accountability. The police evade accountability. Security evades accountability. They harass us during the morning hours to sweep us away from the streets to maintain the fiction of an opulent beautiful uniting games. And they confront us in washrooms where there are no cameras. And we're noticing this displacement increase as this uh fiction, this fervor of unity increases for the FIFA games. People want to play the game of soccer, game of football. Everyone loves the good game. But in a rush to believe in this fiction, we're just greeting people who can't see that picture fiction anymore like garbage. So I'd like to end with our freedom. Please open up respit spaces. 24s, seven rest spaces during the World Cup and ongoing. Cancel security contracts, replace them with pure spark and harm reductions and outreach teams. And lastly, please and definitely postpone shelter closures and safe consumption uh site closures. We need these open especially when they're in high demand for the games. Thank you. That is all. >> Thank you very much, Eddie. Um are there any questions uh from the committee for Eddie before we go on? Yes, Annie. Not not a question, but I just wanted to thank you Eddie for sharing um so vulnerably with us. It it was it was important for us to hear what you had to share. And I just wanted to excuse me highlight that um for everyone that you know even full-time working people cannot afford studios and onebedrooms. So um you know just wanted to highlight that as well and thank you very much for sharing this morning. Thank you. >> Is there anyone else from the committee? Yes, Joy. >> I'm asking this question of you. There may be others as well who know the answer to it. But I'm curious, you know, this this people being dragged around, people being dragged from place to place and thrown out. Who who is making these decisions? Is it the owners of buildings who have their security people? Is it the Toronto Police? >> Is it FIFA? >> Where is it? Who are the people who have to change their behavior? You know what I mean? >> Well, the answer is difficult, but not because it's hard to find. Rather, it's because the answer is hard to accept. The answer is we need to confront ourselves here. Like when we talk with security officers and ask them what their uh you know remarks on this are, they believe they're superheroes. They believe that you know they're making the place safer for you know actual people actual people. as if we're not on the same page here and you know I don't like to comment on this but uh for the sake of answering this question you know when we received the media report and we saw you know good feedback from it we all saw a lot of negative feedback from it we saw a lot of people celebrating the removal as if security was being doing their jobs properly for once so you know it's these are disgusting attitudes that are pervasive in our society because of this capitalist hegemonic kind of world we live in where we just have to live to survive or work to survive. We're too busy and too burdened down by work to even care about our neighbors. And so, you know, when understandably people who go pass by Union Station to go to their next job, you know, they're overworked. They don't have any leverage because it's just like an employer market and for who knows how long at this point, uh they can't complain. and you know what little patience they have left is being tested by you know people who are even worse off who have nowhere else to go and so it's just you know we we are pitted against each other in this divide and conquer mentality. We all have to improve ourselves. We all have to seek the best for ourselves. But yet, you know, this sort of mentality is being driven down to us. Driven down by the people at the top who want us to love to work for them, to love the idea of working harder for them when and taking ourselves down if we're not keeping up. So we need to confront our own beliefs when it comes to what makes a good people, what makes us good Torantonians because it's not merely just working hard. It's not doing better than your neighbor. >> Thank you. >> Um not seeing any other questions from the committee. I I also want to say thank you and I I appreciated um the way in your deputation you've outlined the many systemic issues that are creating the context that all of this is happening in and it's um that's the challenge of of systems change is that it is these are large macro systems and they have very overwhelming impacts on an individual person's life and I think your deputation highlighted that very well so thank you very much. >> Thank you. If there's one thing I want people to take away, we're on the same side here. >> We are. Thank you. Um, for the next deputation, I'd like to call on Angie Hawking. Hi everyone. Thanks so much for having me. As FIFA approaches Toronto, the city's push to clean up the streets has meant more policing, more displacement, and more violence towards unhoused people, especially around Union Station and other FIFA hotspots. We're told this is about safety, but we must ask whose safety are we protecting and who are we willing to harm for the sake of appearances. The two who report documents horrible stories of brutality experienced by unhoused people in the city and at the hands of private security special constables and police. As someone who's worked alongside unhoused folks for 20 years in the city, I can say that this issue is long overdue for attention. But the escalation of these harmful encounters over the last few months as FIFA draws near has made it impossible now to ignore. Honestly, instead of being excited about soccer games, I am deeply worried about the well-being of my friends. I'm also a mom of a grade school child. One of the arguments often used to justify these crackdowns is that visible homelessness makes spaces quote unsafe. But that's uh but that has not been my lived experience at all. Dozens of unhoused people I know have shown my daughter incredible kindness and care her entire life. They've celebrated her birthdays, brought her little gifts, asked about school, constantly asking me how's she doing? How does she like her teacher? What activities does she enjoy? These are the very same people that are often portray portrayed as drugaddicted monsters who are viewed as people who are viewed as the people that are expendable and abusable. Those are the ones showing my family the most compassion. The recommendations to who has brought forward including providing safe respit spaces during the games, halting these closures of shelters and supervised consumption sites during FIFA, and redirecting funding away from excess security and towards outreach and peer-led community care. These are realistic, achievable, and capable uh asks and capable of making an immediate positive impact. And most importantly, these recommendations come directly from people with lived experiences of homelessness. People who know what they need in order to experience safety, wellness, and dignity. And lastly, as has as have been mentioned, but needs to be again, as per FIFA's own guidelines, and their bar is pretty low, Toronto is obligated to release a human rights action plan. Most cities have published their plans while Toronto's remains delayed. A city preparing to host a global event cannot continue with operating plans without a clear and enforcable human rights framework. And that plan must include meaningful protections for unhoused people, accountability around policing and private security practices, and investment in safe spaces and care-based traumainformed responses. What is happening now is not working at all and will lead to more trauma and even death. Please take immediate action. There is no time to lose. Thank you. Thank you, Angie. Um, are there questions from the committee for Angie at this time? Um, I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for uh bringing um this issue forward, for clarifying what the steps are and that's the work of uh Tu who broadly um and thank you for your own dedication and commitment to this work. um it is important and critical and you are helping to mobilize the voices to come forward and help us understand what the lived experience of this is. Um Annie, you have a question. >> Yeah, thank you Angie. I I guess my question was have you had any conversations with the city departments that might be responsible for making some of those changes? Um and and has have you heard anything about um you know action on on those items to date? No, the only conversations we've had have been when in the multiple times we've been doing outreach and tried to engage and been told to leave the premises or have been explained why people shouldn't be getting harm reduction supplies from us or like we've have tried to engage on the ground level um several times in different ways. tried to engage with someone that was giving care and I said oh we can help like we can help with resources and we were told no that's their territory and we shouldn't engage with people so so I would say our engagement so far has been just on the ground level um but yeah we would love we hope that the report is taken really seriously and that um that there can be conversations and change immediately. Thank you. Okay, with no other questions, uh, thank you very much. And our next speaker is Marina Classen from the Harm Reduction Advocacy Collective. Marina, are you in the room? >> Marina's not online. Okay, and we'll go to the next person. Um, Megan White. Is Megan in the room? It's Megan online. No, thank you. Uh, Dan Seljack, did I pronounce that correctly? >> Seliaak, apologies. >> Uh, the floor is yours and you have five minutes. >> Thank you. Before I begin, is there a way to plug? >> I don't have an answer for that question. I think he does. >> We're going to pause for one minute while we get our technology aligned. Okay. Okay, you're good to go. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Sh. I'm a res. I attended and documented two who protest and marched the other day as they spoke to increased enforcement as FIFA descends on our city. I later attended a vibrant and joyful FIFA event here just outside city hall at Nathan Phillips Square as hundreds of people celebrated, danced, and lined up to see the trophy. The contrast between these two events made me think about what we are hoping for from FIFA versus what is actually happening on the ground. I don't want to deny sports fans their joy, local businesses their potential windfall, or residents an exciting diversion from the routine of everyday life. But I also want us to be honest about what's happening. For a moment, I'm going to zoom out and look at the big picture. I'm going to refer to this passage from Ken Greenberg and Anne Golden's new book, Saving Toronto, on how taxation works in our city and how that relates to global events like the Taylor Swift Tour, or in this case, FIFA. What happens based on Toronto being a creature of the province and the way that our tax system is set up is we don't actually make a lot of money from these events. In fact, when it came to Taylor Swift, uh while it was expected that the revenue boost here was going to be $282 million, um that was included for 40 million in tax revenues, the city's share of that tax was just 3 million. While the feds got 15 million and the province of Ontario earned 25 million. Of the 52 cities that Taylor Swift played, the city of Toronto received the lowest share of tax revenue from the event period. And Toronto was the only municipal government that was likely to have lost revenue serving as a tour venue. So let's combine that with headlines about how hotels and entertainment venues are not seeing the surge one might expect from these events and lagging ticket sales are also indicating prices that the average person has no ability to afford. Some people are taking the attitude of you need to break a few eggs. And again, these are human beings with rights, not eggs. Break a few eggs to make an omelette. But the only people who are going to be gorging on this breakfast of rights violations, violence, and misery are Queens Park, Parliament Hill, and Private Enterprise, with FIVA getting the biggest portion to Toronto's detriment. And what about us residents of Toronto? I've been sober for 9 years and in the rooms for longer. For those impacted by this escalation who are dealing with addictions or mental health issues, there is no research or anecdote that suggests injuring people, destroying their belongings and/or traumatizing them leads to improved outcomes for either recovery or fellowship. We are selling out our unhoused neighbors, setting them up for failure, harming them in lasting ways, and prolonging a crisis so others can profit. I want to close on acknowledging the power of Doohoo's recent action. I have been shooting street photography in the city for 15 years. I've seen a lot. And after a certain amount of time, you settle into a sort of routine. So, it was quite exhilarating to feel that routine disrupted with a protest that had so much power. The image that's on the screen right now is of a Union Station security guard reading Tuhoo's report. It is the kind of moment that is scary to shoot because as a photographer, you know you need to get it right. It's a shot that feels as profound, unsettling, and important as the moment that Tu is meeting. I am grateful for the courage and organizing it took to produce this image. It's already among my favorites. In closing, I want to address the city and the public. Many of the issues at play here, including a security service that we do not have control over, are largely a responsibility of a provincial government that has seen homelessness increase drastically across the whole province, not just in Toronto. So, considering that this is an everywhere crisis, that there is simply nowhere for many to go, um, we must act with grace, openness, and righteousness. After all, the average Toronto resident is far more likely to end up in precarious housing or unhoused than the in than in the executive suite of FIFA's offices. This is about Toronto looking out for Toronto, us looking after us. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um, are there questions uh from members of the committee? I want to thank you for your passion for capturing this visually video in videography and and helping to tell the story in yet another way and really important. So, thank you very much. Um, next we have uh Miguel Aarde. Miguel, the floor is yours. Thank you, Elizabeth. One second. Let me connect my iPad. So, my my name is Miguel and I am a longtime activist in the city of Toronto. I am ally of uh TU um and uh thank you for the amazing action that you have uh this week um in in support of the our neighbors and friends who are homeless and being clean up out of the downtown area because we are afraid of them. Um so who are we protecting? The interest of the rich of course we're not protecting the interest of the poor. I had 16 years living in this city and my first um experience was when I was uh was terminated from my job. I became a homeless person in 2009 and I was hanging out in the park uh uh most park I believe in 2009 2009 when Debbie Miller was a mayor and the police gave me tickets because I was a back a beggan homeless occupying a space. So thankfully I got home uh uh housing in 2010. So I I see uh a deja vu a repeat of what we we have experienced before and nothing has may uh change for the better of our residents. The only people who has benefit from this kind of uh events are the police, the lawyers, security officers and members of the city staff. us the poor um priv and privileged we don't have we don't enjoy anything from this FIFA cup I am not exciting about it but I'm looking forward for our action where we're going to playing a world soccer match with members of 230 fightback which I'm a member and we're going to have a fun in June looking forward I I will be sharing um hopefully to share this information so as a member of um um zero fib. We have had times to uh opportunities to meet with the mayor to discuss um our concerns in the community of Dundas and Cherbon. Uh we had tried to reach out to Mayor Olivia Child for an appointment to talk to about our city situation at the corner of uh re uh Dundas and Sherburn particularly at 214 230 Sherburn Street a property that has been vacant for almost two two decades and and and remember that's when I was uh homeless in 2009 that place is still empty and why not take the opportunity to turn it into a homeless uh um a a housing for our friends that are being kicked out from Union Station. That will be a a good way to address the issue that we're having uh for housing. Again, as I I has shared my my thoughts with Mayor Olivia Child, the best way we can address our housing issues is defunding the Toronto Police. 50% will give us a lot of money, a lot of room to ensure that we have housing for the poor and not for a few privilege that make over $100,000 a year. And that is my deputation. Thank you, Elizabeth, for not interrupting me today and not limiting my freedom of speech. >> My pleasure. >> Yes. >> Um, are there questions from the committee? Well, Miguel, if there may be questions for you. >> Oh, yeah. I'm here 24 hours. Okay. Are there any questions from the committee for Miguel today? >> There are no questions, but I would like to say thank you uh Miguel for your continued and ongoing dedication to raising issues with the city. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Oh, wait. I'm sorry. I think Chase has a question for you. Uh >> oh. Uh >> oh. Chase, over to you. Thank you. >> Hey, Miguel. I just love your persistence and your attitude and just keep it up, buddy. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Miguel. Our next speaker is Dick uh Gary. Gary, I apologize. I'll ask you to Is Dick here? Yes. How do I pronounce your last name? >> Gary. >> Gary. Over to you, Dick. Gary, you have five minutes. >> So, my name is Dick. I've been on House since April 2024. I currently live in a shelter in the city. And I'm not speaking about homelessness today as an abstraction. I'm speaking as someone who's living inside the system. And it's a part of what taught me how these systems work is in my own experience of being helped violently by police where the official story of care did not match the reality of force used. But instead of telling you the details of my force displacement, I thought I would instead share what I learned from that experience about how power operates to remain unaccountable. I want to talk about what happens after the violence. Because after it happens, the public often hears a different story. Not because the violence didn't happen, but because institutions know how to translate violence into the language of care. I want to name three ways that happens. Because once you can recognize the mechanisms, it becomes much harder to be fooled by them. The first is renaming. A sweep becomes outreach. A force movement becomes a wellness check. Destruction of property becomes property storage. A person being pushed out of a public space becomes someone being offered services. The action doesn't change. The impact it has on the individual does not change. Just the word used to describe it. And once the word changes, the official story about what happened changes and the public imagines help instead of harm. People stop asking, "Was this violent? Was this person harmed?" and start asking were the services reasonable? We're social creatures and we understand our shared world through narrative and renaming takes away an unhoused person's authorship in the creation of that narrative and our understanding of our shared space. The second mechanism is procedure. When force becomes routine, it stops looking like force. It looks like policy, protocol, enforcement. It looks like people just doing their jobs. And procedure is persuasive because people are trained to associate bureaucracy with legitimacy. If something appears organized, documented, approved, procedural, people assume safeguards exist and that it must not be violent. A procedure can still be violent. Harm does not become humane because it was carried out professionally or because all of the check boxes were ticked. It just becomes harder to recognize as harm. because violence is often administrative before it is spectacular. The third mechanism is pathizing refusal. If the help being offered is not in service to my goals as I set them and instead is to what you believe my goals ought to be or what you want them to be. That is not help that you have offered me. That is the definition of coercion. I want to be very clear about that help that I don't want is coercion. My goals, my life, my goals. And if you refuse to be coerced, then you are service resistant. If you object, you are in crisis. If you fight back, you are dangerous. If you disengage, you are non-compliant. Every response to coercion gets turned into evidence that that coercion was necessary. And this mechanism is powerful because it makes the system impossible to meaningfully challenge. The violence that is done to us cannot be wrong. Only we can be wrong. And this matters because Toronto is preparing for FIFA. Cities preparing for global spectacles often respond to visible poverty not by solving it, but by managing it, displacing it, hiding it, renaming it. Because appearing safe is cheaper than becoming safe. Toronto wants to appear safe, orderly, and welcoming, and humane. But appearing safe is not the same thing as being safe. A city can make poverty less visible without any making anyone less poor. It can move people without housing them. It can increase surveillance without increasing trust. And it it can expand enforcement without addressing the conditions producing harm. That is not safety. That is performance. that is hiding the evidence. So when officials later say public safety, ask safety for whom? When they say outreach, ask could the person refuse. When they say services were offered, ask what happened next to that individual? Because if public safety does not include the safety of the unhoused people, then it is not public safety being protected. It is image, comfort, reputation, or the seats, the expense of seats. Unhoused people are a part of the public, too. I am a part of the public. If Toronto wants to be seen as humane during FIFA, the answer is not better language for the same violent practices. The answer is different practices. Housing, non-p police crisis response, real consent, real accountability, and treating unhoused people as residents, neighbors, and members of the public. not obstacles to branding. A city cannot market itself as humane while brutalizing the people it is trying hardest to hide. There are no shortcuts. Toronto, do the work. Earn it. I'm so sorry I went over time. >> That's okay. Thank you very much. That was very powerful. Thank you, Dick. Um, I'm going to open it to the committee first if anyone wants to comment. >> Yes, Annie. >> I just wanted to echo that was really powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that. It was a really strong description of how systems harm individuals and um I just because there was so much thoughtfulness in it. I have a question but don't feel as though it's on you to answer this but I if you do have thoughts about what would be helpful what what in the immediate what could be more helpful um to you or even in the longer term um what that might look like. I'm I'm just really curious and maybe that's not something you can answer on the spot, but just wanted to pose the question. >> What would be helpful is giving me the credibility that I'm owed as someone experiencing this myself. As a homeless person, I am the best person to provide testimony as to what my experiences are and what the harms are. But when I share those harms, what I say is get gets reinterpreted or is treated as noncredible in favor of a different narrative. And when you have no credibility, it's impossible to get any. I would have to be seen as someone worth listening to first, which I'm not to most people. So, what would help the most is that when a unhoused person says, "I've been harmed," believe them. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Is there anyone else from the committee? And if there isn't, then I just I want to say um a very deep thank you. Um these are hard things to get up and say. Um and there was a lot of thought in your in your comments. So, thank you for that. I I feel like some of what you were saying and some of what you centered is very much what this committee is supposed to be working on, which is helping the city to focus on what are the human rights outcomes, not clearing a park, not moving things aside, but meeting people's needs where they are. That's the human rights outcome. It's listening to the person who is experiencing it and meeting them where they're at and centering the answers and the response and the support to what they know themselves to be. So I think you shared that very eloquently for us and thank you. >> Sorry, Sroa has a question. Um yeah, that was incredibly powerful and I think it also spoke to the power of narrative um and lived experience and this idea of um optics silencing lived experience of homelessness and and um I think optics can be very oppressive and um I think what you described today could also have been very triggering for a lot of us who maybe have experienced those systems of oppression from above that um come in the form of language um and reports and we know all these things are important but um at the end of the day I think it's your stories that matter the most. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Our next speaker is Amro. Okay. >> I don't think this can be done, but you have another place. >> Can you just go online and register them and then they'll be at the bottom of the list? >> Like I >> Yep, we can. We've got two more people. So, just go online and we'll we'll get the other person's name on there. >> Uh, next on the list then is uh Lynn Walker. Is Lynn in the room? Welcome, Lynn. >> If you could just provide the name, um, we can just get that on the list. Yeah, thank you. Make life easier. Okay. Uh Lynn, it's over to you. You have five minutes. Thank you. >> Hello. My name is Lynn Walker. I'm a me I'm a member of TU. Um actually I'm an executive. I'm on the board and um I for years in Nova Scotia I had to couch hop from one person to another. And I also spent two years in Allen, two years in a month in Allen Gardens. Um, I just got to say right now, my hands are frostbitten, but then which I know 12 people have died this year from from uh from the cold, being out in the cold. Um, I'm just going to read a report here. Okay. Love the sport. Fight the impact. As a union made up of homeless and underhoused people, we know what our committee needs. Real safety does not come from displacement, intimidation, or brutality. We are tired of being treated as the problem and have the have the solution violate violently exercising against us. Our demands immediately immediate 24/7 respit spaces made available during World Cup preparations and during the ongoing World Cup events. Respit should be safe, engaging and resource spaces providing opportunities to receive compassionate support, learn, have fun, be creative, and rest. Two, cancel security contracts and place them with peer supports, harm reduction workers, and outreach terms who most fully embody a trauma in a trauma informed approach, aggressive enforcement and private security oper. operated support is not working. Allocate all budget funding away from security contracts and special enforcements and towards seasoned and compassionate outreach groups. SSC peer and harm reduction workers who have recently experienced job loss due to the closures are excellent candidates for immediate outreach employment during FIFA FIFA or at any time. Three, identif in indefinitely postpone shelter closures and SCS closures without a place without a place to go. More and more people are going to be in place places like Union Station. These ongoing closures are doing consistent harm to people and must be halted. Nothing about us without us. People who have experienced homelessness demand author authorship of our own goals and solutions. Without this any proposed solution is horshare. The experience doc experiences documented in the re this report reveal a disturbing pattern of escalating violence against vulnerable people at Union Station. These are not isolated incidents. These are consistent testimonies of dozens of people describing fear, humiliation, physical assaults, and attention. And we need immediately immediate solutions. We demand a city response rooted in dignity, housing, healthc care, and human rights. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Lynn. Um, again, I know that it takes a lot of courage to come into a room like this and tell your story. >> Freezing in here. >> You're freezing. We'll have to look at that. >> Oh, all right. Um, are there any questions for Lynn before she goes from the committee? >> I am just genuinely thankful for taking the time and and bringing this story to your story to our attention and I couldn't agree more uh with your conclusion. Dignity, housing, healthc care, and human rights for all. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Uh, next on our list is David Roberts. >> Hello. Uh, I'm David Roberts. I'm a faculty member at the University of Toronto in the urban studies program and department of geography and planning. Uh, I've been studying uh, the World Cup and mega events and their impacts on human rights uh, in cities uh, since 2009. Um my PhD research was based in South Africa looking at specifically these issues and I'm currently a member of a research team that is uh assessing the human rights promises connected to the 2026 World Cup um from Toronto. Our work is pretty difficult because Toronto hasn't released their promises. Um but uh we hope that that human rights action plan will be released soon, maybe in the next two weeks hopefully. Um we'll see. Uh what I will say is that none of this that we've heard today is surprising. This is exactly how cities prepare for hosting World Cups and other mega events. So part of the tension is that cities want to be seen as world class, right? And so the question becomes, how do we get to be a world-class city or how do we put on an image of a world-class city to tourists and foreign journalists who don't maybe know much about Toronto? I guess one thing is we wrap the scaffolding that we um put up in Beimo Stadium in in shiny banners. You can't actually see how temporary it is. Another is through policing. In 2009 and 2010, uh, Street atnet International, which is an organization that works primarily with people who who sell goods on street corners, observed that it during their worldclass cities for all campaign that it's predictable that a city when it wants to be seen as world class wants to have no visible signs of poverty or social inequality. You know, at its base, that goal is laudable. We shouldn't have visible signs of poverty and social inequality in our cities. The challenge is how we get there. And there's two kind of main ways you can get there. One is to do the types of things that TU is asking for. Invest in respit centers, invest in housing, invest in peer supports, and stop harassing, policing, violence. And I would say we can go even further beyond that because that in many ways solves the immediate. What we need to be doing is is undermining the systems that actually create the inequalities um that exist that make it impossible for people to find adequate affordable housing in our city. We know we're in a housing crisis. We're not building housing. It's pretty simple. It's hard to address the housing crisis if we don't have enough space for people to live. The second is what cities tend to revert to and it's the most expedient. Right? So we see this through passing of nuisance bylaws or loitering bylaws that are work that work to uh give police or security people additional authority to move people along if they're deemed to be not part of the worldass image. These things were part and parcel of the city agreements that happened in South Africa and we're seeing similar sorts of movements throughout host cities in North America as part of the run-up to this games and the future in the 2020 Olympics. Not at all surprising. We also see escalations of policing and security meant to displace people experiencing homelessness. Basically get them out of the eye of the tourist, out of the eye of the journalists. This is violence. There's no other way to look at it. It's a violation of people's human rights. It's a violation of our commitments as a city to protect those who are the most vulnerable. It's a violation of the things that we stand behind when we say diversity is our strength. Right? So, um but it's not at all surprising. And so, I come here today um as somebody who supports both the mechanisms or both the the demands of TU. And I think the movement of of taking them even further as well as uh the later item of trying to actually have an adequate measurable with key indicators human rights commitment in our our plans if we ever choose to do something as silly as host another one of these large scale events. Happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Um are there questions from the committee? Joy, >> I I'm on the edge of a question, but I don't quite have it. >> No worries. >> I guess time is short, so everything you said makes sense. >> Yeah, time is short now. >> Everything that I hear, so it makes total sense. And I'm just wondering what realistically could we do to actually change this? You know, that would stop the dragging people that would stop this blah blah blah. to make it what makes that >> happen when there's diverse players, you know, who who are dealing with this. >> Yeah. So, I think that that's a that's a tactic, the diverse players, right? The the the dispersal of responsibility to multiple different agencies. We see that in the policing or the securitization of Union Station, right? At once it is the TTC, it's Metroinks, it's a city, it's TPS, it's private security because of the businesses there. That's a problem. Like city the city should step up and the buck should stop here, city hall. Um it's ultimately the city's responsibility to protect people's rights. And if there is this dispersion of responsibility because there are multiple different contracts or multiple different people who see themselves as responsible for doing different things harm reduction one way one day uh clearing uh the the station another um then something needs to be done to to manage that that partnership right in the short term you know time is short right and what I would say is though that to who wasn't unaware of that right the recommendations that they provided the three demands are things that can be implemented in two weeks. They're not the things that I that I think were where we really fell down on which is we've known that the World Cup is going to be here for 8 plus years, right? Um and we haven't done the work to actually get us to the image that we want to show off to the world. That's the the larger problem. That's not something we're going to solve in 2 weeks. But the things that that touh who has asked for are the things exactly the things that could be done in two weeks. >> Thank you very much >> Danny. >> Yeah, just uh related to Joyy's question, you know, we have two weeks, so I I had a question about what we could do to kind of >> change things. Um in your research, have you do you have any examples of cities that have done this well and done it properly? No, I don't think there's there are any good examples. I think this is the nature of the beast. There was a lot of hope um that maybe this would be different, right? So, in 2017, FIFA created a human rights framework. They required all cities to put together human rights principles as part of their bids. In theory, they were the city host cities were evaluated against their commitments to human rights. They required all cities to come up with a human rights action plan. We're still not seeing that one, right? Um but the the challenge is that FIFA isn't interested in actually enforcing those things. That's not their their role. They they work on a deferred sovereignity sort of model. So they say, "Hey, it's not our responsibility to do the enforcement. That's at the level of the nation or the province or the city uh to do those protections." Um what the the real issue is that the city has chosen to um approach its human rights commitments as an obligation. It it sort of has as part of the hosting responsibility and not a robust commitment to actually protecting human rights during this event. Uh Lindsay, >> um I'm just wondering if you were able to gather any research on the effects uh that you know FIFA had once once they left the effects of homelessness even years after um what that looked like. >> Yeah. So in every every city it looks a little different. Um but we know that uh FIFA drives displacement of people. It often uh has pretty significant impacts on around affordable housing and gentrification. Um and that these these things have a local context to them. So I don't think there's like a a specific we can say that once the FIFA games are done um that this number of increase in homelessness is this percentage or the increase of of uh gentrification is this um because it all uh all is locally um locally context specific. And then the second thing I think is a bigger problem is that most of the time when FIFA leaves we don't actually do an audit. We don't actually assess the impacts. we just are happy it's gone maybe or we're moved on to something else uh and we don't really think about what happened. We don't really invest in either understanding the positive or the negative legacies. >> Maybe we can change that for Toronto if at the very least of one thing that we do. >> Yeah, I think that would be an important commitment especially in light of the later agenda item if we're thinking about principles of what we should be doing uh in the future if we ever choose to do this again. um that should be based in an assessment of of a of a critical audit of what actually happened uh this time around. >> Thank you. >> Looking around to the committee. Um thank you very much. >> Online hand. Oh, sorry. Yes. >> And Marie, >> can you hear me? Yep. >> Yeah. I just wanted to um just kind of like give a shout out to you for um putting it so I mean just outside of research for just bringing it back to our minds about the importance of confronting inequities and just for you naming it the epistemic injustices that you know embrace these inequalities and and even as a professor to to be able to use research to support um the ongoing arguments, all the conversations we've had this morning, all the hand raising. You have just really just in a concrete kind of way just summarized exactly what it is that it's the ongoing injustices that exist in the bureaucratic way that we need to constantly keep talking about, but to figure out ways to confront it because people lives are being affected and we've not just talk about it. It's just not a narrative cuz we've heard enough testimonies today. This is why this this work must continue because lives lives are affected. So, thank you so much. I really appreciate your say two things. One is um FIFA hosting a FIFA World Cup or any other large scale event doesn't create inequalities, it exacerbates them. So it really uh creates pressures on our systems and often the result is that those systems that are the weakest funded, those systems that are the most overresourced, they tend to be the ones um that protect those who are experiencing uh homelessness or uh other sorts of vulnerabilities. Those are the ones that that fall by the wayside or get get the most damage to them. So it exacerbates inequalities. The second is I'm around, right? I'm just up the street. So, um, I'm at your disposal. You have my email. If you need research to support the work, I first turn to Tu. They're the ones doing the work on the ground. Um, but if you, for whatever reason, need the credibility of a University of Toronto professor, I'm not hard to find. >> I think they know where to find you. Um, thank you very much. Um, and I just want to echo the the the questions and the comments from the committee. I and building on both Lindsay and Anie's comments as well. Um, I I think we do need to think about doing a deep assessment um after this so that we understand and hearing having heard from TU who the lived experience. But then there's also other indicators that can tell us um what happened and and what got exacerbated. And I think your point also around um the distribution of accountability means that there's no accountability. Um and so that is by design uh maybe not by intent but it does happen by design and so it's a very important issue for us to think think about. Thank you. We have one final speaker to this item and it is Salah Shik over to you. My name is >> Do we have the microphone on for you? >> Thank you. >> Much better. Thank you. >> My name is Salah. I'm a to member and when we're doing the outreach for the report, I have two stories that I keep thinking about and I was I'm here today. I even wasn't planning to talk but when I had the chance I wanted to share them. The first one is when we go and see how the security treat people, it's even telling me the world is discrimination cuz they look at people and they decide which one they going to wake up and ask him to leave. And that's the way they think this is an homeless person or this is a person that we need to kick out because it will not look good when the people come for the cleanup. And the day of the rally, I was there since 6:30 or 7:00 because in my head I think we run in hope. I hope that maybe in that day I will see something different. Maybe something will change. But I saw the security and the outreach staff person there doing the same thing picking up some people asking to leave. Then when we came after the rally with the press and everyone was looking nice and shiny the same security and people came to us and said just we're doing some delivery move aside then come back and do whatever you want do when you keep doing at the press conference and everything. So they choose who to remove and who to stay. I could have my Starbucks coffee and sit there for 4 hours and no one will tell me to leave. But if someone is sitting with a bag or look not clean up, so they will clean him up. This is one of the stories. And the other one is when we were there one time doing outreach and there's an overdose case and two team stepped in to help with the situation and I don't think they will move fast enough as we did. But after we finished, they ask us don't do that again. just call someone to the and I was part of the team that was there and personally they asked me to step away because the person who had on wheelchair so for them I'm one of those people who need to be clean up so they asked me to stay away and go out of the space to let the other people do the work and I was thinking should I say no I'm part of two should I say no but why should I say no I'm not a person that you need to clean up at that moment I would like say yes I'm homeless person what you going to do I have right to pee in every part of Toronto like everyone else and I heard from everyone here that it's security who's doing this we don't have to control them and I don't know I think everyone was watching the news YouTube you see ad coming for Ontario no safe injection sites build more presence I just came from Africa a few years ago and Toronto the government what's happening we still we're moving towards that we have expression we have green passport back in Africa and Canadian and American all this country have a blue one right I haven't got my passport yet so I'm not sure but I think it's blue so every time something happen we say the passport is going greener cuz you're doing the stuff it's happen like in Africa I survived I survived the African nation in Egypt and the same thing that was happening there is happening here and I shouldn't think this happening in Canada or in Toronto. So we did the work we brought the report term like we have the ball either you score a goal or you with our chance. This is a chance for Toronto to set the rules for the next World Cup for the world to do better and this is our chance. Thank you. And we gave you the board. Please do something good with it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Salah. Well put. >> Um, are there any questions from the committee for Salah? >> That's a question. >> Okay. >> Um, I don't have a question, but I do want to say this. I No, no, you're not off that easy. Um, I want to say thank you for sharing your story, what you've seen, um, and and for deciding in the moment to to come and come forward and speak. Um, I also I feel like you've made it very clear to us there are things that can happen that the city can do now and it's not too late for actually for for Toronto to have a win with FIFA. And so that's the opportunity that's actually sitting here. um how do we how can the city respond um and ensure that we have a different story that if we do an audit if we do a an assessment after we can say and some of the right things were done in time I know things are already happening but it's not too late so thank you very much >> thank you >> okay so thanks to all of the deputents I I will say this this committee has not heard so um expansively and deeply and thoughtfully um from communities of rights holders since we started. And so I am grateful to Tu for organizing this for coming and for putting your hand up and bringing this issue and your stories to our attention. Um I think we I speak for the committee when I say we all appreciate that when you're sharing personal stories for those who spoke from lived experience um that's not easy. And so, thank you for doing so. And for those who don't have lived experience but are committed uh with passion and integrity to to supporting that work, uh thank you for that as well. Um yes, bravo. Um now that we've heard from our speakers, we now get to move to questions um of our presenters and members. Do we have further questions for TU at this point or um do we have other questions perhaps that we want to direct if there's clarification we want to have from staff at this point? I know I have a question for staff and I I don't know who is here from the city staff that is able to answer this. We've heard from sever several deput deputations that we don't yet have a FIFA human rights plan. Um, is there anyone that can um let us know uh where we're at on that and when we can expect to see one? >> Uh, through you, Chair Michael Brewer from the city's FIFA secretariat. Um, we do have a plan. Uh, the process of finalizing the actual physical document for publication has unfortunately been lengthy, but the actions that are part of the plan are already underway. Uh, and so I can speak a little bit to that as it relates to the welfare and well-being of unsheltered populations. The actions that we've included in the plan focus on preventing and mitigating displacement of unsheltered individuals through coordinated planning between city divisions and community partners. And we're working very closely with our colleagues in the Toronto Shelter and Support Services Division on that. uh enhancing outreach and engagement with individuals experiencing homelessness to support access to the shelter system for those living outdoors during the tournament period. And again, this is something that's already underway, the enhanced outreach. Optimizing referrals to daytime drop-in services that provide meals, hygiene supports, health and social service referrals, and connections to shelter and outreach, ensuring continuity of care and access to essential supports and training staff to engage respectfully and compassionately with unsheltered individuals and referring them to appropriate services as needed. And I hope that in the coming days the document itself will be published. Um it's been a lengthy process working with FIFA their advisory bodies trying to get to a point where there's a level of consistency across all 16 cities. Uh I understand there's about half of the cities that are in a similar position to us that have not published yet. Um but ours should be available in the coming days. So we can expect to see it before FIFA begins. >> Absolutely. >> I'm aware that Vancouver released it on Monday. >> Yes, that is correct. We we took a slightly different approach from Vancouver uh where we worked with our advisory body uh and so reviewed with those groups and organizations uh before making the document public. >> Um couple of follow-on questions. When you refer to staff having been trained, um I think that's really important. Um I've been directly involved in some training that has happened with um encamp uh staff at the city that work with encampments. Um what kind of training has been provided to those uh workers who are uh dealing directly uh on this work? Uh so I defer to my colleagues in shelters about the the training that staff receive, but there is also uh human rights training that FIFA is preparing for security staff which we will be disseminating to all of the the security staff at the venues themselves as well. >> Okay, thank you. Um and is there any intention um uh is it David Roberts who spoke um the academic he's gone um he he asked or I'm not maybe he's behind the pillar um but the idea was tabled is there a possibility of doing a like a post-mortem an audit after the fact so that we can learn from this because this probably is not the last mega event that this city will hold and so this this is an opportunity to to learn. Is is that um in on the books for you? >> Uh we're certainly open to it. We do have plans to review the economic impact, the environmental impact, so in a number of areas as well as our legacy programs, the legacy impact that they have. So we're we're certainly open to to working with folks on that. I >> I think looking at the human rights outcomes uh for people in the city would be an important element of of that legacy. Um thank you. Um, are there other questions from the committee uh for staff? >> Yes, Annie. Uh, just in light of some of the comments that were made about the way security is being managed, um, are there does the city sort of have an eye on which security services are being used and are are you aware of sort of any universal training or do do you have any insight into how that's being managed? I'm just curious. >> The chair. Hi, my name is Milton Barrera, director with uh Toronto Shelter and Support Services. So, the city continues to support people experiencing homelessness through a uh person- centered approach, human rights approach uh focused on uh outreach uh coordination and uh voluntary access to to services. Uh so at Union we have the interdivisional outreach and case management pilot uh that commenced uh last month and will be operating for 5 months and our goal there is to uh strengthen case management and coordination of outreach teams which is not unique to Union but across the the city. Um part of our partners involves uh Creme corporate uh corporate real estate uh management and we are working uh actively with our security partners. Uh some of the details we've heard today we definitely will uh provide feedback at that table uh to improve. I just have a follow- on question to that because I think it's really important to understand the accountability around security and I I appreciate that there are many players um participating in this. Um but is there uh can you explain a little bit about how Metro Links may be accountable to some of the commitments that the city of Toronto has made around human rights? So can't really comment directly on behalf of Metro Links but as I stated uh they are a active partner uh in uh working with us uh to support individuals at Union Station. Uh as stated we will be conversing with them to to discuss how do we align uh our approaches uh because definitely um uh some concerns based on what I've heard today. >> Yeah. and and I think the other uh the corporate security the metro what all the various contracted partners and I also understand other uh representation from other police forces may be coming in as we get closer to FIFA itself um and so I think I I don't know what the what the mechanism is but ensuring that there is a high bar of of human rights awareness um for all of those security forces that are at play. >> Yes sure that's correct. Um and just would say that uh when it comes to just uh our uh delivery of services to people experiencing homelessness specifically for those uh that are in encampments or outdoors um our interventional uh protocol for encampments uh continues to guide us. >> Okay. I have one more question for Milton. Sorry. Um to has identified three very practical things that can happen between now. I I'm I'm aware first of all just to say that this committee doesn't have an ability to to pass a motion that will reach effect with staff in the short runway that we have and before before uh FIFA. Um but I do think that there's opportunity for staff simply to receive the recommendations and so to who has made three recommendations. I think they're all very practical. Immediate 247 restit space is made available before and during the uh World Cup events. um cancel security contracts or revise the outcomes of security co but their their language is cancel security contracts and indefinitely postpones shelter closures. Um are those things that can be looked at by your team between now and the beginning of FIFA? Richard, >> there's some that we can look at and then others that have already uh uh been completed. >> Okay. Yes, go away. >> I haven't got this firm in my head. Um, I'm very moved by the remarks that people made. Um, and I think, you know, when I read these demands, I'm hoping to see them advanced in the immediate term, but really forever. What practically can be done to ensure that people who are employed by the city or are funded by the city partnerships stop dragging people around you know like stop the behavior of treating you know someone's in a park, someone's on the stairs, someone's here and you know molesting them and moving them out. I don't know how that's done. I just I'm sort of looking at the staff people how to ensure that there's proper behavior from our staff and from our contractors. >> I'm going to take that as a comment rather than a directed question or do you want to direct that question to staff? I it it is for staff in the sense of what what would it take you know like how would you do that >> through shar I'll start first so we learned a lot from the abundance report on uh the actions taken for the encampments in in 2021 and from that we um implemented our council approved interdivisional protocol for encampments. So I can tell you that all our staff um as uh the chair has indicated have received human rights training. um we ensure that you know there there is no violations uh occurring and if there is a case where a a situation does present itself then we definitely want to be hearing about it so we can investigate. uh but the the teams involved when it comes to working with uh people experiencing outdoor homelessness uh understand um the principles that that we work under the IDP through the chair. I'll just also add that uh any city contract has procurement uh conditions attached to it that uh people have to abide by our own city of Toronto human rights processes. So the feedback given today, we'll definitely take back and and provide that to the the divisions that are responsible for those contracts. Thank you. >> Thank you. Can you just identify yourself? >> My apologies. I'm Scott McKeen. I'm a director with social development. >> Great. Thank you, Scott. Um I I think a related piece to that is um we can require compliance from partners and and and when we outsource and so forth. Um, I guess the the other piece to that for accountability is is there a a mechanism by which a complaint can be heard um and that that action can be taken when the the the principles may be there, the requirements may be there, but we're dealing with a a whole bunch of human beings and so things don't always happen the way that they are intended. So, is there a complaint or accountability piece that can be attached to that? >> Every city division has a complaint process and uh they're publicly posted online. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I'm looking around. I think I think that's it for this item. I want to say thank you again to uh the members of TUHU, the deputants. I also want to note that we've received uh written submissions to this as well, which will also go into into the mix. Um and uh thank you to all. I believe now that we um I would move to receive the item and so to the committee. All in favor for receiving the item. There's another item coming. Do you want to say something first? No. Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. Can I see hands? Any opposed? No. Thank you. Um the next item actually builds on what we've just heard and uh it's a human rightsbased guidelines for hosting future uh mega events in the city. Um a letter was submitted to the committee for this Um, and I'm just looking for it in my Here we go. Um, this is 11.3. No, you have the letter. Here it is. I have it. Thank you. Um, so the letter is from me to the committee. Um, when people sleeping outdoors are removed or displaced, they are disconnected from their support networks, case workers, access to vital services, and face increased safety risks, including overdose for those who do use drugs. It is a deeply traumatizing and destabilizing experience and is in part why council rightfully adopted the interdivisional protocol on encampments. as a council advisory body mandated to provide advice to city council on how it can uphold its Toronto housing charter commitment to progressive the charter commitment to progressively realize the right to adequate housing. It is important that we understand how the city is monitoring its compliance with the Toronto Housing Charter and IDP when it hosts large-scale events such as the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. Before entering into agreements to these events, the city should adopt trauma-informed human rightsbased guidelines to respond to and support people who are experiencing homelessness and residing in public spaces. These guidelines must be coordinated and consistently applied by city staff and staff contracted by the city to ensure human rights are respected and upheld. Hosting large-scale international events is ultimately an opportunity to demonstrate how governments can uphold and respect the human rights of its residents, including the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing. I am then therefore proposing a recommendation from the housing rights advisory committee that requests city council to reaffirm its commitment to the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing when considering strengthening governance oversight for future future mega or large-scale events as directed in item AU9.9 FIFA World Cup 2026 Toronto governance lessons learned for bidding and planning to host future events as established in planning and housing 11.5 and the housing to 202030 action plan by ensuring any guidelines or policies developed include a consideration of impacts on people experiencing homelessness especially those experiencing unsheltered homelessness and b specifications for establishing a plan to minimize displacement and support people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to access shelter or housing in alignment with the city's interdivisional protocol on encampments. In short, before we do this again, can everything please be in place as part of the bidding process. I'm also happy to enhance this. This was written in advance and I think we've heard a lot today. So, are we able to put this on the screen? Yeah. Thank you, Joy. You look like you want to add to it. So, I want to open that to you. Oh, are you open now? I was waiting for the screen. >> Oh, wait for the screen if you want to see that. Chris, >> it's okay. I think what I want to do is is just it's a matter of honoring the the demands of the group so they've made uh put forward three things and I want to be sure that those things are reflected and covered by whatever it is that we do. So I think we should add that to the recommendation. I agree. And I think then it should be um by ensuring the guidelines can include A, B and C consideration of the experience of unhoused underhoused and homeless um are you writing? Thank you. um experiences in FIFA 2026 um and the recommendations that TUO has brought forward as a guideline for how the city thinks about what actions should look like. >> Okay. Does that does that feel right? Do do people want to word smith add to it expand? I think it is I agree with you Joy 100%. I would like to honor the the work that has been done in bringing forward these uh >> who has a Lindsay, please go ahead. >> Can't hear you. >> Oh, you need to unmute. >> I pressed it but it didn't work. Um yeah, maybe just saying uh something about the audit after. >> Yes, >> might be important. >> Yes, thank you. I had it on my note and I didn't say it out loud. Um, and can we also add to that in addition to undertake for FIFA 2026, an audit of the impact of the mega event on the human rights of residents in Toronto, especially those who are unhoused and unsheltered. >> May I don't know if it needs to if it matters, but maybe up to a year. like I I want to I I have a feeling it's going to be a ripple effect that's you know going to occur over some time. So whi which again is just going to cost our city more than if we had invested originally in even modular housing or or or housing of any kind. Um, so just getting something a little bit more long-term than just uh the immediate impact, but um over a six-month period or a year period or something specific. >> Let's put over over one year. >> Thank you, Lindsay. >> So with are we able to put that into the recommendation or do we want to come back to it and move it? Okay. So, we're going to we're going to come back to it and and do the motion after we have final wording on that. So, thank you. Um, so we will move forward. I'm looking at the time. We've been at this for a little while. I think we need a health break. And I'm also going to just consult to see if we want to take a longer break that would constitute and then we come back and go through uh if people need to get coffee or food or something like that. Is this a good time to take like a 20-minut break? people can grab some food and then we go back at it or do we take a longer break for 10 minutes back in 15 minutes. Can we push through to 1:30? >> Okay. So, we're going to take a 15 minute break. Uh health break. Grab what you need and then we're going to push through for the rest of the agenda without a lunch break. So, do get something if you're going to need sustenance. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Who do we need? >> The Roa is there. Joy is there. The people online, we're going to try to Can they hear me? >> They can eat. >> Everybody can eat. Great. Thank you. Everybody's coming back online. So, where are we in the agenda? >> We're on item. >> We're just going to pause on that. We're going to come back to it. >> Yeah, we're gonna >> we come back to it or do we have to come to it now? >> You can just say we're going to hold it down. >> Hold it. >> Priorities. Okay, great. And for priorities, the speaker list is I'm grateful to you. >> Thank you. So, it's Martha, Margaret, and Cheryl Casease. >> Okay. >> Okay, we're going to reconvene. Um, I think we have everybody in the room. One, two, three, four. Uh, Lindsay's five. Nicole is six. Case is seven. We need B and and Marie when they can join. Ready to go on five or should we hold >> go to the next item? >> Okay, we're going to hold uh the motion because we're just or the the recommendation because we're just uh word smithing what got added. So, thank you for your patience and we'll come back to it. um to keep the the agenda moving forward. The next item is um actually 11.3 the human rights advisory committee first term review and key priorities going forward. Um for this item this was uh this came out of a discussion with some of the working group chairs to say it's an opportunity as ATRA comes to the end of its term um for those so so that we're all on the same page. The housing rights advisory committee um runs the same term as council which means that as council this current council rises in the summer the term of this advisory committee comes to an end. So this is our second last meeting. Our last meeting will be at the end of June and should the next council appoint a housing rights advisory committee there will be new applications and new members of that committee to come forward. Anyone on this committee may apply again, but it is not a given. There will be a call for applications to the committee. Um, as part of that, we started partway through our term. We didn't begin at the beginning of the term. We started two and a half years ago. Um, or three years ago maybe now. Um, and so we had to move quickly in order to get started and to to have as much effect as we could. And so in order to do that, we quickly assembled a priorities framework. Uh we quickly moved into working groups and we we kind of um uh abandoned perfection for the sake of getting started on the work. And I think that that's okay and I think it was the right thing to do. But I do think that there's an opportunity after two and a half years of learning from the process from the work that we have done to set sit back and say what should be the priorities for the next advisory committee. What have we done well? What have we been successful at? Maybe things that we could have done different. But importantly, there's an opportunity to sort of do some of that early work for the next committee and suggest what what are the priorities from what we've seen from what we've heard in our work. And so I have uh each of the working group chairs was going to consult with their members. I will speak for working group one because as I mentioned earlier, Diana is no longer the chair of that committee. Um, and we discussed uh, so I'm going to go around to each of the chairs and ask you to share what you heard. Um, and then I want to open it up to committee members to say what did we miss? What else do you think is important? Everyone has had a chance to think about this and I I want this to be a conversation among all of us and then we also will have deputations to that. U, do we all speak before the deputations? I think so. We'll have a go around. We'll have a go around before we open it for deputations. Um, so I want to go back to the uh first working group supporting unhoused uh uh rights holders. And when we talked about what's next for the next HR track and and and this working group, um the members identified the following priorities. understanding the city's progress in advancing supportive housing, in particular modular housing, including limitations, considerations, and increasing supportive housing supply. This is really in response to one of the early and immediate answers to homelessness in the city is a greater supply and access to supportive housing. Um, another priority identified was that there are barriers for people trying to exit the shelter system, including access to things like the Canada Ontario housing benefit and other tools that enable people to get out of homelessness and into um their own housing. There were there's uh priority around concerns for housing adequacy and hab habitability particularly within the existing stock of rent gear to income housing and how how are we seeing accountability around that. Um concerns and a priority for shelter safety in particular ensuring the shelter environment is safe for clients users. Um and finally ensuring that there is a complaints process in cityrun shelters. complaints process that is accountable and provides access to justice for clients. Um so I'll pause there. Those were the priorities identified by the first working group. Um I will turn to the second working group. I think Ann Marie that's you if you're ready to go. I think how we're going to do this. I'm going to give the members an opportunity to chime in and um sh I'm sorry there's the trucks passing outside. Um the opportunity to chime in and share what they have. Um haven't received anything back personally from anyone. So I'll just let them um chime in and give their feedback. >> Can I interrupt you for for one quick second and Marie? I was going to open that up as well. So I I I if we could just do the headlines and then we're going to open up for all the working group members because I also would have fallen short for my working group. Um so either we either we go to you next or we we go to my working group members first and let them chime in where I didn't or we go around and then open it up more broadly. Um I'm happy to go either way. What's your preference and Marie? >> Um okay. So, I'll I'll kind of go and what you could do is then open it for everyone. >> Just open it up and just let people give people an opportunity to share for themselves. >> Okay, great. >> Um, so I just wrote something quickly from my end. Um so since our inception in 2023 this committee has made the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing and or unwavering priority around that. We answered a call to advocate for people facing housing procarity those unhoused at risk or pushed to the margins. Together we stepped up or ground we together we stepped up grounded our work in HRT's priorities framework and moved the needle forward by forming focused working groups that turned intention into action and by aligning our advocacy with the framework improving access to housing. Um we know we've got supporting h the on househouse and protecting and expanding housing stock. We demonstrate our collective commitment to equity collaboration and meaningful progress. Looking ahead, our priorities must remain strong, supported by smaller strategic working groups that can champion change with precision and purpose. Working groups have proven essential in advanced and rights based housing with consistency, collaboration, and intention. A key challenge noted from um the access group is access remains at the heart of housing inequity and increase in affordable housing is essential. We have raised awareness but deeper grassroots engagement is still needed and just about around impact the city's moving in the right direction of course we know that through its own housing to um action plan and this committee has played a vital role in holding the city accountable to a human rightsbased approach as well as I'm speaking on behalf of the working group committee as well ensuring housing is not just an aspiration but that it is an action and we're not yet at the finish line, but we are undeniably further than where we are be than where we began in 2023 about learning. Um, housing is everyone's right. We've heard it echoed throughout um the morning. And it's not just a fact. That is the truth. To reach the city's goals, we must continue to build an equitable city rooted in social justice and inclusion. Government must prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable and remain steadfast in its commitments. A renewed focus must also a renewed focus is necessary to elevate the voices of people with lived experience. And in solving inadequate housing, it will require multifaceted collective effort where advocates, city staff, consultants, and community partners must continue working with one agenda. Fix the problem. We must educate, challenge, and mobilize individuals and institutions staying visible, informed, and unwavering in our advocacy. And lastly, we must expand access to safe, affordable housing for all and not in silos, but as a united collective, removing the barriers of course and we must shift the burden away from the individual fighting for their own rights and we must understand that housing is a human right and it is time to make it real. That's all I have. >> That's great. Thank you, Anie. Um, and then I'm going to turn to Annie and then we're going to open it up for everyone. And I've got Lindsay at the top of the list once we go big. Over to you, Annie. >> Great. Thanks. Uh, so several years ago, Toronto became the first municipality in Canada to recognize its obligation to advance the right to housing, a significant milestone. At the time, that work felt aspirational in large part because Toronto was the first. Since then, the city's made meaningful progress by integrating rights-based approaches into civic infrastructure, most notably through the establishment of this committee and through the establishment of the deputy ombbudsman housing office. ATRA's important contribution has been helping move the city from rightsbased commitments towards rightsbased reality. The first term of HRA demonstrated that a rightsbased approach to housing can be operationalized. That the approach has practical implications for how the city operates every day, how it designs programs, allocates resources, evaluates impacts, and engages with its obligations to residents experiencing housing procarity and homelessness. So, I'm speaking today, as Elizabeth said, as the chair of the HRAX maintaining housing working group. Um I'm just going to provide reflections uh that the rest of the group including its previous chair Srosa um provided on the success and challenges faced by the working group and broader ATRA across its first term and then some recommendations for what we hope will will happen in the future. So, the maintaining housing working group, I just want to start by saying it's it's an important focus um because deeply affordable housing continues to be lost at alarming rates due to macroeconomic forces. And if this continues, it doesn't matter how much new supply is created. However, keeping vulnerable and lower income people housed is one of the most important actions the city can take. I guess I should have said therefore, um it's one of the most important actions. preventing displacement and homelessness is at the core of the right to housing um and shows what that can be in action and it has profound and life-changing impacts on individuals. So over the course of our first term, the maintaining housing working group aimed to advance greater housing stability for equity deserving and lower income residents by focusing on several key initiatives. eviction prevention and tenant support programs, expanding those. Um, making sure they're better coordinated, rent safe to how that's functioning, implementation of the multi-tenant housing framework, in particular, making sure people were not getting evicted as a result of the implementation. Um, addressing rent evictions and demictions and the housing at risk table. There was there were several important successes over the course of our first term. HRA advocated on the city budget for two consecutive years, including submitting letters to executive committee identifying gaps in the budget and urging the city to direct maximum available resources to preventing homelessness. Um, increased funding to the Toronto tenant support program in 2025 is one example of actual concrete progress that emerged from the advocacy. The committee also worked to ensure that people with lived in living experience of housing procarity were better integrated into HRA's work. Early on, lived experts were not able to directly participate in working group meetings. Um, and through the collab through collaboration with the housing secretariat, this changed over time, allowing lived experts to directly inform discussions as we saw today on emerging housing challenges and helping HRA amplify perspectives more meaningfully. The maintaining housing working group also provided detailed feedback on the implementation of the multi-tenant housing framework and raised concerns about tenant displacement. Um we also advocated for greater attention on the adequacy of existing eviction prevention supports and resident needs um the need to better coordinate services and to expand those services. Um, we also pushed back against provincial efforts to weaken protections for renters under Ontario's bill 60, fighting delays building faster act and the use of the notwithstanding clause to threaten unhoused residents. At the same time, there were some challenges and we learned a lot. So, applying a rightsbased approach in municipal systems is hard work. Decision- making and communication channels are often complex and can be inaccessible, particular for particularly for residents and lived experts navigating systems while also experiencing housing procarity. Navigating council processes and the city clerk's office is a learning curve for all of us and we're hoping to leave maybe a memo for our successors. Um, there were also moments where HRA's work was shaped by citydirected priorities rather than emerging issues identified by communities themselves. Though I do want to acknowledge that city staff has been receptive to feedback and really really supportive in helping the committee build um on our work. So, the committee also worked within structural challenges that we're all familiar with. Um, weakening tenant protections, um, not enough resources to address the the needs that that are so glaringly obvious. Um, so then on that note, I'm just going to say as we look ahead, I'll wrap up. Um, the the next phase of HRX work will hopefully be less about establishing ourselves and more about deepening our institutional impact. So, uh, the committee together. Um but again, please fill in if I've missed anything. Um wanted to recommend the following to to predecessors. Ensuring earlier consultation with HRAC impacted communities and people with lived experience on emerging city initiatives. Sometimes they came to us, it felt a little bit late. Um advancing stronger intergovernmental collaborations so the city has resources necessary to enact recommendations. continuing to create and strengthen accountability mechanisms related to housing and homelessness decision-making. And then a couple just for the maintaining housing working group that they might think of as priorities strengthening coordination and expansion of tenant support and housing stabilization systems. And I wanted to flag the Canada Rental Protection Fund, which is a new federal initiative aimed at preserving affordable rental housing by helping nonprofit and community housing providers acquire existing rental buildings. The federal government has recently issued an RFP to establish acquisition vehicles and delivery partners and the implementation details are still emerging. So, I would recommend as the fund rolls out, um, the maintaining housing working group keeps some eyes on how that can can play out and assist in Toronto. Um, so I'll just I'll just wrap wrap up there. I think I've been going on for quite a long time. Um, we just wanted to end by saying we we really hope that this committee will be restruuck and that we can continue to do this really uh critical work. Thanks. >> Thank you, Annie. Thank you, Anmirie. Um, and so there's there's more there's more members of the committee that have uh input for this. So I'm going to start with Lindsay because your hand went up right away. And I probably should have organized this feedback differently, but we're here now. So over to you, Lindsay. >> Um, wow, that was really, really, really, really good. Um, the last uh working group that spoke. Um, one thing that all three um, working groups touched on is giving the voice of those with lived experiences um, a significant voice solutions um, to our housing crisis. and you know allowing those with lived experience within the committee to bring forth those solutions as opposed to just the city um making sure that like as opposed to the city bringing forth their uh collective works to ensure that it's in alignment with uh human rights based approach. you know, um as somebody with lived experience within the community, I definitely um wasn't able to get uh my voice or priorities heard like I wanted and I wasn't able to kind of follow up with any um real movement in uh some of the things that um I felt were important such as modular housing and supportive housing. but also going forward being able to ex expand the priority of having all three levels of government working together I think is going to be an important part because I have a feeling funding um may have been um a hindrance right just kind of passing it on it's the province it's the city but actually not working together and I think that will be an important priority moving forward and yeah the vote those with lived experience having, you know, real solutions to the problem that they've experienced. Like that's that's crucial. So, um really though, uh uh Nicole, it's Nicole, the last person that spoke. Is that who that was? She's not in my working group, but you summed it up so so perfectly. So, thank you so much for that. That's >> Thank you, Lindsay. And I I I just want to echo your frustration and concern with um the extent to which members of the committee, particularly people with lived experience, are able to co-create the agenda and and I think that will always be attention in this process. And so I thank you for uh centering it um because I think it will be important as we go forward. Um others that want to um contribute add to what's been said. S Roa. >> Hello. Um yeah, actually that was Ann Marie Molton who um shared the feedback from the the first working group. Um but yeah, thank you Lindsay. Um I agree with you that everyone's uh accomplishments have been incredibly strong. like all the working groups um I think are aligned and have been able to like um sort of uh feed off of each other and like grow uh together um despite some of the challenges that you've all raised um in uh navigating the uh you know city processes um can be difficult but I think that like both internally and externally we've we've accomplished a lot um And so, yeah, I would support I don't know if this is the appropriate time to say that I would support um the continuation of the housing rights advisory committee. I think it's a really essential um role that needs to be played in order for the city to have accountability to its housing action plan coming from lived experts uh both within the committee and and outside of so to to of course help amplify the voices uh of un the unhoused and precariously housed communities of our city. Um and yeah, I think there's probably a lot more to add to that. I think a lot of you have covered um what I wanted to say. So, thank you so much for all your work everybody. >> Thank you. Sroa, are there any others who would like to add um additional thoughts on priorities or um considerations as we begin to wrap up this committee. We will have one more meeting in June and I I think we will look to consolidate what we've heard from you and from the from all of us uh into a bit of a summary document for our next meeting to to look at and to um sort of review together. Um but I'd like to keep the floor open for a moment if there's others otherwise we have people that want to debute to us. So um can pause here. Okay, we have a speakers list. Um, and on the speakers list, we begin with >> Oh, sorry, B. Did you have your hand up? All right, over to you, B. >> The video just stopped. Um, okay. I just want to uh thank you for everybody uh in this committee. Uh, I myself learned a lot and thank you for advocating for the homeless people. Um I mean throughout this even though it's short but um but I think we accomplished you know uh well I can say a lot but uh uh it's it's quite a much uh that uh we we we have been changing uh uh you know uh not changing um improving you know the system uh uh um um about the the uh access to housing uh you know uh for for the homeless people. I just want to add more. I mean they I mean the the they come to us you know they they we we are input they take our input and they they change the system and or they improve on on the the system and I think it's is a progress but I think they can do um more. I I just during the break I just got a letter from the the management upper management uh the manage the shelter management and is it was that letter is uh is is from the upper management from the uh director of the shop TSS. The letter say as I mentioned in our group uh unhouse group that you know during our resident meeting we already get heads up that um if we are here more than one year if we are not complying with the housing plan or whatever you'll be transferred um but the letter today I just write through uh two pages it's not one year it's if people who are six one start thinking um your your next step. So that means you have to either compile the housing you know get on whatever that comes to you or otherwise you will get transferred to another shelter. My concern is um I mean this shelter they I mean when I move in people told me they you know there are some client stay for two years I think is you know they don't get move I think this maybe is the only shelter they did that but now they are kind of tightened up and and they want everybody to get serious because now there's no no subsidy no cop right and it means it's very hard for people to move and exit take the shelter. Um, so because that I think they are tightened up the the the uh uh you know the uh to get people moving out. Uh that's only one way without the the uh C or I mean I I I didn't know there's other uh subsidy except the car program that uh they outsource to TNG. Um but that one you have to have your name come up to the to the to the list. If your name don't come up, you don't get connect with the the TNG worker and you you don't get that uh subsidy or 800 uh for for um helping with the rent. My concern is I don't think this the the way to do it. I mean personally I don't think this the way to do it. I think city should go and I don't know you know come up with some kind of other subsidy uh uh to solve the problem. Um I mean I mean I mean city can can you know like you know give a letter and say oh you know religion and do your your your search or whatever and and try to move out. Nobody want to stay in shelter forever, right? But we we have no way to get out because there's no subsidy. The rent is skyrocketing. How can we move out unless you are moving into the LGI housing, social housing, if you are market rent, there's no no way. If you're on uh uh uh you're on social assistant, if you're on OW, even worse, the rent they give you is what 300 something that can can even like that can even rent a room uh of the rooming house. I don't know you know if if that is the case how can people get even a room we share with eight n eight n or 10 people like I did before that time I'm not get subsidy like that's why that's and it's very precurious housing you know even though you got house you got a roof on your on on your head but it's so precurious I I catch I only sleep two hours because of this very cold uh um mosquito in my room because of mo you get infested with mosquito I only sleep two hours I catch all my sleep uh on the subway train up and down up and down after my meeting that time it was in person meeting so so after my meeting I I catch all my all my sleep on on the subway train until the the last train then I get off but there are few time I got too tired I oversleep I didn't get off the last train before before the last train and it was so I have that experience. I don't know where to go, how to go from the west. The last stop is the the the last train that last train stop at. And then what my first experience in the middle of the night I think around 1 something to two. I don't know how to go without you know the the the train from the west to scar and I was I was like panic panic and but later on I had a few time but then because of the first time I know how to go so I'm more like not that panic but the first time that experience scary and then and then when I get to uh anyway I got the the transition supervisor told me how to go and I was able to get to to um to scabo >> but waiting at the the bus stop >> uh they drop because the Kennedy station they don't go to the inside station because very close right they put you outside of station so I catch the bus uh uh at the near the subway service Kennedy station you are scary no car and there's a man in the bus stop I pray so hard that no harm come to me you know that I'll be safe to reach the the place that I live at that time. So So I'm seeing like that's u even like you know moving from one shelter to another shelter is a lot of trauma. I still can't get over the trauma that I move from the scarro shelter to this shelter until now. I still cannot get over that. And uh so it's not not not uh um not really helping for client to keep on moving from one shelter to another shelter. Uh uh because I mean the trauma it add on more and more trauma uh uh uh and and and those trauma is very not easy to to get over until you really settle down in a place and get healed. I'm I'm thinking that city should come up with some you know more uh subsidy program not just the P program that outsource to TNT with that 800 subsidy to market rent but it should have more subsidy uh program that help people to to access to market rent housing uh and also I think um uh yeah that's one thing And then the other thing is um I mean uh they had this uh lottery system. remember the the the staff came to our meeting and they did uh improve you know uh uh make clear the the whatever they put out is a specific uh lottery system and then the uh uh they I mean I'm I think uh we all know they they um the council approved the staff to uh have this uh 20% of the that uh rental affordable rental home program uh uh the 20% of the the unit of the the the the building. Um that that's a good good uh uh progress good improvement but I I I don't know when this uh alga that that one is 20% alga not lottery system I don't know when this algi uh this this new uh uh program that uh not program this new thing that um on this uh uh affordable rental home program that council approved that 20% or LGI without lottery system is a good help but uh uh but I don't know when this will come into um effect like um I wish this one will come uh like quickly instead or you know have to wait I don't know they announce it but I haven't seen anything yet I don't know whether they be this year or next year or few years later. I had no idea. So I hope this this 20% uh uh of LGI in this uh uh affordable rental home program will be uh foster. >> Okay, that's second thing. Third thing I wish that more unit will be allocated to this uh affordable rental home program. uh 20% is not much. Uh I hope it will be more and and even even the one uh that uh um even the one that is not ali the for the medium income people so far so far all the the the the building that I received in my email is like um 100 unit like the whole building only 100 unit is too affordable that no I'm not talking about outside just like the affordable is a bit a bit uh uh uh the rent is a bit from a bit uh less from the market rent so so is is those is roy system they want only 100 and then um I haven't see even 200 I think I saw one time it's 150 yeah most of the time it's 100 100 unit in that whole building to me it's not not many you know for that lottery system even right and so I I hope you know you will be locate more unit of this you know either lottery system or our GI uh uh unit um uh in this uh uh uh affordable rental home program >> right >> uh yeah thank you >> thank you very much be um as always I appreciate um your ability to bring forward the experience that you've had and and um makes it very real again from abstraction to reality um and I think strong suggestions for what the committee should focus on going forward. So thank you. Um I would ask other members of the committee who are joining virtually to please turn your cameras on. We don't have quorum unless your camera is on. So uh please do so. Thank you. Uh we have speakers uh to this uh item and so I would like now to call on Martha Singh Jennings from the 519. I also want to acknowledge that um documents had been submitted and a a very impressive report from the 519 on the experience of LGBTQ2s in the city and housing. So thank you very much uh for coming here today. You have five minutes. I'll wait until you get set up and plugged in. And you're set up and plugged in. Great. Over to you. Hello. Thanks for having me. Um yeah, my name is Martha Sing. Jennings. I use they them and she her pronouns and I'm the director of housing advocacy and support services at the 519. Um and in response to this item, we would um uh very much like to invite this uh committee if it is restruuck to uh include in their key priorities the the rights of two LGBTQ plus people in housing and uh shelter services. Um briefly, the 519 is a community center. We're a city of Toronto agency and a charity. We're Canada's largest 2SLGBTQ plus organization and we've been serving uh community for 50 years. It's our 50th anniversary this year. Um how we're coming to this work is quite varied. We've been um supporting unhoused community members for many years. In fact, um the board of directors of the 519 first voted to recognize the rights of unhoused folks using the space in 1977. Um and um at this time we offer a range of supports to folks who are un and underhoused including a range of drop in programs throughout the week. Basic needs supports uh food and security supports, harm reduction um in uh both in the form of uh people being able to access when they're coming into our space, but also we provide street outreach in our in our neighborhood. Um at this at the moment as well we are also working on a project uh with homes first funded by ts um through which we are supporting the city's first and still sadly only uh adult shelter space for current and trans people. This space is the pace project and it uh serves specifically newcomer refugees. We also provide housing case management to folks who are ex exiting homelessness to hopefully ensure housing stability long-term and reduce cyclical homelessness which is sadly incredibly common in our communities particularly for racialized trans individuals uh and few spirit folks. Uh we uh also uh uh try and uh collaborate and innovate around uh solutions and responses to create more inclusion within shelters and community housing including training, communities of practice. Um and for over 24 years we've been uh thoughtfully and proactively engaging community in consultations um to ensure that the the voices and experiences of to LLGBTQ plus people using shelter services experiencing unsheltered homelessness and um in inadequate um housing uh are represented and elevated and heard by spa in spaces like this. Most recently we um as mentioned and as submitted to this committee we have uh published a report where we belong housing rights and recommendations for 2 LGBTQ plus people. Um I know that this committee has heard before from our friends at Nelly about the experiences of uh trans and gender diverse folks in shelters. Um sadly it is true the evidence the research shows that quer and trans people experience discrimination, harassment and violence throughout their housing journeys from shelters to community and social housing and market housing and even into long-term care settings. And so through this report, we are um building on the work of uh folks from the 519, but also uh community advocates and grassroots voices like the folks at TUHU and Acorn um to highlight that um along with the uh specific experiences that quer and trans people have uh throughout their housing journeys that we're also disproportionately impacted by the financialization of housing that's affecting everybody who's who's trying to maintain ain safe, adequate and affordable housing. Um so here we just have an excerpt from the uh exact summary. I also have hard copies of this report if anyone would like any. Um and through this report we have a series of recommendations. Uh the first two are for all orders of government. Um whilst the federal and municipal governments have recognized 2 LGBTQ plus people as a priority population within housing and homelessness services and settings um uh there's been a failure to adequately adequately respond to that um even in the context of just setting minimum um targets of affordable units that that are too LGBTQ centered. So that's our our our first recommendation. Our second is uh for all order orders of government to work collaboratively to ensure the creation of 50,000 net new RGI units annually to uh uh universally and consistently recognize affordability as 30% of income and uh preserve housing uh affordable housing stock to one of uh one of your committee members points earlier. Um we have uh specific recommendations for different orders of government. Um I'm going to jump ahead given the time to the city focused ones. Um in in connection to the homelessness service and capital infrastructure strategy, we want to ensure that proportional amount of the units we anticipate being uh the beds rather we anticipate being created through this strategy are uh reserved for quer and trans people with 50% of those beds being for trans and gender diverse people. Uh and then that uh the city dedicates 10 million of the funding for uh support service housing support services to queer and trans organizations so that we can have services by and for our communities. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um before we go to questions, we have um a a problem of quorum on the committee um because we're going to lose someone shortly. So the meeting is going to have to come to I believe you're telling me it needs to come to an end without quum. >> So um I think we have my apologies. I thank you for your for your your deputation. I'm just I need to figure out the technicality first. Lindsay, >> how long are we anticipating going over? >> I'm I'm thinking that we have four more deputations. Probably Probably if we defer the last item, we can wrap up by 20 after 1. >> Okay. I'm I I'll I'll stay. >> Can you stay? I I I understand. I appreciate that you have a compelling reason to to go, but thank you. Um okay then we will continue uh with the deputations. Um thank you very much and I apologize for for interrupting like that. Are there any questions to the to the deputent? >> Um I will say I will comment on this there there is um my question is that there is an advisory committee at the city on LGBTQ issues. Is housing have you presented on housing to this committee? Yes, we actually presented to them a couple weeks ago. >> Okay. Um I will I think part of what will happen at the end of this is that we're going to be consolidating some of the ideas and and priorities that have been raised to us and I think ensuring that we have better coordination between these committees so that the issues that you've outlined and highlighted also emerge in the agenda of this committee. Um I appreciate very much that you've brought this forward and I appreciate very much the research that the 519 has done on this. Thank you for your time today. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. So, in the interest of moving forward, the next speaker is uh Diana Chan McN. >> H >> can I can I comment on uh uh on the the 519? >> Sure. I'm going to ask you to be brief because we need to wrap up this meeting in 20 minutes and we still have four speakers. I'll be brief. I I I read the the the attachment. I I I was thinking like they they are they are people who who are too LGBTQ plus uh uh uh people who who came to shelter. I mean who who came to shelter? Uh um not many. Um I I I don't know maybe you know you don't find that many people in this this population in shelter is maybe it's because they're afraid of discrimination. I'm thinking I'm thinking maybe maybe since since uh I think if I'm not wrong I think city is trying to build smaller shelter for specific population like refugee right for example. So I'm thinking like if city can build build uh a shelter for this uh uh two LGBTQ plus uh community uh uh population you know especially for them that may you know uh um encourage know them to seek shelter instead of you know I mean I don't know on the street or whatever. So maybe that can be one of the solution. Thank you. >> I think that's a good solution. Thank you. B is that do would you agree that that is yes we would love that. >> Okay thank you be um and without seeing any other questions over to Diana please go ahead. >> I'll keep it relatively brief because other folks have already touched on things uh that I think should be driven forward with this committee and as you know I was on this committee and actually was the former chair of the supporting unhoused um people or rights holders working group. Uh so I sincerely hope that HRA is struck in the next council term and it would be vitally important for this committee to continue the work of engaging with people impacted by housing procarity and people who are homeless. So this has already been said but I also want to reiterate this. So meaningful engagement as we know is a core tenant of human rights but it also happens to be both poorly understood and therefore poorly executed by governments. Unfortunately what it isn't is consultation. uh what it is is having the ability to make informed choices and enact control over policy and program decisions and implementation. So this is really key and I would also suggest that this is how our committee should also function in the future. It is laudable that the city is finally creating a service user advisory group or SUAG. But what SUAG cannot be is a consultation mechanism essentially a checkbox for the city of Toronto. Instead it must be able to set its own agenda um which is something that's already come up. Similarly, HRAC itself cannot simply function as a consultation mechanism and its members must be able to set the agenda for the committee in its future iterations. While in my time on HRAC, I felt that I did manage to set an agenda of what was important for us to work on in our working group, I also recognized that being able to execute this agenda required using oblique strategies, even loopholes in order to push things through. And I'm being very blunt here, but I think it's important to name this um that the actual structure of the group would was often inhibitive for us to actually enact our own agenda. Participation in human rights policy work is also high barrier. I would highly recommend that human rights training be enacted for members of ATRA in future iterations. There is a varying degree of knowledge of human rights principles on the current committee and in particular the right to housing which spans from you know relatively cursory knowledge to very full expertise. I would personally consider myself somewhat mid-level on this. Um, this disparity can make it difficult to function as an advisory body and a baseline should be established to ensure that there is at least more consistency of knowledge among members again in future iterations which I hope there will be and I will certainly fight for if I can. While my time on the committee has been the shortest of any of the current members, I want to acknowledge that I do think we have had successes. So through the work of the supporting unhoused rights holders committee or working group rather we've been able to help guide the establishment of the service user advisory group and champion an all of city approach to homelessness including mapping pathways into housing. At the same time there is work that does feel incomplete including further refining the city's encampment protocol ensuring that the city is continually improving its human rights outcomes for unsheltered residents. And on the item that we were discussing just previously today in regard to major events and I know there's a future item that we may not actually get to today. Um I really want to stress that if we have guidelines put forward um if HRA is going to continue that work maybe perhaps even in the next meeting there should be an accountability mechanism built into the motion or what's being considered right now. Um not just the audit but also accountability for when there are human rights violations that are being enacted. Um, and I would reiterate and I believe that there will be a commit commitment to the resources identified by TUHOU, uh, which is consistent with the human rights approach. So maybe that was a bit sly of me to embed that in there, but that's also what I mean about having to use oblique strategies at times. Thank you, Diana. Um, are there any questions to Diana? These are very helpful inputs and they will be included in our wrap-up of what we will be taking forward. I I think I agree with everything you've said. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Uh the next speaker I believe is online. Um it is Margaret Flynn. Hello Margaret. Are you there? >> Hello I am. Can you hear me? >> We can. You have five minutes. Please go ahead. >> Thank you. So, good morning everyone and thank you very much. Um, my name is Margaret Flynn. I'm speaking on behalf of the Canadian Center for Housing Rights um this afternoon. So, today I'll briefly touch on three points. First, uh, HRA's role and some comments on that. Second, some key successes that we wanted to highlight. And third, some of our thoughts on the way forward. So, first, HRA's role. Um HRAC of course alongside the deputy um budsman for housing was established as part of the city's commitment to develop a housing commissioner um which is outlined in the uh Toronto housing charter. Um and so we just wanted to highlight that this this role is a critical element of of a human rights based approach to housing as it provides an accountability mechanism to monitor the city's progress in advancing the right to housing. and it works to to hold the city um to this commitment. And importantly, of course, uh ATRA membership includes um people with lived experience of housing procarity and homelessness whose perspectives are absolutely critical to achieving meaningful human rights based outcomes. So ensuring the perspectives of people uh most impacted by um housing rights issues um uh ensuring that those perspectives are involved and direction setting um in housing related planning monitoring um and decision making really is an essential element um to a human rights based approach. Um by drawing in the perspectives of people um facing the greatest housing need um HRA can uh was able to work towards identifying and proposing um solutions to to some of the most significant um systemic barriers impacting housing rights in Toronto. Um so through its working groups ATRA engaged with uh city staff advocates and lived experts on some key initiatives that support groups um facing the greatest uh housing needs. So including for example the uh shelter safety action plan, the rental renovation license bylaw and the multi-tenant housing framework. Um and so overall ATRA has helped to advance the key human rights principles of of accountability and participation and empowerment which of course are um fundamental um to ensure Toronto can meet its commitment to the progressive realization of the right to housing. So in terms of some successes that we wanted to highlight, one notable success we think of ATRA was its role in applying pressure on the federal government to provide adequate funding for refugee sheltered services. We think this advocacy helped reinforce that that all levels of government have responsibilities in uh realizing um housing rights. Another important area of involvement was supporting the city's interdivisional protocol on encampments. Of course, they track helped to monitor the implementation of that protocol and and we think it contributed important checks and balances to push for a human rightsbased approach. Um, and we think this work was particularly important in helping to keep up pressure that decisions relating to encampments um should consider the dignity and safety and rights of of individuals experiencing homelessness while also promoting accountability and transparency in city processes. In terms of the way forward, um, CCHR does strongly support the continuation of HRAC past this this first term to continue this important accountability role in helping Toronto to advance the right to housing. Um, and in addition to what I spoke to earlier, um, ARA has also helped demonstrate how I think Toronto can take a leadership role in uh, on human rights and housing rights specifically um, amongst municipalities. and it provides an important example of um how other municipalities can start to take steps towards advancing the right to housing by developing accountability bodies. Um looking ahead, we think there's um some opportunities for ATRA to further strengthen its role. Um it could support more targeted monitoring efforts related to specific housing outcomes across the city. So for example, ATRA could help assess whether the city's policies and programs are effectively preventing evictions, reducing homelessness, and improving access to housing for equity deserving groups. And this could help ATRA play an even stronger role in identifying gaps and recommending changes to the city's policies, programs, or implementation strategies to really ensure that they align with the human rights based approach. HR track could also um help strengthen participation by lived experts um in city consultation and decision making processes. So um in addition to um strengthened and and robust um participation through ATRA itself, this could also include providing guidance to city staff to ensure they are engaging meaningfully with affected communities. Um while also continuing to support outreach and reduce barriers to participation for those groups. Um and so I will leave it there. Thank you so much for your time everybody. >> Thank you very much Margaret. Um, are there any questions for Margaret at this time? No. Then we will move forward. I'm conscious of getting us to a finish line so that we have quorum to get two motions through. So I will now call on Yaroslava Montenegro. Yaruslava, the floor is yours. Have five minutes, please. >> Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Um, hi everyone. My name is Yaros Lava Aila Montenegra. the executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations. And so we are a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the and educating tenants across the city of Toronto, advocating for tenant rights and organizing with members with the community since 1974. Uh the FMTA commends the committee for the progress documented in the first terterm review, particularly in its efforts to amplify the lived experiences of tenants uh in its initial work on eviction prevention strategies, its contribution to the city's recent tenant landlord consultation processes among other among other programs that they have been involved in. This the the creation of this advisory body was vital step in affirming housing as a human right in our city and we deeply appreciate the dedication of its members. We implore city council and members to restrike this committee moving forward as a c uh as a crucial mechanism to continue developing solutions to the ongoing housing crisis. This is especially critical since deepening unaffordability, mounting pressure from Doug Ford's uh provincial government on poor and working people and the financial constraints imposed by this imposed on the city of Toronto by the same province of Ontario is ever more imminent given the the continued financialization of housing in Canada and increasing proposed solutions to the housing crisis by self-imposed pundants and some politicians alike have become more mar more more have become more market focused and detached from our lived experiences and we saw what that looks like earlier today with the unhoused and homeless union that presented earlier. Um, which was an incredibly immense and important um, discussion, especially considering that folks um, on the front lines of of of that struggle have not really had the opportunity to be able to portray those voices to um, the city and in any meaningful way up until now within this committee, which is a really it's really which is a really important step forward. Um, thus the committee provides a forum for both the expertise and the lived experience crucial to developing important feedback for housing focused municipal initiatives that are particip participatory effect efficient cost-effective and um reflect our communities. If the committee is struck again, we also implore the members of the committee to additionally further consider and prioritize the intersectionality of the housing crisis as marginalized communities are at greater risk of housing instability and insecurity. These in uh these intersections include but are not limited to black, indigenous, and people of color. Indigenous peoples in particular make up 3% of the population here in Toronto and they still make up 9 to 12% of the unhoused population which is a huge disparity. Um 2LGBTQ plus uh people which my colleague from the 519 earlier today spoke in detail about disabled people in just care. the understanding of disability justice and just care also needs to be taken into consideration and I think is one of the gaps um that maybe that had been missing from both not just with uh the the committee but also the perspective of the city itself. We need to take into consideration the effects of um people uh live living with disabilities all across our communities and that they are in our communities and we do not need to shun them to the side in order for us to be able to provide dignified and livable conditions for them as well as for senior tenants and folks in senior housing. This is also an increasing gap uh but also because of the lack of resources being put into uh public housing initiatives um in the city due to financial constraints being imposed on the city of Toronto. And so for these reasons, the FMTA urges the city uh Toronto city council to not only restrike the housing rights advisory committee but also to sharpen its priorities and provide the tools needed to to hold the city accountable to um to its housing rights commitments. Thank you. Thank you, Yara Slava, and and thank you to the work that you do through the FMTA on protecting tenants rights across the city. Um, appreciate that input. Are there any questions from the committee at this time? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Um, and we have one final speaker and then we're going to um, move through a couple of motions and close the meeting. So, our final speaker, I believe, is online. Cheryl Casease, are you there? Okay. Uh, so we're gonna have Is is Cheryl online? Okay, Cheryl, it's over to you. I'm I'm going to ask you to try to be tight with your comments because we we're going to lose quorum shortly and if we lose quorum, we won't get the motions through. So, Cheryl, over to you, please. Okay. >> So, we'll just move to Miguel. You've registered to speak again. Uh, Miguel, if I could ask you please to be >> Hello. >> Hello. >> It's over to you, Miguel. You have five minutes. >> Thank you, Chair Elizabeth. Thank you so much for the opportunity to uh speak on this last final item of the agenda. Um yes, I I support of request city council to restart this committee which is uh doing a great job to address the inequalities of housing in the city of Toronto. As uh the previous deputent mentioned indigenous people is uh make up to 9% of the population who are unhouse and being an indigenous myself I ag I I agree with the um desire to uh increase the number of housing units for Aboriginals in of this country. That should be the priority in the second term of Mayor Olivia Child. I heard that she's running again and I wish her best the best um and I wish that this committee can go on for consistency and ensuring that you know that the voices of the marginalized communities are heard. One last final comment I would like to add. Uh we should be working on enhancing the or requesting funding for transitional housing. It is important that uh members of um who are coming into old buildings where residents have been living for decades like aging in place are not disturbed uh or uh their lives affected because of this rehoming housing strategy policies which bypass. One particular um important task is helping people out before they come to live in established communities through the housing. That is my only comment and thank you so much. >> Thank you Miguel and uh points well taken. Are there any questions for Miguel? Yes, Lindsay. >> I just want to say thank you Miguel for that last point. That's uh something that I've been trying to advocate for because uh I live in community housing and I see the effects on the vulnerable people and I think transitional housing, supportive housing is is key. So, thank you for reiterating that. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. So, with that there um if there's no other comments or questions from the committee, what I'd like to do, there's a motion attached to this item. Uh so, I'd like to move forward with that motion so we can get that passed. Can we get that up on the >> Annie? >> It's Annie's motion. Annie, it's over to you. >> Great. So, um, the motion is that the Housing Rights Advisory Committee request the chair of the Housing Rights Advisory Committee to report back to the June 22nd, 2026 meeting with a summary of the discussion on item FHS11.3 and identifying the actions and accomplishments of the Housing Rights Advisory Committee during its 2024 2026 term, as well as priorities for the second term of the Housing Rights Advisory Committee should the committee be reestablished. lished in the next council term. >> Are there any questions on the motion? >> Oh, seeing none, um, can we thener >> is Cheryl is Cheryl there? >> Hi, sorry, I didn't hear my name called. My apologies, but I I can um maybe reserve my comments for the next item and just roll them into one if I can please have maybe a bit of extended time to speak on that item. So the other item that we are we are going to be deferring because we have run out of time and we're going to lose quorum shortly. Um so Cheryl um we are going to defer the item to the next meeting if you want to depute at that time on that item or you can depute today but then you wouldn't be able to debute a second time. >> No I Yeah, I would appreciate the opportunity to uh depute this item. >> Okay, terrific. Thank you, Cheryl. Um, so we're going to move forward with if there's no questions on the motion, can we have a show of hands for all those in favor >> and carried? Sorry, >> this was the >> she said no. She said she would speak when it's deferred. I thought that's what I heard. Did I heard that wrong? >> No, I I speak to this item specifically and the deferred item when it comes up later at the next meeting. >> Okay. So, you want to speak now? >> If I may. >> Okay. You have you have five We've already done the motion. Okay, go ahead. You have five minutes. >> Hello everybody. I appreciate the ability to depute. I'm not sure what happened. I missed hearing my name. Um, so my name is Cheryl Casease. I'm the founder and executive director of Community and Public formerly known as CV Planning. I'm also a resident of Little Jamaica Neighborhood and I applaud the work of the Human Rights Advisory Committee. I think it's incredibly important that we have this oversight around uh human rights uh implementation in the city. Um and so in terms of for the next term of the committee, I would encourage that um there be consideration on including um a advis a a working group or action body looking specifically at the intersection between uh city planning, development review and uh displacement and housing rights. Um this is based off of my own experience in the little Jamaica neighborhood where community concerns regarding human rights implications of um re redrawing boundaries on neighborhood and also uh lacking followup on implementing council directions for the establishment of a stakeholder advisory committee um has resulted in uh continued concerns that uh human rights needs and the city's obligations will not be met. Um, neighborhoods, this has been consistent where neighborhood and resident leaders, often underpaid or unpaid, are put in positions where they're forced to support coordination between um, city planning development review and the housing secretariat in compliance with the housing charter. Um and so you know you know in particular in my neighborhood um the Umbbudsmen wrote a report around the six black men who were left without housing without heat, water or electricity for six months. And this site is actually proposed by the city to be removed for consideration in um you know plotting policies to advance the right to remain. Um and so you know would really appreciate that um the housing rights advisory committee number one be continued in the next term of council but also that um it be explored how an advisory committee subworking group on this topic of anti-displacement housing rights uh development review city planning can be um advanced. Uh thank you very much for your time today. >> She inter >> Okay. Thank you, Cheryl, and thank you for your work on on applying a human rights approach to development and and the issues of displacement. Are there questions from the committee for Cheryl? Seeing none, what we're going to do, the clerks would like us to vote again on the motion. Um, so if we can have the motion, we won't have it read again, but if we can simply, um, the motion has been tabled. This is the same thing we just voted on. Um, if and Annie has moved this. Can I please see a show of hands of all of those who support it? Thank you very much. Moved. So carried. Um we have two more motions and then we're going to wrap up. First we need a motion to um defer the item on the ombbuds on the followup to the ombbuds which is item item four. Um because we are running out of time and we're going to lose quorum. So we will defer that to the June meeting. Um and those who signed up to debute can come back in June. Um so can I please have a motion um the motion is up and it says that considerations of this item be deferred until June 22nd at the meeting of the housing rights advisory committee. All those in favor may I see a show of hands? Thank you very much. And with that we have the last and final motion that comes out of the um earlier item regarding uh FIFA and the presentation from uh Tu. Um I'm going to what has happened here is that we have amended the letter that I had submitted and uh we amended it with the language. Is it up? It is up. Thank you. So A a consideration of the impacts on people experiencing homelessness that was there before. B. Specifications for establishing a plan to minimize displacement and support people that was there before. C. Undertaking a FIFA 2026 audit of the impact of the mega event on the human rights of residents of Toronto, particularly those who are experiencing homelessness up to one-year period postevent. And second item, which is new, to request that relevant city divisions, including Toronto Shelter and Support Services, Social Development, and Corporate Real Estate Management to consider the recommendations brought forward by the Toronto Underhouse and Homeless Union in item HS11.2, presentation from the Toronto Underhous and Homeless Union to support residents experiencing homelessness during FIFA 2026. I will move that. Are there any questions to this? Seeing none. Um, can I see a show of hands for those who are in favor of this motion? Excellent. Carried. >> Item as amended. >> Item as amended. >> Vote for an item as amended. >> We have to do that now as well. Now we have to vote for the item as amend. An item received as amended. item just >> just item as amended is the language. Can I please see a show of hands? And we carry. Thank you very much. And now >> I want to just say thank you to all of those who helped uh with bringing Tu to our meeting today. I think that that was truly one of the most uh powerful meetings we've had. Um most engaged and I I hope will inspire a track 2.0 in the future. Um deep thank you to all the members of this committee. Um a lot of thought went into the preparation for today. A lot of it was funneled through the chairs of the committees but um I am deeply appreciative of all the voices that um are engaging actively and shaping the agenda. Um as per the motion I will do my best to bring back a rep a report that reflects what you have all said and we will discuss it further at the June meeting. Um thank you especially to Lindsay for hanging in. I know you're supposed to be picking up someone. So, um, we will now adjourn. And, uh, thanks always to the city staff, the city clerk, the tech crew, and the housing secretariat that make it all possible. Thank you. >> Thank you, Elizabeth.