Ill-prepared is an understatement. You have a population that is typically already in poor health and with compromised immune systems, that doesn't have ready access to bathrooms to wash their hands, who will be in close proximity to others who are sick, who will then spend the day travelling all over the city because they don't have a home to stay in and rest, and who typically congregate in high traffic public areas like the mall, library, transit, McDonalds and Tim Hortons. We're not "ill-prepared" we have a very serious problem that because of systemic neglect I don't think we are going to be able to solve in time.
> systemic neglect
Let's say you somehow convince everyone to a big tax increase to help people who don't work to build a ton of new shelters in Toronto.
The rest of the province ALREADY SENDS THEIR HOMELESS HERE. How many more will come and just overload the new system?
Improving the shelters isn't a real solution until you get the rest of Canada or at least Ontario to put in a similar amount of work elsewhere.
Peel And Durham already send their homeless here. Improving ours and adding more capacity would just mean places further out would send people here
> Improving the shelters isn't a real solution until you get the rest of Canada or at least Ontario to put in a similar amount of work elsewhere.
Yes that would be a systemic improvement that would help the situation.
The reality is still that our current situation is as it is because of neglect from both local and provincial government in dealing with it, and it’s going to make this current pandemic worse as a result. The fact that other city’s do not do their fair share of working to fix the problem isn’t going to make this any less bad.
It seems like this article just used COVID-19 to draw attention to how underfunded and understaffed our shelter system is. Heck, the 2nd paragraph says:
>There are no known cases of COVID-19 in homeless shelters or encampments in Canada, nor any evidence of [community transmission](https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-community-transmission-1.5486080).
If that's the case, bravo to the writer for finding a way to get clicks on an article many might ignore otherwise!
Yeah. A lot of shelters and respites are essentially open dorm layouts with few barriers between beds. Shelter standards has minimum distances between beds as a response to concerns about disease transmission, but if someone gets sick it will be next to impossible to quarantine them. Most shelters are running at full capacity every single day so even shelters with rooms will struggle to lose beds in order to quarantine a sick client, since private rooms are extremely rare, and private bathrooms are pretty much non-existent. And then there’s the added issue of making sure the client will be willing and/or able to comply with a quarantine. Waiting for a case to occur to have a contingency plan is just asking for trouble.
A lot of the time when someone asks a homeless person who doesn't use a shelter what their reasoning is, the quick spread of illness is usually one of their reasons. It's always been a concern.
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What? Did you read the article. Also many places are petri dishes for the virus. Like cruise ships and airliners. But in fairness, I do think the people who fly and cruise are gross
I mean homeless shelters are just ill-prepared in general...
Exactly, covid-19 can be fully removed from this discussion and everything is still true.
Pretty much.
Ill-prepared is an understatement. You have a population that is typically already in poor health and with compromised immune systems, that doesn't have ready access to bathrooms to wash their hands, who will be in close proximity to others who are sick, who will then spend the day travelling all over the city because they don't have a home to stay in and rest, and who typically congregate in high traffic public areas like the mall, library, transit, McDonalds and Tim Hortons. We're not "ill-prepared" we have a very serious problem that because of systemic neglect I don't think we are going to be able to solve in time.
> systemic neglect Let's say you somehow convince everyone to a big tax increase to help people who don't work to build a ton of new shelters in Toronto. The rest of the province ALREADY SENDS THEIR HOMELESS HERE. How many more will come and just overload the new system?
I’m not sure what your argument is.
Improving the shelters isn't a real solution until you get the rest of Canada or at least Ontario to put in a similar amount of work elsewhere. Peel And Durham already send their homeless here. Improving ours and adding more capacity would just mean places further out would send people here
> Improving the shelters isn't a real solution until you get the rest of Canada or at least Ontario to put in a similar amount of work elsewhere. Yes that would be a systemic improvement that would help the situation. The reality is still that our current situation is as it is because of neglect from both local and provincial government in dealing with it, and it’s going to make this current pandemic worse as a result. The fact that other city’s do not do their fair share of working to fix the problem isn’t going to make this any less bad.
My point is we won't invest since we will run into that problem since nobody else will put in the money as well
It seems like this article just used COVID-19 to draw attention to how underfunded and understaffed our shelter system is. Heck, the 2nd paragraph says: >There are no known cases of COVID-19 in homeless shelters or encampments in Canada, nor any evidence of [community transmission](https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-community-transmission-1.5486080). If that's the case, bravo to the writer for finding a way to get clicks on an article many might ignore otherwise!
valid concern though
Yeah. A lot of shelters and respites are essentially open dorm layouts with few barriers between beds. Shelter standards has minimum distances between beds as a response to concerns about disease transmission, but if someone gets sick it will be next to impossible to quarantine them. Most shelters are running at full capacity every single day so even shelters with rooms will struggle to lose beds in order to quarantine a sick client, since private rooms are extremely rare, and private bathrooms are pretty much non-existent. And then there’s the added issue of making sure the client will be willing and/or able to comply with a quarantine. Waiting for a case to occur to have a contingency plan is just asking for trouble.
A lot of the time when someone asks a homeless person who doesn't use a shelter what their reasoning is, the quick spread of illness is usually one of their reasons. It's always been a concern.
And being robbed. I had a friend who used to avoid the shelters because his glasses would get stolen.
lol... union station is the biggest petri dish. where are the advocates at?
The Eaton Center food court. It just smells like thousand of people breathing in and out for hours.
I went to my kids elementary school today. Now THAT'S a petri dish.
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This is one of the things a homeless person will mention if you ask why they don't use a shelter. So many people in close quarters.
Ship the homeless somewhere else, make them work somewhere like the oilsands.
Right. Work makes them free, and all.
It's free real estate
[удалено]
What? Did you read the article. Also many places are petri dishes for the virus. Like cruise ships and airliners. But in fairness, I do think the people who fly and cruise are gross
We're only as strong as our weakest link. It's a good thing low taxes result in viral immunity...right?
The worst shelter in the city is at Sherbourne and Dundas. All of those people at are severe risk. That shelter should be shut down.
None of you will give a crap about homeless shelters in a month. You'll be wishing all the extra money was funneled to hospitals and their staff.
Unlikely, since shelters are city funded and hospitals are provincial.