Rally and Community BBQ to Save the School House Shelter
Submitted by ocap on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 16:05.
Saturday April 14
12 noon
Outside the Schoolhouse (349 George Street)
The School House was first opened in the 1970s, it is a 55 (paid) bed facility for men in the downtown east end of Toronto. It was one of the first shelters in Canada to operate from a harm reduction perspective, and remains one of the very few harm reduction focused shelters in this city.
The City is planning to close down this shelter, meaning that all of these beds will be lost on top of the hundreds of shelter beds we have already lost in the downtown east.
This comes at a time when most shelters are at capacity and when we face deepening housing crisis. There are 79 000 households on the waiting list for social housing in Toronto, a list that is estimated to be at least a decade long. The City of Toronto has just voted to sell off close to 60 social housing units with plans to sell-off more. Most poor people are priced out of the private market with the average bachelor apartment ranging around $777 a month while the base amount for welfare is only $599.
Schoolhouse is a vital service in our neighborhood that needs to be defended! Join OCAP, the Downtown East Committee and allies on Saturday, April 14th for free food and music, and to rally for the services we need and plan to defend.
For more information contact OCAP: 416-925-6939 or ocap@tao.ca
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