A homeless man has been camped out at a New Toronto bus stop since February 18. Photos by Bruce Bradshaw.
With a shutdown of the Better Living Centre for the homeless, many have taken to sleeping on neighbourhood streets, including right here in our community.
Hundreds of students and others are forced to walk over a homeless man who has taken refuge at a bus stop in New Toronto.
The man can be seen wrapped up in blankets at the north-east corner of Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Kipling Avenue.
Toronto Police and 311 say there is little they can do to help the man sleeping outside in the cold.
Residents said he has been sleeping there since February 18.
Resident Bruce Bradshaw, who is almost 80, said students from Humber College and Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School travel by bus and have to sometimes step over the man.
“It is not right,” Bradshaw said. “I saw a mother with a baby stroller having a hard time trying to get by the man on the sidewalk.”
He went to police and called 311 to try and get help for the man without luck.
The man and his worldly belongings has sought refuge at a bus stop in the Kipling Avenue and Lake Shore Blvd. W. area.
“The officer went over and checked out the man and said there’s little she can do,” Bradshaw said. “Even the 311 operator said their hands are tied as far as what they can do.”
The pastor of a local church said she has to turn away the homeless nightly because of a lack of overnight warming centres in the community.
“It breaks my heart,” said Pastor Jacqueline Daley, of St. Margaret’s New Toronto church. “When it’s freezing cold we have to turn them away due to a lack of resources.”
Daley knows of homeless people sleeping in cars, bus shelters or in the stairs of buildings.
Students and passers by have to step over the sleeping man to get where they are going.
She cannot send the mostly men to downtown homeless centres or shelter because they are all filled with many refugees.
Social workers worry about what will happen with the homeless when the Better Living Centre is fully closed next month.
“There is a homeless crisis in the City and something has to be done to help those in need,” Daley said.
Toronto shelter officials said they plan to move the homeless to other facilities when the Better Living Centre shut its doors.