IT'S DAVID VS. GOLIATH FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE IN TORONTO

Zach Grant is the Community Director at the Church of the Holy Trinity in downtown Toronto. The church is a mere 21 steps from the Eaton Centre, the epicentre of retail consumerism in Canada. The contrast could not be more stark. Zach works with, and on behalf of,  the homeless people living in Toronto.  Each month there is a memorial at the Church to celebrate the life and tragic death of those living on the streets.  Zach's life is surrounded by grief and rage, yet their (Zach prefers the gender-neutral pronouns "they/them") compassion and respect for the homeless is on full display. They are a force for change in our city.

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Transcript

Tom 0:31

Hello everyone. And welcome to our first podcast of 2023. And this episode, we chat with Zach grant, the community director at the church of the holy Trinity in downtown Toronto. The church is a mere 21 steps from the Eaton center. The epicenter of retail consumerism in Canada. The contrast could not be more stark. Zach works with and on behalf of the homeless people, living in Toronto. Each month, there is a Memorial at the church. To celebrate the life and tragic death. Uh, those living on the streets. Zach's life is surrounded by grief and rage yet his compassion and respect for the homeless is on full display. He is a force for change in our city. The episode is called it's David versus Goliath for homeless people in Toronto

Zach 1:26

lord, we pray for those who cannot enter the towers, the green hue glass enshrined lo of the building to sit for a while in the black vinyl chairs with deep feets that you could just disappear into. Lord, we. For those who can't use the bathrooms in the restaurants on the main drag to feel the comfort of the silence of a toilet throne and some peace and quiet to scroll endlessly through their phones. Lord, we pray for those who must take the subway to the end of the line and then back again and again and again. They must know each of the stations by heart and how many people get on and get off and get on and get off before the service stops for the. Lord, we pray for those who do not have clean water, who gather up from the puddles, the dust from the job site, the dirt from the sneakers, the burnt rubber of tires, the spit and piss, and grime, and humanity who gather that water to put drugs in their veins. Lord, we pray.

Tom 2:27

The voice you just heard was that Zach grant reading part of a poem, he wrote about what life is like for people living on the streets in Toronto. We started the interview talking about his early years. you've come a long way from your humble beginnings living in the small rural town of New Hamburg. where exactly is new Hamburg?

Zach 2:49

So New Hamburg is, a very small community outside of, Kitchener, it's historically a Menonite community, uh, that became, a farming community over time. I worked on commercial farms when I lived there. The interesting thing that was happening then was, A big industrialization of, farms at that time. And there was big entities who were buying up small family farms And so, that was a very interesting. Time to grow up because what was, a traditional community of everybody, working on farms, and they would gather, for the Christmas tree lighting and the. Town square, the Lions Club would, know, provide hot apple cider and so on. all of that sort of disappeared in my generation of living there, people were forced to sell their family farms. Because of, the, the intrusion of industrial agriculture.

Tom 3:43

that industrial takeover, it kind of tweaked your interest in social justice issues, I guess, eh?

Zach 3:49

It was one of the things that Yeah, absolutely. And there was like a combination of what happened because of that, you know, people's lives became more rigid. the fabric of c communities started to dissolve. but also dealing with the grief and loss of, autonomy and community and so on.

Tom 4:07

I know you spent some time in Montreal working on rights issues for people with aids, which led to your position. Now at the church of the holy trinity you really have a lot of impactful programs going on working with the homeless people, it's a major part of your work, and there's so many facets to this issue. We'll get into a lot of them. But from just a, I guess a big picture point of view, how do you rate Toronto's response to homeless?

Zach 4:33

in terms of how I would rate Toronto's response to houselessness, is that the city of Toronto lets commercial developers set social policy. we've been really challenged by that at the Church of the Holy Trinity for a number of years. Both, you know, watching people die on the streets, but in, even in our immediate vicinity through the rapidly, evaporating public spaces that we have in the downtown core that people can be in. And what we see is that people, who are poor are losing space and place in the world. And when they lose space and place, they lose power and autonomy you know, every person should be entitled to over their.

Tom 5:14

you used an interesting word there. You, I said homeless, you said houseless. That seems like a important distinction. what does that mean to you?

Zach 5:23

Yeah. So, the term houseless, I mean our indigenous relatives, have been using this term for a lot longer than settlers. and the reason for it is the notion All indigenous people have, uh, a home, a place where they're from, and, It's the consequence of displacement that they are houseless, and it's the consequence of colonization, that they're houseless, that they don't have the means to actually live in the place that they're from, or they've been pushed off that land, uh, and, and displaced. And this is very much, a theme that is happening around the world, we see so many people in downtown Toronto that are from Aja. Would it be Sarnia, Sudbury, from, Canora from places where industry had been and had left, and the community is left with all of the fruitful consequences to, extractive industry taking what they need. To make a profit and leaving the communities without, the resources to exist. And this is kind of what happened to me in New Hamburg, Ontario as well. The United Nations defines, internally displaced people as people who, are, for reasons of conflict or for other, sorts of, persecution displaced within their home territories. And I think that this is a term that we need to start using because homelessness has come to have a sense that there is something individual. That has happened to a person they have ended up in a situation where they're on the, but this is a macro issue that is happening that's connected to the, productive. Consumer capitalism and colonialism that we see in this country that is displacing mass amounts of people, who are running to something or running from something, because of the inability to live in the places that they're from.

Tom 7:16

you were one of the many contributors to a landmark book I think that just came out called Displacement City. It chronicles what happened to that population during the pandemic. Now, I thought we could use the book as a launching pad for discussing the homeless situation, a houseless situation in Toronto. I was there for the book launch and one of the phrases I heard was someone said they felt grief and rage, and, and that perfectly described the book when I read it. I hadn't even gotten to the first chapter, and I was kind of heartbroken because the prologue includes the list of people who have died on the streets since the pandemic started. There are 346 names of which more than half are John or Jane Doe, or they're unknown. it's gut wrenching to imagine that these are real people. Now, I imagine, you know, a lot of these people,

Zach 8:12

Yeah. it's, it's. I do. And there's people that I, know who have disappeared and you don't. I think that, that, frankly, that's even harder for, me to comprehend and hold, for example, while I was cleaning out my desk yesterday. Uh, I found the release papers of a woman who was living, outside of the church, who was one of the people who helped found Unity Kitchen, which is the, street survival, hub that we. Built here during Covid and, she's, she's been on my mind for some time, and it's harder to not know where somebody is, whether they've made it somewhere safe, whether they're in prison, whether they're in a hospital, whether they've, been abducted, whether they've died, and, you know, we just don't have their name. the memorial that we have outside of our church with people who've died on the streets of. Has numerous Jane and John and Jay do on it. And we know uh, those are the names that are officially released, by the city of Toronto as part of their obligation, to, release the names of people who die, in shelter services, but we know that there's so many more people who are in coroner's offices, that coroner's offices are, full. and there's many hundreds of unclaimed bodies in, Body storage facilities in every neighborhood in Toronto. so we'll never know the extent of the amount of people who died, on the street, but especially during the period of time of covid, where it became more opaque and more political than ever.

Tom 9:47

let's break down some of the situations that occurred then during Covid. There's an interesting quote in the book, Zach, where, a houseless person remarks, we were told to stay home, but that is hard to do when you have no home, and people were encouraged to go to the shelters, but it, it seems the shelters, were not following the protocols that we were all told to do by city officials. can you elaborate on what the shelters were like and why people were reluctant to go to them during the pandemic?

Zach 10:18

So it's very interesting for us, like we never closed during Covid because we live in this community, we work in this community, this is our community. when we go through crisis, we want to go through crisis together. and you know, that was mutually uplifting for both. Us and for the people who came and, worked with us for survival during that period of time. almost immediately the shelters, emptied. part of it was because of the rapid spread of, COVID 19 within the shelter system. But it was also a deterioration of the quality and context of shelter. and part of that was a division between the staff of the shelter and the people who were using the shelter. Seeing the people are using the shelter as a vector of disease, and fearing for their own wellbeing and their own safety and not wanting to, Implement protocol that would protect the people of the shelter, over protocol that would protect them. And so that was a big issue. Simultaneously, we had to fight, avidly with public health, with the police, with city services to even do simple things like wear a mask when they would come to Trinity Square to. talk to people or to try and remove people from the public space of Trinity Square. That, that the basic, preventative protocols were not being followed by any level of civil society.

Tom 11:46

that also happened at the temporary, hotels that were set up, right? that seemed to me like a. A viable alternative. But in the book I read Outreach Worker Lorraine Lamb, she has a good quote. She said There were rules implemented that infantalized the community rules like 11:00 PM curfews, no food allowed in the rooms and the constant security checks in people's rooms made people feel like they were in a soft jail. she sums it up with one short phrase. We haven't stopped treating poverty like a. I mean, is that kind of the gist of the problem?

Zach 12:22

Lorraine. Lamb knows this particular situation incredibly intimately. and her work during the pandemic was, you know, illuminating of a lot of the things that were happening, behind what is usually a very. tightly guarded system that we as the public do not receive a lot of information from, but the criminalization of poor people, of people who are, with the least resources for self-preservation protection, so on. you know, individuals would be, kicked out into the street in the middle of the night with none of their belongings for something like taking the stairs or having too many bikes or, for getting in a dispute with a member of staff over some frivol. Happening. I saw at least 300 reasons for discharge. and, at a certain point I think that the system was, grooming itself to be, an ultimate authority and arture of people's lives And I think that this is, like creating, both at open air prison, but then when people are pushed out of those spaces into the shelter hotel system, a more closed prison where you're only allowed to exist within these walls

Tom 13:36

A soft jail. Yeah. Well, I wanna not just dwell on the negative. There's, um, homeless man profile in the book, Michael Leach. and he talks about his experience in a covid recovery unit, and he says, Over the next 14 days, I came to know the staff at the four Point Sheridan Hotel recover an isolation site and realized there were still heroes left on this blue dot of ours called Earth. The staff and nurses and doctors, these people were not just the bravest but the strongest of lighting to illuminate the darkness people go through when they first catch Covid. I'm assuming Zach, you, you've witnessed these heroes sort of in the seaweed on many occasions yourself.

Zach 14:21

Oh yeah, certainly, like throughout the pandemic, I mean, there was many people who played an immense role, in doing things that we never were able to do before, that there was room to collaborate and to make things happen. that, sort of flattened policy in ways that we could, really organize ourselves as a community for our own wellbeing, in a much greater way. and also, the people who we were following throughout this time, be it doctors, nurses, support, people like myself, community organizers, so on, people living on the streets who decided to say, I'm not gonna leave this public space until something is afforded to me. That provides me safety, dignity, and autonomy. I'm gonna put a tent here and live here and form community here as an act of resistance. we owe a debt of gratitude to those activists and they should be seen as activists because the work that they were doing really rapidly changed, the city's way of working to meet the needs of, uh, houseless people. I think that was an incredibly important thing. So people really stepped up to the plate and had a lot of bravery

Tom 15:37

I, I do wanna talk about the encampments, but, before we do that, I think as we're talking a bit about the community that existed in the encampments. Now, one of the most powerful chapters in the book is written by Zoe dod, that she's a harm reduction worker who writes an open letter to her friend. Who died on the streets. Our editor, Sharon is going to read the closing paragraph over story. I will listen.

Sharon 16:08

I wish you were still here. It's hard to live through this tragedy that never stops. I'm forever changed by this experience. You were a real one because a gem of this earth, a man with excellent swagger and charisma. A kind soul, a friend. I will always remember you. I will always remember how we all tried, how you tried. It's not easy to keep going. I hope wherever you are you with slim, Jenny. Bella Jessica Caleb Curtis, Randy, Mel Frank Steph. Johnny Slayer, Sean sketchy. Johnny. Damien. I hope you're all thinking of us too. I love you, my friend.

Tom 16:58

when I hear those lists and names, I, I get a sense there's, there's a lot of friendships and community in these encampments in Shelter. We hear a lot about how on unsafe these places are, but I think this letter suggests there's some real personal relationships at play. Is that your understanding?

Zach 17:16

Well, Zoe, dod really encapsulates so much of the. Idea of anarchist community organizing in the poetry that she speaks and in the, divinity of the person and making that part of our resistance to systems of oppression that, you know, the things that make us human, contain the things that dismantle, depressive systems. I think it's just a beautiful expression of like the deep loss that so many people have felt during this time, and I think that so often. people living on the streets, people using substances, people doing sex work or things that are on the fringes. Like there's an expectation from society that those people will uh, and that they'll die often dramatically. And that disenfranchised grief is, I think, the thing that we need to discuss at a greater, level as part of Why are people not upset at the level of death that we've experienced in these communities for decades? why aren't people. Angry at the municipality, the government that allow these things to happen. Why are we not angry at the community around us that lets people. Die in front of their apartment buildings, in front of their, businesses and their towers and their banks. this is not unacceptable. they're part of people's families they're part of people's friends. I receive so many calls from relatives who are looking for their loved ones. We're deeply sad that the person that they haven't seen in 10 years, that they think about regularly who lives on the street and. Struggle to have a relationship with, all of a sudden they cannot find anywhere. It doesn't matter the context of our relationship with people, we, our, spirits, our souls are intimately entwined when we enter into relationship with, loved ones. And it's, a crime that, that is not taken with, the same level of respect. As we treat other classes of people and their losses,

Tom 19:18

I think Zoey really captured that. that must have been difficult also for you. The day that the city decided to crack down on the three most well known encampments, I think they spent. 2 million to drive people out. the book describes helicopters, a heavy police force. People were injured. what was going through your mind when you watched all that unfold?

Zach 19:41

it was, was absolutely. shocking to witness the level of investment that can be mobilized and the level of perceived threat that houseless people surviving poses to a city like Toronto. I think it's important to recognize that during this two and a half year period, there was almost like a. Force of evictions that were happening through all the smaller encampments throughout the city and through these larger encampments too, there was an ongoing project to remove people from public space that continued through the policy of parks department, municipal, governance. before Covid and then throughout Covid there was an opportunity to sort uh, solidify that. We had everything from, police services come and arbitrarily run everybody's names to see if they had warrants, or bench warrants or on probation to, remove them from encampments. We had a cbsa. to try and, put people into immigration detention to remove them from encampments. We had city counselors who press conferences, in front of encampments, trying to demonstrate the unsafety and their detrimental, environments to to human life. all of these things contributed to the project of removing houseless people from public space.

Tom 21:01

You know, there's an expression that I keep reading when you read stories about how we should be doing more. And that's the phrase, it's complicated. It's complicated cuz of mental illness because of drug use. It, it's a long list, but it almost seems like it's, it's a false narrative. there are international examples of success stories when it comes to solving this problem. And Finland seems to lead the way, if I've got it right. All levels of government sat down decades ago and said, finally, enough is enough. they built housing for the homeless and in the past three decades, it's been reduced by 75%. I it can.

Zach 21:41

Yeah, absolutely there's a crisis that we are facing that intersects houselessness, in a really important way people are dealing with a crisis of hopelessness. They're dealing with overwhelming trauma often from the inception of their. the individual level, the family level, the community level, and so many people are self soothing using, substances to cope with the fact that, life for them is very difficult inside their mind and inside their bodies. all of those things that they feel are perceived as threats. And so, we have a really big challenge in societal perception of people living on the street, people without, the opportunity to heal. but also we have challenges in conceptualizing. Healing housing and supportive services outside of an institutional setting. And when the cause of so many people's trauma and hurt is because of the institutionalization of their communities, of their families, of themselves, we need to provide holistic care that is, On a smaller scale There's a lot of young people who get this on a deep level who. Yelling at the top of their lungs, this is what I need. And we're just missing the mark of listening. So I think Finland, one of the things that they did that was really innovative was, smaller scale housing units. When you cram 300 people into any type of facility, it's going to depersonalize, the things that they're going. And, create an environment in which there are Not integrated into anything other than the social problem that they're facing.

Tom 23:36

this is the irony though, isn't it, Zach, in Finland and, and other places as well, there's been a number of studies that it's shown that there's ways of saving money. It's significantly cheaper to provide homes for those living on the street than it is to pay for shelters, policing, hospitalization, and all the other costs associated with the present.

Zach 23:57

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, what we do instead in, in our society is we've created a warehousing of people where, people get skirted away from the public eye to shelter, hotel. When that doesn't work out, they get kicked back up to the street, end up in prison for six months, released back to the street, back to the shelter. what we've become really good at is creating a logistics network for the trafficking of people. you know, having people bounce between these institutions really is, becoming a lucrative, Market for logistics. Companies uh, G4 s who provides food services, security companies, cleaning companies, all of these, companies get lucrative contracts, uh, around this trafficking of people. And we look at, for example, the security companies that the city of Toronto has, single bidder contracts with, of a million dollars to police public parks, and their sole responsibility is to drive into a park perhaps who's ever there, take a picture to state that they've done it, and then drive away.

Tom 25:01

Yeah, well, it seems to me even small innovative programs run into Roblox. you know that the Toronto carpenter who, who built the tiny wooden shelters that he was sued by the city for dropping them on city property, and he stated afterwards, Instead of working with me, the city sued me. The problem is not the tiny shelters. The problem is that Toronto's most vulnerable people are falling through the cracks. To which you gotta say touche. I

Zach 25:30

Yeah. It, it is a simple project and, there's a, a generation of social, Innovators who are coming up with very creative solutions to, to problems that we face, not just in houselessness, but all, manner of, issues of connectivity in communities that we should be getting behind. And, encouraging. And that's one thing that I think, for us at the Church of the Holy Trinity, we've really worked hard to do from the place that we can do it. I think churches, are an important piece of civic infrastructure and they're located across all of our communities oftentimes with dwindling congregations in, this era, but with a lot of resources and will and, and desire to. help and to help in a way of offering hope.

Tom 26:17

You know, I think all of us are, we're not proud of this side of Toronto, and, I, like a lot of people, I think we're wondering what should we be doing? what should an individual, how should we get engaged and be part of the solution to this problem?

Zach 26:30

Everybody has gifts and we all have different gifts to make an impact, and I think we're entering into a generation where people, really want to, see change and be part of change. And It's almost a narrative of cool that's happening and that's great because I mean, the things that were, were cool for the past couple of, were, highly competitive working against one another. So to see the desire for people to, come together, is fantastic, and I think each of us can support that from the things that we, are able to offer. not every single person needs to put their, body on the line or do the most, groundbreaking work in, in counseling or community organizing. it takes, the artists, the musicians, poets, the peacekeepers, the, the chefs, the bakers. you know, each one of us has something that contributes to the whole, and I think working towards a greater, collective response and seeing ourselves in that collective response is really important

Tom 27:29

Well, I think one thing individuals in Toronto can do is at a 10 year memorial on the first Tuesday of every month. Can you talk a bit about what happens at the the memorial, when you get together?

Zach 27:38

Sure. Uh, Toronto Homeless Memorial has been happening for, over, 20 years now. and, it was started by Bonnie Briggs, who is, a houseless woman, And, a poet. her and the, the people that she brought together, decided that, they wanted to. Make a memorial and uplift indignity the people who died on the streets of Toronto on a monthly basis where, people can come together, We mourn, we name. We hear the stories of people who have died on the streets of Toronto and everybody is welcome to attend. I feel that there should be hundreds of people, who show up when somebody dies to say that this is not right, and to create that public presence of mourn. Which I know is impactful on the hearts and minds of not just all people, but specifically on people who are charged with the decisions around public policy.

Tom 28:36

So I, I've been there on the Tuesday. It's very moving, and when I first went, I could see all the names. were in a, frame. now that's covered up, what's happened there and is there an effort to get that going again so you can actually read the names of the people that have died?

Zach 28:52

Yeah, absolutely. You can read the names of the people, online at Toronto, homeless memorials memorials.ca. but unfortunately, There was, several thousand names on the memorial. and it couldn't bear the weight of all of that loss. it was never meant to be a permanent fixture. And, so the memorial has collapsed. we have a temporary frontal on the memorial by Sam Boucher, who's, an US bay artist an elder from Thunder Bay, who is living on the streets of Toronto for a, number of years and Ottawa. so the, the memorial depicts butterflies. Taking the spirit of the people who are on the memorial up to the creator's place. And it has tiny little stars for each name. and tiny little hearts each person who offers their heart and the work of their heart on a ongoing basis to, folks on the. And so what we hope to do, is return the memorial to it's, full esteem with everybody's names on it. This is an ongoing process, of reconstruction

Tom 29:54

And people can donate to that. Correct. On your site.

Zach 29:56

People can donate to it through the homeless memorial, committee. And they can also come, on, the second Tuesday of the month, to the homeless memorial. that presence is worth much more than.

Tom 30:10

what an image you've just painted. there were so many names. The weight was too much. That, that says a lot,

Zach 30:15

It was interesting. one time I ran into. Doug Ford standing outside of the Church of Trinity, admiring the facade of the church. And, he was, I guess at a, a meeting in the, the Ontario governments meeting rooms in the mall. he was looking at the memorial and I said, you know, this memorial, you know it's falling down because of the weight of all these names, and you know, we'll have to repair it at some point. And he said, oh, we should, you know, give you the money to make like a big, memorial here with a sculpture, something like that, along those lines describing sort of like a war, memorial. And, uh, I said to him, we would, we would love that. But you know, what you're describing is like a memorial after a conflict. And this is an ongoing conflict. Before we memorialize the number of people here that are continuing to die here. We need the conflict to be over, and then we can remember and we can grieve, but first we have to resolve this

Tom 31:14

Let me, let me ask you this. You seem to be calm and even tempered. Is it your spirituality that shines through or is it your work, the human interaction with the last fortune that keeps your spirits high?

Zach 31:26

Uh, that's a great, that's a great, thank you for that comment. I don't know how calm I am. I think, you know, I have the honor to work in this community and I'm grateful, to, accept the leadership you know, the people that have come to, to build both this church and the, the community around it. I have, a big set of issues to fill from all of those grassroots community organizers who walk before me.

Tom 31:55

Zach, you've been very generous with your time we always finish the podcast, by asking people what they like most about living in Toronto. I mean, you see the downside of Toronto on a daily basis, but what do you like most about being here?

Zach 32:08

I like. Especially young and done das because it's a place in the world where people keep it funky and there's very few places where that funk is allowed to exist. And it's wonderful. It's a wondrous thing for me to see all the different expressions, of being a person that people have down here and that we live in a city. You know, sometimes, they're just overlooked. Sometimes they're worked, alongside of, and sometimes they're celebrated, but either way, they exist. And I have the great pleasure, of, working to keep a funky, in the downtown course.

Tom 32:45

I think you're the epitome of funky the Zach. Listen, it's been a real pleasure to hear about the work you and others are doing, for the disadvantaged people living in our city. You're an inspiration to all of us and I agree. Thank you for the great work you do. We will put a link to your church as well as to the Book Displacement City, and I hope our listeners check both out and also consider coming. and or make a donation to your memorial fund. Thanks so much for being on the podcast.

Zach 33:11

Thank you very much.

Tom 33:13

The book we just discussed with Zack called displacement city. Is published by university of Toronto press and is edited by gray cook and Cathy Crowe. Two of Toronto's most ardent defenders of the rights of homeless people. It really is a groundbreaking book that deserves a home and every Canadian bookshelf. On our next podcast, we switched to a more global issue world travel. Our guests, Tricia sheers works with a very creative organization called planet Tara. They believe that tourism can be a catalyst to help local organizations and communities. Protect their natural environment and celebrate the local culture. They want to ensure that money spent in destinations remains where it is needed most in the hands of local people. Before you book your next trip, you may want to hear what Tricia has to say. Thanks for listening and we'll chat again on February 1st. The hidden gems. Toronto podcast is edited by Sharon Scanlon.