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rfmcdonaldUnderstanding Society blogger and sociologist Daniel Little was in Toronto recently for a conference. While downtown, he encountered some of the homeless people sleeping outside city hall. What do they signify?
Little then goes on to talk to two of panhandlers. The two are concerned about their security, in the shelters and on the streets, but can't find a job--their education is incomplete, their financial resources limited, their social ties attenuated at best. It's a not-unfamiliar story.
The author asks Toronto readers for their own takes. Me, I'm mainly surprised that sleeping rough on the sidewalk is not common in Boston or Chicago.
I'm in Toronto this morning and I've seen something here I haven't seen in other cities -- young people, mostly men, sleeping on the sidewalk at busy intersections. They look comfortable in down sleeping bags -- as if they were camping out. But they aren't camping; they're sleeping in full daylight, with pedestrians and drivers passing in the hundreds every hour. Here is a specific guy sleeping on Bay St Sunday morning.
He looks to be in his twenties, lightly bearded. And, by the way, he's got a plastic St Patricks Day hat near his head. As pedestrians walk by they take a curious look and then pass on. No one stops. It doesn't look like a safe place to sleep -- cars are passing in the street on the turn from Queen St, and just a slight mistake takes them onto the curb and onto the guy.
Now here's an interesting development -- a real homeless guy, over sixty, heavily bearded, dressed warmly, happens by. He takes a close look, then walks around the sleeping guy to check him out; stands and thinks for a minute, then moves on.
Why are they here? There was an Occupy Toronto demonstration in City Hall Park nearby yesterday -- is this young guy an Occupy protester? The Old City Hall and green space is just across Queen St. Why hasn't this guy chosen to locate himself on the grass somewhere more secluded? Perhaps because the police would make him move on; perhaps because more secluded space is also more vulnerable space. And why not in a city shelter? They exist, so why has this young guy chosen the street?
This one sleeping guy is perplexing enough; but in the past few days I've seen several other similar instances within ten blocks of City Hall. So it's not an isolated example. Why does this take place here in Toronto but not Boston or Chicago? (I mean sleeping right in the middle of the sidewalk; of course there are homeless people in all those cities.)
But here is another interesting point to me: I'm observing this scene without any special background knowledge. What would a social worker, a street activist, or a policeman see that I don't notice in this scene? The policeman might quickly have registered the fact that the green spaces across Queen St aren't actually that attractive for sleeping because the police patrol them and evict sleepers. The activist might notice some features of the guy allowing her to identify the political statement he might be making. The social worker would have a much clearer idea about the shelter system.
Little then goes on to talk to two of panhandlers. The two are concerned about their security, in the shelters and on the streets, but can't find a job--their education is incomplete, their financial resources limited, their social ties attenuated at best. It's a not-unfamiliar story.
The author asks Toronto readers for their own takes. Me, I'm mainly surprised that sleeping rough on the sidewalk is not common in Boston or Chicago.
