[URBAN NOTE] "Homeless-shelter stunt raises eyebrows in Leaside"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star report about this consciousness-raising stunt in Toronto's tony Leaside neighbourhood caught a lot of attention.

On Friday, Leaside residents woke up to find a former Sleep Country store on Bayview Ave. covered in construction hoarding. On it, there was a sign announcing the privately funded Jefferson Homeless Shelter would open on Nov. 1, offering 62 beds and hot meals, run by a volunteer staff of three.

[. . .]

Residents noticed the sign immediately, said Ted Stuebing, who runs the community news website The South Bayview Bulldog. Many contacted him and their local councillor with concerns.

“People were very upset, people were crying,” he said.

Stuebing went by the area and spoke with a young lady, who claimed she worked for the shelter. When he told her he didn’t think there were 62 homeless people in the neighbourhood to fill the beds, she said the shelter would bus them in.

That sounds outlandish, but outlandish things do happen, so that doesn’t mean it wasn’t true, he said.

But it wasn’t. On Saturday, a different notice went up.

“You told us you don’t want a shelter here. Neither do we. Support us in creating long-term solutions. Let’s end homelessness,” it said, and gave a link to Raising the Roof’s website.