“1000 too Many: The Homeless Memorial”
Rev. Stephen Milton
Jan 17, 2020
Narration:
Hello, and welcome to the Lawrence Park Community Church Podcast for the week of January
12th, 2020. My name is Rev. Stephen Milton. In this week’s podcast, I want to take you along on
a journey I made this week. I decided to join a protest against homelessness in Toronto, which
turned out very differently than I had expected.
Rev. Alexa Gilmour at City Hall:
William Hunta. Edmond Wai Hong yu. Patrick Pangowish, Lisa Lynn Anstey, Garland Sheppard…
Narration:
On Tuesday, January 14th, 2020, I found myself at Toronto city hall, lying on the floor outside
the Mayor’s office.
Voice at City Hall:
Randy Nicholls. October 1 – Vernon Crowe; October – John Doe; (Cowboy) Hutchings; October 23
– Wesley Mirarka; October – John Doe.
I wasn’t the only one on the floor. There were about fifty of us – homeless people, street nurses,
ministers, rabbis, concerned citizens. We had come to deliver a petition to the Mayor, demanding
that the city declare homelessness an emergency so funds could be made available to make more
shelter space available.
The reason that it is such a priority right now is that every week in Toronto one or two people die
who are homeless. There have been 1000 deaths of people who are homeless since the late
1980s.
Voice at City Hall:
Gary Blackburn; Charles Cameron; F.A.K; Leonard McClaren.
I didn’t expect to be taking part in a die-in. The road that led me here started a few days earlier,
at our Soul Table gathering on Sunday night.
As many of you know, every Sunday night, Lawrence Park Community Church hosts a gathering
called Soul Table. It’s our attempt to create a new kind of caring, justice-oriented community in
the city. We invite people to speak about big issues which are important to people living in the
city, and we talk about spirituality.
This past Sunday, we heard from Cathy Crowe, a long-time advocate for Toronto’s homeless
population.
Cathy Crowe at Soul Table:
In Toronto, why are so many more people homeless right now? Everything is worse than when I
started 30 years ago.
Narration:
Cathy Crowe is a nurse by training. For the past thirty years, she has been working as a street
nurse, tending to the needs of people who live in alley ways, ravines, sleep on heating grates and
shelters in the city.
Cathy Crowe at Soul Table:
Just to give you a sense of the enormity of the problem today. 235,000 Canadians, people in
Canada, will be homeless this year. Eight million are right on the edge, precariously housed,
maybe paying 60 percent of their income on rent, or maybe living in a building about to be
demolished. And then - a gentleman earlier – you – that was talking about this. When buildings
are being torn down, or when renovictions are happening, people lose their housing. 60,000 are
youth, like street youth, teenagers. 22,000 in addition are children, that means little kids with
their Mom, Dad or guardian in a shelter across the country. Ok.
Narration:
The Toronto shelter system is, at best, imperfect. According to the City’s own studies, on any
given night, there are about 10,000 people who are homeless in the GTA. They basically have
two choices about where to sleep. They can try to find a bed in one the city’s 63 shelters, which
are spread all over the city, but mostly downtown.1 Or, they can sleep outside somewhere. The
problem is that there are more homeless people than there are beds in the shelters. Over 500
people each night will find no place to sleep inside, so they have to fend for themselves outside.
2It is a kind of Russian roulette. Each morning, people must leave the shelters, to spend the day
out on the street, and then hope that when the shelters open, they can find a bed again. One night
you may be inside, the next, you’re outside. It is a precarious, dangerous existence.
And over the years, as more and more people have become homeless, more and more have died
on the streets.
Cathy Crowe at Soul Table:
Again, we have continued to, and next week we will be adding a lot of names to the homeless
memorial.
1 https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/community-partners/emergency-shelter-operators/about-torontosshelter-
system/see-our-shelters/
2 https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/99be-2018-SNA-Results-Report.pdf, p. 3.
Narration:
Cathy Crowe came to speak to us during the same week that a memorial service was being held
downtown to commemorate the thousandth death of a homeless person on Toronto’s streets. It
was held on a Tuesday, at noon, so I decided to go.
( sound up of indigenous drumming and singing)
The event was held outside the Church of the Holy Trinity. It is the small church which stands
outside the west wall of the Eaton Centre. It is easy to miss. It is dwarfed by the commercial
temple that is the shopping mall.
There were about 150 people standing outside the church steps. An indigenous drummer was
singing a lament on the steps, surrounded by news cameras. At her feet were the names of some
of the dead, written in chalk on the pavement. A few steps away is the homeless memorial itself
– a list of names in a book, encased in glass. It is a very big book.
Akia Munga at the memorial:
We know what the answer is. Politicians know what the answer is. If you ask us we will tell you.
Clearly this is an emergency. We need to get David Williams to do his job as the chief medical
officer of health and put real money into this crisis. We need an accessible safe supply program.
We need an accessible subsidizing housing program that gives us access to the housing that you
say is available.
Narration:
That’s Akia Munga. Like many of the speakers today, they know some of the names on the list
of those who died.[Munga prefers they/them pronouns] Munga explains that they were once
homeless themselves, and used to ride the TTC during the day, waiting for the shelters to open.
Now Munga is an addiction counsellor at Toronto Overdose Prevention Society.
Akia Munga at the memorial:
We are demanding that Mayor Tory and Doug Ford actively build sustainable subsidized
housing units. They should be directing the same energy that is being used to deny that this is a
crisis to make sure that folks who are new to the country and folks who have been living on the
streets for years have a clear avenue out of this crisis. We are in an emergency, we are in a crisis,
we are in a disaster. The simple fact is that living, sustainable housing and a non-toxic drug
supply is a human right which the government is obligated to supply regardless of their desire to
see us dead or out of sight.
Narration:
Being homeless is a depressing, dispiriting life. Nothing is predictable. You never know where
you will sleep. What is predictable is how society sees you. You are the bottom of the social
pyramid, despised by many, ignored by most. It’s hard to stay happy when you know the rest of
society thinks you are their worst nightmare. So, some homeless people turn to drugs and alcohol
to self-medicate, to deal with the emotional burden of their situation. Others are simply trying to
deal with pre-existing mental health issues which won’t get better with no fixed address, no
regular health care or a supportive family.
Akia Munga at the memorial:
Even though it is hard. Even though it hurts, and it hurts, even though the lump in our throat gets
bigger and the heaviness in our chest gets heavier, we will continue, we must continue to call for
action, to rattle our cages, to scream and persevere, so that the next and the next don’t have to die
without dignity and in despair. We must, and we will, as we mourn. Thank you ( applause).
Narration:
On January 1st, just as the new year began, another homeless person died of an overdose, right
here where we are standing outside the church. His name was Byron Cromarty, 29 years old.3
There is nothing theoretical about this problem.
(Singer at Memorial:)
What’s the story John Tory?
I know you see what I see.
Emergency. Homeless Emergency.
What’s the story John Tory?
Call the emergency.
‘Cause Cathy’s been fighting, for so many years
Let’s work together….
Narration:
People who are homeless die from a variety of causes. Most of them are diseases which housed
people get, like cancer and heart disease, but for the homeless, they are fatal decades earlier. The
median age of death for homeless people is 48 years. You and I , if we are housed, can expect to
live into our 80s.4 Homelessness is not just upsetting and depressing, it is also deadly. In
Toronto, an average of two people a week die who are homeless. In a city where there are
literally thousands of empty condos and homes. A recent study found that there were 28,000
empty homes in Toronto. 5 There are 10,000 homeless people. Our system is not working, and
people are dying as a result. That’s why these activists are calling for the city to declare
homelessness an emergency.
3 https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/it-s-egregious-1000th-name-added-to-toronto-s-homeless-memorial-1.4767547
4 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/100-people-died-while-homeless-in-2017-prompting-calls-for-morecoordination-
with-local-hospitals-1.4618119
5 It is estimated that there are 28,000 empty homes in Toronto: https://www.point2homes.com/news/canada-realestate/
ghost-homes-across-canada-decade-change-150-cities.html
Cathy Crowe at the Memorial:
Over 20 years ago, when a homeless person died, there would be outrage, and we would go to
city hall, and we would hold a press conference. We would knock on the glass doors which
would be locked at the Mayor’s office. We would fight for inquests.
Narration:
That’s Cathy Crowe, the street nurse who spoke at Soul Table on Sunday.
Cathy Crowe at the Memorial:
We are going to have a peaceful and silent march to the Mayor’s office. While we were here
today, I am happy to announce, that we have reached over 25,000 signatures on this petition. It is
a thousand pages long. People around the world have signed this petition by the way. This is a
human rights issue. We allow anyone to sign this petition. We are going to deliver this to Mayor
John Tory. And it is a petition asking him to declare homelessness an emergency, and act in such
a way.
Narration:
After a short bagged lunch, a group of about 75 of us head off to City Hall. By law, an
emergency declaration would enable the city to call on all of its departments to provide extra
resources. Most importantly, it would enable the city to demand extra funding from the Province
to create more housing. This is not the first time the city has been asked to declare homelessness
an emergency. In 2019, two city councillors did the same. Since then, another hundred people
have died. The hope on Tuesday was that perhaps this time, the city would listen.
Outside city hall, our group meets with some security guards. They don’t seem surprised to see
us. Fortunately, they are very civil, and agree to let us go inside to the mayor’s office. One them
receives a big hug from Kevin, one of homeless men who has led the march.
After our bags are searched, we go up the stairs to the second floor. I realize I have never been to
the Mayor’s office before. It has a glass wall, and the door is closed. We gather in front of it for a
few more speeches. This is Raffi Aaron of the Interfaith Coalition to Fight Homelessness.
Rafi Aaron, outside the Mayor’s Office:
One might call this an excruciating chapter in our city’s history. But it is not a chapter, it is
ongoing, and the list of names is filling books. We will never let two homeless deaths a week be
the norm. Again, we say to Mayor Tory, call an emergency. And we also say, No More Deaths.
Can you repeat that with me? Crowd: NO MORE DEATHS! NO MORE DEATHS! NO MORE
DEATHS!
Narration:
After a few minutes of waiting, a young woman from the Mayor’s office arrives at the glass
doors. She comes out. She looks a bit intimidated – I get the feeling she wished the Mayor was
meeting with us, too.
Mayor’s Assistant:
Thank you so much for coming, today. I am going to accept this on the mayor’s behalf. I really
appreciate you taking the time.
Narration:
The petition, which is 1000 pages long, is presented to her by a nine year old girl, Maxine, who
has been homeless.
Maxine, 9 year old girl:
It’s terrible, having all these people dying while you are doing your Black Friday shopping.
Narration:
The assistant promises to get it to Mayor Tory. After she leaves, the last part of the memorial
begins. All one thousand names on the list of the dead will be read out loud.
Maxine outside Mayor’s Office:
1987. 7 deaths. Randolph Fraser; Mary Kellar; Emery Hache; Claude Wolfe.
Narration:
The names begin in the late 1980s.
Rev. Alexa Gilmour outside Mayor’s Office:
William Hunta. Edmond Wai Hong Yu. Patrick Pangowish, Lisa Lynn Anstey,
Narration:
Perhaps because we are used to speaking loudly in public, several ministers take turns reading
the names. I volunteer, too.
Rev. Stephen Milton outside Mayor’s Office:
1999: 42 deaths. Cliffie; Kevin; Sammy Happyjack; Leeanne…
Narration:
After a few minutes, we are asked to lie down on the ground to stage a die-in. We lie down next
to one thousand small paper cut outs of dead bodies, which will be left on the floor outside the
Mayor’s office. I don’t think I have been in a die-in since the 1980s during the anti-nuke
protests. But, I get down onto the floor.
Woman outside Mayor’s Office:
Henry (Horse) Picody; John Kovacs; Michael Fairthorne; James; Calvin Waindubence
Narration:
It takes a long time to read 1000 names. And as I lie on the ground, listening to the names, a
disturbing pattern emerges.
Man outside the Mayor’s Office:
Wayne Gorman; Floyd Anderson; John Doe; John Doe; John Doe; Donald Kimmer Baker…
Narration:
The names are grouped by year, from the past to the present. As the names get closer to 2020, the
number of anonymous deaths steadily grows.
Woman outside Mayor’s Office:
Kenny Martin; John Doe; John Doe; John Doe; John Doe; John Doe; John Doe; John Doe…
Narration:
So many people who have died without homes, and even without names. This strikes me as a
horrible indignity. Not only has our city failed to find people a place to live, but we can’t even be
bothered to learn the name of a person who has died when homeless. Unhoused, and now,
unnamed. How is it possible that this is happening in a city with so much wealth? With so many
condo towers? How can we be a world class city when so many people will die on the streets,
and will be erased from memory, without even a name?
Woman outside Mayor’s Office:
John Doe; John Doe; Harunoba (Harry) Kobayashi; John Doe; Mike Scully; John Doe; John
Doe; John Doe; John Doe; John Doe….
Narration:
We can do better. We must do better. Basic decency demands it, our faith demands it and so does
international law. The politicians will only act if they think there is a groundswell of demand
from the general public. If you agree that homelessness is a problem we should be solving with
more housing, please write a letter to your city councillor and your MPP. They are counting on
you not to bother. Prove them wrong.
Man outside Mayor’s Office:
John Doe; John Doe; Larry Callahan; John Doe; David Rees; Jane Doe; John Doe….
(music)
Narration:
And that’s this week’s podcast form Lawrence Park Community Church. If you would like to
learn more about the church, please visit our website at www.lawrenceparkchurch.ca. Thanks
very much for listening, see you next week.
(music)
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