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Toronto
This month we’re heading on over to Toronto! Be sure to visit our opportunities page for more information about serving with us in “La Ville-Reine” (French for “Queen City”).
News from the Toronto Director
As in every major city these days, every new season brings change. New construction, new businesses, new by-laws, and everyone’s favorite, new taxes. Toronto is no exception. These days there seems to be more changing than there is staying the same. We have a new tax on garbage, a new annual vehicle registration tax, new tax on home sales, and of course new tax increases. Regent Park, Canada’s oldest and largest government housing project, is in the process of being torn down so the city can “renew” it.
Covering an area of 69 acres and being home to 15000 people, all of whom live in government housing, the city will rebuild Regent Park with a mix of market rate housing and rent-geared-to-income housing. Unfortunately, this process will permanently displace thousands of Toronto’s poorest as there will be considerably less low income housing and more market rate housing and condominiums in the reconstruction.
In the heart of the downtown there are new upscale condominiums going up everywhere. Donald Trump has made his mark on the downtown skyline with the construction of a 68 storey luxury hotel and condominium slated to open in 2010. Several other structures have changed the skyline as they climbed to between 60 and 80 storeys. New businesses have come in, each one making the downtown look flashier and more upscale. The University of Ryerson is buying up property along Yonge St. (Toronto’s main street) in order to push out “undesirable” businesses.
This seems to be the trend. New people move into the condos, new businesses move into the retail and office spaces, and what they see in the downtown is the opportunities for profit and convenient living. Unfortunately, what they also see is the inconvenient reality of poverty that has been located in the inner city neighborhoods and downtown core for generations. Don’t get me wrong, many of these people are well meaning and caring people. They don’t hate the poor or the homeless. But who wants to pay almost a million dollars for a condo and then walk out their lobby door to see a drop in full of homeless youth who are hanging out on the sidewalk smoking, being rowdy, and often forming an intimidating crowd? When your reality is worlds away from the reality of someone who is sleeping in a shelter or an alley, struggling with addictions, and doing whatever they feel they need to in order to survive, how do you reconcile the two?
In Toronto, this has become a matter of great debate among everyone from ministries trying to support and advocate for the poor, to Business Improvement Associations (BIA), to the police and courts, and to the city government. New by-laws have been enacted on where people can sleep if they are outdoors, and police and security guards have been given new powers to enforce these. New policies have been developed for dealing with those sleeping in public places or panhandling, and as a result, many of those who have been sleeping on the streets have been pushed farther away from the downtown core where most of the services that serve them have historically been established.
The changes I have mentioned represent the tip of the iceberg. The city is constantly evolving, and while many of the changes have helped make Toronto a better city, many of these changes have also further alienated and marginalized some of the poorest and most disenfranchised of the city.
In spite of all of this change, God’s plan for the city, and his heart for the people in it, is the same as it has always been. The difference for those of us serving in the city is that while we have new challenges, God is not concerned with these. God calls us to see the opportunities. There are constantly new possibilities for us to reach out to the people around us and to love them into the Kingdom, whether they be rich or poor. Those we all too often see as the oppressors of the poor are also those who God may call us to serve, or better yet, to serve along side of, for His glory.
With this in mind, we also should see the possibilities, adjust as we need to, and remember that change does not surprise God, nor does it intimidate Him in any way. We are here in the city and serving with CSM because we feel that God has called us to be a part of His mission, and as such He will sustain us through any change, turmoil, or storm that may come. This city is His, as am I.
– Tara McPherson, CSM Toronto Co-City Director
Local Resources
Local News Links
- Traumatic brain injury common among homeless, study finds October 6, 2008
- The Book of Job: Homeless Immigrant Used Library to Succeed October 6, 2008
- A glimpse into life on city streets October 1, 2008
- Could A Simple Steel Storage Container Solve Toronto’s Homeless Crisis? September 24, 2008
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