Anti-poverty activists will gather outside Mayor John Tory’s Bloor Street home tonight to protest overcrowding in the city’s homeless shelters.

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) says it plans to screen a short film documenting what it says is the “brutal overcrowding” in Toronto’s shelters outside the condominium building where Tory lives in “somewhat better circumstances” at 6:30 p.m.

In a news release, OCAP said it produced the film to raise awareness about the “appalling conditions” in many Toronto shelters.

“Look it’s a free country and thank goodness people can go where they want and protest where they want but I do think it’s unfair, more so to my neighbours. There are lots of places they can go. They can come to city hall and protest anytime they want and they can go to Queen’s Park similarly,” Tory told reporters when asked about the protest on Thursday. “The fact that they are going to come to my house – I live in a condominium so I have a lot of neighbours – That’s fine. They will do what they think is best to advance their cause but it is actually a cause I support very much.”

Homeless advocates have raised concerned about Tory’s call for city departments and agencies to trim their budgets by 2.5 per cent and the effect that could have on the poor.

Tory, however, told reporters on Thursday that he won’t accept any proposals that exacerbate the problems within the city’s shelter system.

“I can assure you that when it comes to homeless people and some of the needs we have in that area those proposals that come forward will not be ones that I will be that interested in seeing implemented,” he said.