A candlelight vigil was held in Toronto tonight for two homeless man who died on city streets during a cold snap last week.
Dozens of people gathered at The Stop Community Food Centre at around 5 p.m. Monday and walked to the area of Davenport Road and Wiltshire Avenue where one homeless man was found dead inside a delivery truck on Jan. 5.
The man was reportedly a regular at the drop-in centre and had been living in the truck for some time. Temperatures had dropped to about -10 C overnight on Jan. 4 and the man was found dead the next morning.
“We were all shocked," said Amanda Montgomery, a staff member at the drop-in centre.
"It was the first day back at work after ... a holiday period of being with friends and celebrating and having an abundance and then coming back to the office and the first thing you hear in the morning is someone has died because they were alone in a truck on the street on a cold night."
Less than 24 hours after the man was found in the west end, a second homeless man was discovered without vital signs at a TTC shelter near Yonge-Dundas Square. Police said the man was only wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans at the time and according to paramedics, he appeared to have suffered cardiac arrest and hypothermia. He was pronounced dead in hospital a short time later.
Following the two deaths, Mayor John Tory requested that the city review its policy on issuing extreme cold weather alerts to see if a more proactive approach could be taken. Currently the city’s Medical Officer of Health typically only issues an extreme cold weather alert after temperatures hit -15 C or below. When an alert is issued, the city is able to increase services for homeless people, including opening up warming centres and increasing shelter capacity.
The goal of Monday’s vigil, according to the organizers, was to reflect on the recent incidents and call on the municipal government to take steps to end poverty in the city by improving affordable and social housing and increasing access to shelters.
“We know that it in immediate term we need more shelter beds, we need more access to transit," Montgomery said.
"In the long-term, we need more strategies to get people off the street. People need affordable housing, they need supports for mental health, they need access to primary health care and more money for food."
