{"id":10867,"date":"2020-09-22T10:46:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T14:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=10867"},"modified":"2020-09-22T10:46:36","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T14:46:36","slug":"community-to-march-for-dignified-housing-in-moss-park-on-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/community-to-march-for-dignified-housing-in-moss-park-on-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Community to march for dignified housing in Moss Park on Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past 14 weeks, Encampment Support Network (ESN) has been delivering water, tents, hot meals and much more to the people living in encampments throughout Toronto. ESN is an ad-hoc, volunteer-run network of neighbours that build community and advocate for better conditions in encampments and long term housing in the city. With colder weather around the corner, the group is ramping up their efforts to keep their neighbours safe. They\u2019re organizing the Meal and March for Housing<\/a> happening this Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 5 p.m. at Moss Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere's going to be food, speeches, sign making \u2014 not just all doom and gloom. We need to put pressure on the city to act and we need to do something very loudly in order to get their attention,\u201d says Marianna Reis, a volunteer with the ESN committee in Parkdale.<\/p>\n

Amidst so much uncertainty, the work of volunteers like Reis demonstrate the true spirit and power of community. ESN hopes to see a similar commitment coming from the City of Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [city councillors] think providing aid entrenches the encampments. What actually entrenches encampments is the housing crisis and the lack of affordable housing in the city,\u201d Reis said.<\/p>\n

Encampments are not new to Toronto but they carry a different meaning as the city navigates the COVID-19 pandemic. When the messaging around COVID-19 prevention became \u201cstay at home\u201d and \u201ckeep physical distance,\u201d more people began pitching tents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city would like to frame it as an issue of people\u2019s individual behaviours and problems but the encampments are a direct result of the housing crisis and of the pandemic\u2026 [the physical distancing guidelines] really exacerbated it by shrinking the number of shelter beds across Toronto,\u201d Reis adds.<\/p>\n

On top of delivering supplies daily, the group has been tapping into their talents to spread awareness however they can. They recently launched their podcast, \u201cWe Are Not The Virus\u201d on Spotify<\/a> and Apple Podcasts<\/a> as an avenue for residents of encampments to share their stories directly with the world. Reis notes that these projects clear up misconceptions and problematic narratives around homelessness \u2014 many of them put the blame on residents of encampments rather than government bodies.<\/p>\n

To learn more about ESN, listen to the interview with Marianna Reis below.
\nFollow ESN on Instagram<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> and donate monthly via Patreon<\/a>. To make one-time donations, email report.on.toronto@gmail.com with the subject line \u201cdonations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past 14 weeks, Encampment Support Network (ESN) has been delivering water, tents, hot meals and much more to the people living in encampments throughout Toronto. ESN is an ad-hoc, volunteer-run network of neighbours that build community and advocate for better conditions in encampments and long term housing in the city. With colder weather…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":10871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223,225],"tags":[1482,1481,1484,1483,1485],"radio":[1380],"origine":[267,269,273],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10867"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=10867"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=10867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}