Rupert Hotel Fire 33 years Later - Finally Some Progress on Reform

 

Friday December 23rd. 2022 marks the thirty-third anniversary of the Rupert Hotel fire and the loss of ten lives.

I attended a memorial service for the twentieth anniversary in 2009 at 182 Parliament Street.

Michael Shapcott speaks at 2009 event

Since that time, I’ve tried to reflect on this horrible event and the lack of progress in addressing the need for safe and affordable housing in Ontario.  

In the years following the tragedy, about 500 units of Toronto housing were created or upgraded to meet or exceed the already existing standards. Not long after a commemorative plaque was installed (read the plaque at https://www.readtheplaque.com/plaque/rupert-hotel-fire) noting that the fire "sparked action by municipal and provincial governments and community organizations to improve conditions in rooming houses."  The funding that supported the upgrades and advocacy soon ended. 

There has not been much good to report since then.  Three years aback I wrote a poem where I was cynical about austerity policies that meant progress would ever be made in addressing the lessons learned from the fire.

Well I was wrong, so it seems.

Earlier this month the City of Toronto approved a regulatory framework that beginning March 2024 will allow tenants to rent in areas of Toronto where they are currently restricted.  There will be a citywide licensing system that should go a long way in making this form of housing safer.

Rooming houses, now known as multi-tenant houses, are the only option for many in the extremely unaffordable private market in Toronto and all over Ontario for that matter.

“I’ll be honest with you, I have tried 12 times – 12 times! – to get to this vote over the course of the last 14 years,” said Councillor. Gord Perks (Parkdale—High Park), told the Toronto Star. ``It is s a remarkable step forward, and I hope that we continue that momentum.”
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/12/14/toronto-votes-to-legalize-rooming-houses-citywide-in-2024.html

Good news indeed.  I’m going to see who this all unfolds before I revise my poem.   Find it below.

--------------------------                                       

Rupert Hotel December 1989*

Gordon was sorry

but it was tough keeping warm

and he’d had some to drink 

so setting fire to those papers on the floor in the middle 

of his second-floor room made some kind of sense.

                

At the Rupert Hotel, a three-storey brick walk up

in a licensed city rooming house 

off Queen Street East 

at Parliament

those with few options and few dollars could exist, 

in a way. 

 

Gordon’s warming fire soon leapt out of control 

flames and choking smoke filling the corridors 

as the fire gained full possession of the hallways.

The license pinned to the wall wasn’t worth the paper 

it was printed on as far as the protection it afforded 

the 31 tenants at the Rupert

on this wintry December night. 

A sprinkler system might have halted the fire’s progress.

Perhaps tenants could have taken action 

if the alarm system had been operable 

or fire extinguishers stored in the basement were reachable.

It was 17 long minutes before someone called 911.

When firefighters arrived 

the whole building was enveloped. 

Flames leapt out of the top floor windows.

Firefighters using ladders forced their way 

into the searing heat of the second floor.  

Later a witness called it 

“A Vision out of Hell.”

As the fire raged people screamed, crying out for friends.

It took six hours and eighteen crews to subdue the blaze.

Thankfully, some tenants were saved and many escaped. 

For days crews chopped through ice and debris to locate bodies. 

They found nine men. 

A woman had returned to the building to help a friend 

Donna Marie Cann died, as had the others, 

of heavy smoke inhalation.

Soon an inquest was held.

Recommendations were made    

new rules created 

regulations established

housing planned.

After a while all was forgotten.

Rules and regulations lapsed, 

were ignored or opposed 

and the programs ended.

In the city today austerity policies 

compel people to rent rooms 

in perilous and dangerous buildings. 

Many flee the downtown to illegal suburban homes 

where life is cheaper. 

*According to the Fire Marshal, there were fires at 69 illegal rooming houses in the Toronto area between 2013 and 2017.

 

 

Rupert Hotel Fire - 32 Years Ago

Thursday December 23rd marks the thirty-second anniversary of the Rupert Hotel fire and the loss of ten lives.

The Rupert was located at 182 Parliament Street close to Queen Street East. Once an upscale hotel, the Rupert, while licensed, was overcrowded and badly maintained.

A plaque erected at the site notes that the fire "sparked action by municipal and provincial governments and community organizations to improve conditions in rooming houses."

It did, for a time. In the years following the tragedy, about 500 units of Toronto housing were created or upgraded to meet or exceed the already existing standards. Not long after the plaque was installed, though, the funding that supported the upgrades and advocacy ended.

What has happened since then?

Not much.

Since amalgamation Toronto has had two rules on rooming houses. They are legal in the old City of Toronto and in parts of Etobicoke and East York. Being legal means they are subject to all kinds of regulations.

But in Scarborough, North York and York, rooming houses are strictly illegal. Those living illegally in these parts of Toronto can be evicted.

City staff say there are about 1,000 rooming houses in the city. According to a recent article in Now Magazine there are likely many more.

“Legalizing them across the city would protect vulnerable tenants and create a housing solution that can be put into place now, without large investments in infrastructure.”*

There were fires at 69 illegal rooming houses in the Toronto area between 2013 and 2017 according to the Fire Marshal. At a meeting in October 2021 as City Council delayed once again taking action on licensing, it was reported that there have been 16 fatal rooming housing fires in Toronto between 2010 and 2020 and 14 fatalities were in unlicensed rooming houses.

All that is needed is political will to create and sustain more safe affordable housing.

*Jin Huh, Douglas Kwan, and Sean Meagher @nowtoronto October 4, 2021

-------------------------- 

Rupert Hotel December 1989 

Gordon was sorry 
but it was tough keeping warm 
and he’d had some to drink 
so setting fire to those papers 
on the floor in the middle 
of his second-floor room 
made some kind of sense. 

At the Rupert Hotel, 
a three-storey brick walk up 
in a licensed city rooming house 
off Queen Street East 
at Parliament 
those with few options 
and few dollars could exist, 
in a way. 

Gordon’s warming fire soon leapt out of control 
flames and choking smoke filling the corridors. 
As the fire gained full possession of the hallways 
that license pinned to the wall 
wasn’t worth the paper 
it was printed on 
as far as the protection it afforded 
those 31 tenants 
at the Rupert 
that wintry December night. 

A sprinkler system might have helped; 
could have halted the fire’s progress. 
And the tenants could have taken some action 
if the alarm system had been operable 
or if fire extinguishers 
stored in the basement were reachable. 

Seventeen long minutes passed 
before someone called 911. 
When firefighters arrived 
the whole building was enveloped. 
Flames leapt out of top floor windows. 
Fearless firefighters using ladders forced their way 
into the searing heat of the second floor. 

Later a witness called it 
“A Vision out of Hell.” 
As the fire raged people screamed, 
cried out for friends. 
It took six hours and eighteen crews 
to subdue the blaze. 
Thankfully, some tenants were saved 
and many escaped. 

For days crews chopped through ice 
and sifted through debris to locate bodies. 
They found nine men 
and a woman who had returned to the building 
to help a friend. 
Donna Marie Cann died, 
as the others had 
from heavy smoke inhalation. 

Soon an inquest was held. 
Recommendations were made 
new rules created 
regulations established 
housing planned. 

After a while all was forgotten. 
Rules and regulations lapsed, 
were ignored or opposed 
and the programs ended. 

In the city today austerity policies 
compel people to rent rooms 
in perilous and dangerous buildings. 
Many flee the downtown 
to illegal suburban homes 
where life is cheaper. 

Bob Wood, 2020

Paul Martin and the Common Sense Gang

I recall standing with a one-term Ontario New Democratic MPP on Pine Street in Burlington.  It is a beautiful spring day in 1995.  A newly built non-profit housing project, Wellington Terrace, was celebrating its grand opening.  Balloons, refreshments and there is a ribbon is ready to be cut. 

“You know if we aren’t reelected there will be no more places like this built,” he told me.

No more built, I thought.  While I was sympathetic to his perspective, the view seemed more self-serving hyperbole than realistic forecast.

But the MPP was right. You know the story. 

Following World War II the federal government jumped into the housing field in a big way. Polices were slanted towards home ownership. While social housing and creation of rental housing weren’t high priorities, there were some initiatives.

Major cuts to government funding for social housing began in 1984. The Brian Mulroney government slashed national affordable housing spending by almost $2 billion. In 1993, Mulroney’s successor, Kim Campbell, cancelled all new funding for affordable housing.

Then things worsened with Paul Martin’s 1995 budget. 

Paul Martin

On February 27 that year, Martin put on his budget boots and kicked responsibility for social housing down to the provinces.  He cancelled all spending on new social housing projects. The Finance Minister hung his hat on many of the popular clichés of the day calling for “hard choices” and “real change,” “smaller and smarter government,” bucking the status quo and “simple common sense.” 

The rhetoric mattered not at all to those who were struggling to find housing that was safe and affordable. What really mattered, as we have discovered, was that Canada now had no housing strategy; the only developed country without such a plan. 

Back to that spring day in 1995:  As I enjoyed the opening of one of the last non-profit housing communities built in Ontario, we were just months away from more cuts from the new Mike Harris government.  Their idea of common sense (in fact, they called it a revolution) included the cancellation of 17,000 units of co-op and non-profit housing that had been approved but not completed.

Rupert Hotel December 1989*

Gordon was sorry

but it was tough keeping warm

and he’d had some to drink 

so setting fire to those papers on the floor in the middle 

of his second-floor room made some kind of sense.

At the Rupert Hotel, a three-storey brick walk up 

in a licensed city rooming house 

off Queen Street East 

at Parliament

those with few options and few dollars could exist, 

in a way. 

Gordon’s warming fire soon leapt out of control 

flames and choking smoke filling the corridors 

as the fire gained full possession of the hallways.

The license pinned to the wall wasn’t worth the paper 

it was printed on as far as the protection it afforded 

the 31 tenants at the Rupert

on this wintry December night. 

A sprinkler system might have halted the fire’s progress.

Perhaps tenants could have taken action 

if the alarm system had been operable 

or fire extinguishers stored in the basement were reachable.

It was 17 long minutes before someone called 911.

When firefighters arrived 

the whole building was enveloped. 

Flames leapt out of the top floor windows.

Firefighters using ladders forced their way 

into the searing heat of the second floor.  

Later a witness called it 

“A Vision out of Hell.”

As the fire raged people screamed, crying out for friends.

It took six hours and eighteen crews to subdue the blaze.

Thankfully, some tenants were saved and many escaped. 

For days crews chopped through ice and debris to locate bodies. 

They found nine men. 

A woman had returned to the building to help a friend 

Donna Marie Cann died, as had the others, 

of heavy smoke inhalation.

Soon an inquest was held.

Recommendations were made    

new rules created 

regulations established

housing planned.

After a while all was forgotten.

Rules and regulations lapsed, 

were ignored or opposed 

and the programs ended.

In the city today austerity policies 

compel people to rent rooms 

in perilous and dangerous buildings. 

Many flee the downtown to illegal suburban homes 

where life is cheaper.

*According to the Fire Marshal, there were fires at 69 illegal rooming houses in the Toronto area between 2013 and 2017.

Remember the Rupert Hotel Fire

There is an event in Toronto this week which remembers the Rupert Hotel fire that took ten lives just before Christmas in 1989.

Here are some details of the event.

Over the years I’ve written some pieces on the fire.  for those who don't know the history of this fire check this link 
https://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/blog?post=Rupert+Hotel+Fire+1989+-+What+has+Changed%3F&id=491

I’m afraid that we have really learned much from this terrible tragedy.  Some thoughts:

Rupert Hotel December 1989*

Gordon was sorry

but it was tough keeping warm

and he’d had some to drink 

so setting fire to those papers on the floor in the middle 

of his second-floor room made some kind of sense.

At the Rupert Hotel, a three-storey brick walk up 

in a licensed city rooming house 

off Queen Street East 

at Parliament

those with few options and few dollars could exist, 

in a way. 

Gordon’s warming fire soon leapt out of control 

flames and choking smoke filling the corridors 

as the fire gained full possession of the hallways.

The license pinned to the wall wasn’t worth the paper 

it was printed on as far as the protection it afforded 

the 31 tenants at the Rupert

on this wintry December night. 

A sprinkler system might have halted the fire’s progress.

Perhaps tenants could have taken action 

if the alarm system had been operable 

or fire extinguishers stored in the basement were reachable.

It was 17 long minutes before someone called 911.

When firefighters arrived 

the whole building was enveloped. 

Flames leapt out of the top floor windows.

Firefighters using ladders forced their way 

into the searing heat of the second floor.  

Later a witness called it 

“A Vision out of Hell.”

As the fire raged people screamed, crying out for friends.

It took six hours and eighteen crews to subdue the blaze.

Thankfully, some tenants were saved and many escaped. 

For days crews chopped through ice and debris to locate bodies. 

They found nine men. 

A woman had returned to the building to help a friend 

Donna Marie Cann died, as had the others, 

of heavy smoke inhalation.

Soon an inquest was held.

Recommendations were made    

new rules created 

regulations established

housing planned.

After a while all was forgotten.

Rules and regulations lapsed, 

were ignored or opposed 

and the programs ended.

In the city today austerity policies 

compel people to rent rooms 

in perilous and dangerous buildings. 

Many flee the downtown to illegal suburban homes 

where life is cheaper.

*According to the Fire Marshal, there were fires at 69 illegal rooming houses in the Toronto area between 2013 and 2017.

Ontario Government to Help Tenants - But Hold on a Minute

(This story originally appeared in July at www.hamiltonjustice.ca)

This looks like a classic case of government responding to an interest group at the expense of the broader public interest.

We are talking about the consultation paper recently put out by the provincial government.  The paper is called Consultation Paper on Proposals to Encourage Small Landlords to Provide Rental Housing.

This paper purports to be looking for input to improve the Ontario Government’s Long Term Affordable Housing Strategy (LTAHS).

The government has floated a bunch of ideas.  They claim these changes would help small landlords create more housing and address barriers that these potential affordable housing creators face.

Unfortunately, these ideas, if implemented, would “contribute to further homelessness and erode hard-won tenant protections.”

That is the opinion expressed by the Advocacy Centre for Tenants of Ontario (ACTO.)  ACTO is a legal clinic which works to better the housing situation of Ontario residents who have low incomes including tenants, co-op members and people who are homeless.  ACTO put together a forceful submission to the Ministry of Housing. A few examples of the kind of ideas floated in the paper and ACTO’s responses follows.

Ministry Idea:      
Require tenants to disclose any issues that they intend to raise at rental eviction hearings prior to the hearing.

ACTO Response:  
This proposal would bring back procedural barriers to justice for tenants.

Ministry Idea:      
Allow landlords and tenants to file the unsworn statements in support of  applications and motions, rather than affidavits.                                  

ACTO Response:
Clearly the impetus for this proposal is a desire to expedite landlords’ eviction applications.              

Ministry Idea:  
Explore whether any changes should be made to the process for appealing  decisions of the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) to Divisional Court.

ACTO Response:
Based on the widely–reported actions of a few criminals, landlord organizations are attempting to limit the effectiveness of the Superior Court’s supervision of the LTB by making it even more difficult than it already is for tenants to exercise these important and rarely-used appeal rights.                                                            

So, you’ll get the idea from these brief excerpts that the government’s proposals will be of no help to tenants.  And one other thing we should mention is this.  By and large the proposed changes would apply to most tenants not just those renting from small landlords.  

You can read ACTO’s full submission at https://1drv.ms/b/s!AvRzOEPfSVfDk3a5u5WgjoU8Rgff

What is Gentrification and What can we do about it?

(This story originally appeared in The Anvil Hamilton`s Topical News Quarterly - December 2015. House prices in the Hamilton area jumped more than any other real estate market in Canada in the past year.)

Good news for some. But on balance this development is something we should be concerned about.


Tenants living in Hamilton's downtown core are being displaced from their homes and communities as an influx of new development and investment continues to reduce the city's affordable housing stock.  Displacement affects tenants' health, access to education, and employment -- resources that tenants need to thrive.  It is called gentrification.

Geography Professor David Ley, writing in the book the Canadian City, had this to say about gentrification.


“Gentrification deserves considerably more attention than it has received in Canada, if for one significant reason.  One of the most serious policy concerns in Canadian cities over the past 15 years has been the non-availability of affordable housing (especially rental units).”

Ley wrote these words nearly thirty years ago (in 1986) regarding a trend that had already been in motion for 15 years. 


What is gentrification?

The term became popular in the 1960’s. British sociologist Ruth Glass used it to describe the phenomenon of young “bohemians” moving into a rundown part of London England.  The bohemians were taking the place of long-standing, blue-collar communities who could no longer afford to live there. Glass saw this as a problem.  However, over time the term gentrification has been replaced by a kinder word “regeneration”   Regeneration seems to suggest that communities are being improved.

We’ll call it gentrification - “the fin is above the water. Below is the rest of the shark." That is how
American writer Rebecca Solnit refers to what has happened in her hometown of San Francisco.  It is now a “hollow city” with an economy where "most of us will be poorer, a few will be far richer, and everything will be faster, more homogenous and more controlled or controllable". (Robert Bevan in the Guardian, February 27, 2014)

The City of Hamilton is somewhat unique as far as gentrification goes. Research that was released earlier this year is illustrative. (A City on the Cusp: Neighbourhood Change in Hamilton since 1970 -

Professor Richard Harris

Richard Harris Jim Dunn, Sarah Wakefield)

Most of us will be familiar with how the decline in manufacturing has impacted our city.  This research takes a look at what deindustrialization and other trends (growth of the service industry, deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, etc.. ) has done to neighbourhoods.

Here is the thrust of their argument.

Historically, Hamilton has been fairly unique in that there has been relative income equality across all its neighbourhoods.  That has changed.  We now have “a marked segregation of the poor and a steady polarization of neighbourhoods.”

Using a measure of income inequality called the Gini coefficient, the authors argue that income inequality has increased in Hamilton more rapidly than any other city in Canada.  The rates of housing poverty (where households spend excessive amounts of income on housing) rival that of cities like Vancouver and Toronto where housing is much more expensive.  With downtown neighbourhoods being gentrified, residents and problems associated with income disparities are moving to Mountain neighbourhoods.

What Can be Done?

Professor Ley’s article cited above hit on some of the policy approaches that can be taken to tackle the problems caused by gentrification. 

Building more affordable housing is one approach.  Government, particularly at the federal level, has shown little interest in this strategy of late. 

Some municipalities, including Hamilton, have tried to retain existing housing through local regulations like demolition controls and restrictions on condominium conversions.   This doesn’t seem to be making much difference. 

Government programs in the seventies designed to preserve and enhance properties like the Neighbourhood Improvement Program (NIP) worked.  Neighbourhood decay may be too far advanced for such initiatives to succeed.

Right to the City (http://righttothecity.org/) and other groups in the United States have put forward the argument that gentrification violates the rights of people who are displaced because they can’t afford increased rents.  The argument is that those rights are guaranteed under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Article 25 of this Declaration asserts that everyone has a right to housing.  Other rights are spelled out.  The Declaration was ratified in 1948 before gentrification was identified.  It will be interesting to see how this human rights approach proceeds.

In addition though, Right to the City and other American groups have developed programs and toolkits for those who are trying to halt the displacement of poor and disadvantaged individuals and families.

Perhaps we can look to these approaches for solutions to the problems gentrification is creating in Hamilton.

Remember the Rupert Hotel Fire

(This blog piece has been slightly revised from the original which appeared at www.hamiltonjustice.ca on the anniversary of the Rupert Hotel Fire.)

The 26th anniversary of the Rupert Hotel fire that killed one woman and nine men in Toronto just passed (December 23rd.)

The Rupert was located at 182 Parliament Street close to Queen Street East. Once an upscale hotel, the Rupert, while licensed, was overcrowded and badly maintained. (A story by Chris Bateman from Spacing Toronto provides the gruesome details http://spacing.ca/toronto/2014/12/24/25-years-horror-rupert-hotel-fire/)

A plaque erected at the site notes that the fire "sparked action by municipal and provincial governments and community organizations to improve conditions in rooming houses."

It did, for a time. In the years following the tragedy, about 500 units of Toronto housing were created or upgraded to meet or exceed the already existing standards. Not long after the plaque was installed, though, the funding that supported the upgrades and advocacy ended.

Photo from Toronto Star Archives

What has happened since then?

Not enough.

The City of Toronto has been struggling for many, many years to put in place one comprehensive by-law and set of regulations to cover all rooming houses.  To say they are bogged down would be an understatement.

You’ll remember that Toronto amalgamated in 1998.  Yet, the zoning by-laws with respect to rooming houses have yet to be harmonized.
Each of the former Toronto municipalities has different things to say on rooming houses.  Toronto and Etobicoke (in some areas) allow them but they must be licensed.  They’re OK in the old Borough of York in some areas too.  But in North York, East York and Scarborough rooming houses are not permitted.  That means that those that exist in these areas are illegal and unregulated.

A consultation process took place in Toronto this year.  A report will be coming back to Council.  The report will, among other things, look at “opportunities to improve conditions in rooming houses:” History suggests that Council will have a tough time making decisions.

What about other initiatives?  Toronto’s poverty reductions strategy, for example, makes mention of rooming houses. It recommends that the city “continue efforts to consult and develop an effective policy framework and enforcement strategy with respect to rooming house.”  That action word “continue” does not offer encouragement that something concrete will be achieved in the near future.
Conditions remain unsafe.  Recently, a Toronto landlord was convicted of multiple fire code violations in the death of a woman in a rooming house fire from 2013.  A fire in an unlicensed house in the Spadina/Dundas area killed two and injured many others in March 2014.  Other Canadian cities face similar problems.

Health Issues

Safety is a certainly huge concern but there are long term health issues for those who live in rooming houses and other vulnerable housing situations as well.  Two years a study called Housing Vulnerability and Health: Canada’s Hidden Emergency was published. The study looked at the deaths of 15,000 people living in such housing.  The authors found that the average life span of these 15,000 people was “7-10 years shorter than the life span of the general Canadian population.” Women had about the same chance of living to the age of 75 as an average women in Guatemala, a country where many lack access to basic health care.

Action is needed. Municipalities don’t have the resources or the resolve to get results.  Senior levels of government must step to the plate.

Resources:

http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/crich/wp-content/uploads/housing-vulnerability-and-health.pdf
http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Suburban-Rooming-Houses-FINAL-Sept-24.pdf

Hamilton Community Legal Clinic Blog Pieces: 

http://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/blog/?post=Remembering+the+Rupert+Hotel+Fire+&id=248
http://www.hamiltonjustice.ca/blog/?post=New+Insights+on+Rooming+Houses&id=282

Gentrification Becoming a Problem for Hamilton Tenants

(An earlier version of this story appeared on www.hamiltonjustice.ca)

More than 200 central Hamilton residents rallied in McLaren Park last Wednesday..

Amidst chants and drum beats, tenants and housing advocates were putting out a message to all three levels of government the signs captured the feelings of those in attendance.

“Housing is a Right”

“Canada Needs a National Housing Strategy”

“We are the Faces of Affordable Housing”

The mainstream media was present.  Dan Nolan from the Hamilton Spectator reported on the evening event in the July 30th edition of his paper.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/5766988-tenants-say-low-income-housing-under-threat/ 

Speakers called on all three levels of government to take action. Demands included

• That the City of Hamilton immediately take measures to mitigate the negative impacts of gentrification. The city’s current planning and policy documents have failed to take into account the very real impacts of gentrification on low cost rental housing.

•  That Ontario’s Long Term Affordable Housing Strategy (LTAHS), which is currently under review, include measures to protect affordable housing so that units like ours will not be lost.

•  That the federal government develop a national housing strategy. The emphasis should be on maintaining and creating and affordable rental housing that is safe, accessible and in a state of good repair.

Gentrification is a growing concern in the City the Clinic’s Maria Antelo told CBC Hamilton.
“Right now, what tenants want is whatever is available to keep (rent) the way it is and prices shouldn't going up because our city is becoming a bit trendy.  At the same time there has to be a balance. Tenants understand that we do want beautification in our city, we do want investment in our city but we want politicians, developers to understand housing is a basic need, it's not a luxury." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/hamilton-tenants-rally-against-gentrification-1.3171560             
                                                                                                     

Street Soccer Championships in Hamilton This Month

This story orignally appeared in North End Breezes, the community newsletter of Hamilton's North End. http://www.northendbreezes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/July-Summer-2015-NEB-publisher-smaller-file.pdf-final.pdf)

A unique event is coming to Hamilton this month.
Street Soccer Canada will be running the National Homeless Championship. The games will be played in Gore Park on Saturday July 18th and Sunday the 19th.  Teams from Comox, Kelowna, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton and other cities are expected.
Players from this competition will be selected for the Homeless World Cup. 

That event will be held in Amsterdam this September.

In 2003, Mel Young, a Scotsman, and Harald Schmied, an Austrian, were attending a conference dealing with the future of street newspapers.  They came up with the idea of a Homeless World Cup. 

It is a different game than the traditional soccer (football) you’ll see at the Pan Am Games.

It is played four players a side on 16 metre x 22 metre court.  The game lasts 14 minutes (two seven minute halves.) A three-on-two rule, intended to promote scoring, has evolved so that only two players are allowed in their own defensive end.

To be eligible, players must have been homeless in the past year (in accordance with the national definition of homelessness,) make their living as street paper vendor, be Asylum seekers or in drug or alcohol rehabilitation (and also have been homeless.)

Changing Attitudes

The Homeless World Cup is more than a competition. It is designed to challenge societal attitudes towards homeless people.

In that context it is worth reflecting on the situation in Hamilton.

Here, over 3,100 individuals experienced homelessness – staying at some point in the past year in one of the City’s emergency shelters.

Hamilton is part of a national movement of communities led by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. The movement is mobilizing people to house 20,000 of Canada’s most vulnerable people by July 1, 2018.  As part of that program, individual and families were interviewed this April. Four hundred and fifty four (454) individuals were canvassed by volunteers in Hamilton’s downtown streets, shelters and agencies.

Here are just a few facts from the survey that may surprise you.

• Two thirds of those interviewed had experienced homelessness for six months or longer.

• Seven percent of those surveyed had served in the Canadian Armed Forces.

• 266 of the individuals surveyed had visited hospital emergency rooms a total of 994 times in the previous 6 months.

Much work has to be done to solve our housing crisis.  Unlike other nations, Canada doesn’t have a national housing strategy.  Perhaps, we will hear about housing and homelessness during this fall’s federal election campaign.