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It's not just downtown. Dufferin Grove now has 50+ tents. And while you'd expect that number to go down as colder weather approaches, vocal activists in the area are organizing donations of heaters, cook stoves, etc. so it probably won't.
Homelessness won't be solved through police action. I suggest you redirect your anger and advocate for improved social services and more social/rent-geared-to-income housing. If you don't want to see people urinating in public, advocate also for public toilets. Or go spend a week in Rome, you won't be as bothered after that! IYKYK, as they say.
I'm in the Dufferin Grove facebook group and this topic comes up frequently, and the amount of enabling that goes on is kind of shocking. Might as well just hand over all of our parks then, and tell our kids we can no longer use them. Bellevue Park in Kensington makes me so mad now - a few years ago the city spent a fortune to completely re-do it and create a really fun playground area for kids, but it's no longer usable because it's been completely overrun by junkies. I used to be able to take my son there, and while there were always "quirky" types floating around, they were mixed in with sane families like my own, so as long as you kept an eye on them and remained alert, it was fine. Now I can't even do that. This is the type of nonsense that pushes politically centrist people into the hands of right wing politicians.
I did not fall off a turnip truck yesterday. I have lived in the core for 25 years. I have seen the cycles of homelessness and addiction up close throughout. I have voted for Jack Layton, Pam McConnell, Kristyn Wong-Tam and Olivia Chow, all progressive politicians who share your suggested approach. I have routinely donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank, Salvation Army and Covenant House.
I didn't mean to be condescending and I fully understand your frustration. I have lived in the core also, for 36 years. I have had homeless people threaten to beat me up, pursuing me through the streets while screaming that I was the Devil, telling me they would kill me in the subway. Enforcement in such places as parks will fail unless encampments are forcibly removed, and I'm opposed to that because those people have nowhere else to go. We had a conservative mayor until recently, and apparently people would be willing to reelect Ford and won't hesitate to "punish" a relatively progressive federal government by replacing it with more conservatives who will not be interested in those issues. This is a deeply frustrating situation but I will never agree to more oppression just so I can be made to feel more comfortable. (And yes, I loved Rome, but public urination by obviously non-homeless men was a regular occurrence during my time there.)
Ok, that's fine, I suspect we're more on the same page or not. I don't want to see violent police evictions of encampments either, which is why I would prefer this situation be averted before there are dozens of tents taking over the park and things get ugly. The tents have been accumulating for weeks while everybody pretends not to notice and we all know where that is going to lead eventually.
Most of those people are on drugs and will never get better. You could offer them free treatment, a job and free housing and they would still prefer to live in these conditions. Can't help people who don't want to help themselves.
Well, that's certainly one approach but drug and alcohol addiction is a disease and many addicts do want (or did want) to be 'cured'. Like all sickness, some cannot be cured but many can and we need to try. Will 100% 'get better'? No, but the same applies to cancer or broken legs and we keep trying there.
