‘Where are people supposed to go?’ Threats to clear an encampment and a shelter closing raise concerns about the city’s plans this winter

On a bright, frosty afternoon recently, Alan Donaldson sat on the hard steps of Toronto’s Church of Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields, adjacent to a small, dense homeless camp, and talked about being bounced around. To find a warm place to lay his head, Donaldson often calls shelter systems beyond the city itself. The notice has led some in the camp to accuse the city of relocating people rather than fixing underlying issues. Shelters are housing more people than they were a year back, and the number of people turned away has risen continuously. Community organizer Rachelle Friesen believes the city could have better prepared for the shelter’s closure.