COVID-19 watch: House the homeless to avoid massive spread, experts urge

As the COVID-19 pandemic grows, and a provincial state of emergency grinds public life to a half, the vast majority of Ontarians have retreated inside their homes, only emerging to get groceries or a bit of fresh air — mindful to keep plenty of space between them.

But without a bed of one's own, often the only way to gain protection from the elements means squeezing into a church basement with dozens of other people — the exact opposite of the social distancing measures public health officials say are needed to prevent a spike in cases that obliterates local health-care systems. That's why housing people experiencing homelessness should be an immediate priority, experts say — including the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, Leilani Farha.

“Housing has become the frontline defense against the coronavirus. Home has rarely been more of a life or death situation.”

— Leilani Farha #HousingForAll @leilanifarha

— Nick Falvo (@nicholas_falvo) March 19, 2020

Geordie Dent, the executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations (FMTA), pointed out that the province has thousands of illegal Airbnb units, and many empty investor-owned condos. These could be temporarily appropriated under the new powers the government has given itself.

Acquiring hotel beds, as the city of Toronto has done, is another option, Dent said.

"The things that I'm recommending right now might sound radical. The alternative is a bunch of body bags and mass graves," Dent said.

The government is not considering seizing empty condos or unused AirBnbs, said Julie O'Driscoll, a spokesperson for Housing Minister Steve Clark.

Asked what measures the government is taking to protect homeless and precariously housed people during the pandemic, O'Driscoll offered no specifics but promised to "spare no expense."

Poverty advocates have warned that shelter systems in the province are ill-prepared for the outbreak, and could become hotbeds of disease.

"I can basically scratch my neighbour’s nose," Frank Rizzuto, who is currently homeless and sleeping in a shelter, told Toronto Life.

Cathy Crowe, a Toronto street nurse who has spent decades working with the city's homeless population, echoed Dent's point. She called for a "massive infusion of funding" for multiple new shelter sites, to reduce crowding at existing ones. The city has added some spaces, but it's not enough, she said.

"Really the only protection will be to immediately start a rapid re-housing program," she said.

This could be done through rent supplements, prefabricated housing, or emergency seizures of hotel rooms or now-empty student residences, she said.

Crowe noted that emergency physician Dr. Aaron Orkin said in a recent webinar there will be "several hundred deaths" if COVID-19 enters the Toronto shelter system, where many people are immunocompromised.

"The other huge concern is what will happen to access to food" for people living on the streets, Crowe said. Many organizations that provide community meals have cancelled them, with some replacing them with limited pickup options.

There are ways government can react to the current crisis, but it's one we shouldn't be experiencing in the first place, Crowe said.

Homelessness has increased every year since she's been a street nurse — since 1998, she said.

"The national housing strategy has to be totally re-examined. In my opinion it's quite useless," Crowe said, noting that the cranes in downtown Toronto largely aren't building social housing.

The emergency legislation introduced in the House on Thursday doesn't include any measures aimed at resolving housing-related issues, but some additional support for people experiencing homelessness has come from Ottawa. As part of its $82-billion stimulus package, the Trudeau government committed $157.5 million Wednesday morning to Reaching Home, a federal program that funds community anti-homelessness initiatives.

Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips praised the government's package on Wednesday, saying it delivered "support...for the most vulnerable, whether [they're] our First Nations or homeless, and in a timely basis."

The provincial government has put a stop to evictions for the time being, to help those who are already housed, but might be forced to miss a payment due to job issues.

"Thank God. We were really worried about that," Dent said. "I was starting to get some stories coming in through our hotline."

One person who called the FMTA had been locked out of their unit by their landlord, who accused them of having the novel coronavirus, Dent said. Another said they were asked to leave their home because they shared a kitchen and bathroom with their landlord, who wasn't willing to take the risk.

Dent stressed that adding to the homeless population at this point would be extremely counterproductive to containing the pandemic. Everyone without a home should be housed immediately, he said, "so that they can self-quarantine instead of essentially letting it run through that population and then run through everywhere else."