STREET TAKEOVER

I had this emailed to me from OCAP and I can't make it but I thought I'd pass it in in case others could.

Saturday, October 4
Noon
Pigeon Park
(Gerrard and Parliament - Toronto)
Free Meal

"Streets to Homes has shipped people out of the downtown into the far corners of the city and left people to fend for themselves with almost no money, support or resources. At the same time, the City has been gutting shelter beds, meals, drop-ins and attacking people on the street.

This is part of a bigger campaign to try to kick poor people out of the neighbourhoods that we have lived in for years to make room for rich condo dwellers and other yuppies.
The City has used the cops to harass people, laying over 10,000 tickets last year alone. They encourage residents and business associations to target poor people and the places that we congregate.

Streets to Homes has helped to legitimize the displacement of poor people by telling the public that people are being housed. But people aren’t being housed - they are being abandoned. Many of the units people are stuck in do not meet basic legal standards for repair and are far away from meals and services.

On October 4th, Nuit Blanche events will create space for artists to takeover parts of the City. Over a million dollars is being dropped on this one night by the City and the Province while people go hungry on our streets.

On October 4th, poor people in the downtown east end and our supporters will take over the street to celebrate the fact that we have not been and will not be pushed out of the neighbourhood."