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<p><img src="http://ocap.ca/files/savetheschoolhousemay23logo.JPG" class="inline"><B>Community Must Now Fight To Save It!</B> </p>
<p>On June 26, OCAP organized a mass delegation to the meeting of the Community Development and Recreation Committee of City Council. We filled the place with homeless people and their allies and a range of speakers condemned the City`s plan to close the 55 bed School House Shelter. The Committee heard from those who are forced to rely on the shelter system, front line advocates, union locals representing workers in the neighborhood, social agencies and, of course, from OCAP.</p>
<p>The testimony that was provided to the Committee left no room for any member of it to pretend that he or she was not fully informed as to the vital need for this shelter or the terrible impact of closing it. 55 shelter beds are at stake in a community where they are desperately needed. Indeed, the need for shelter space across the City is greater than ever. People who experience the misery and unbearable tension of the shelters spoke to the serious overcrowding and appalling conditions that exist throughout the system. Health professionals and service providers spelt out the importance of the particular features of the School House and the role it has played as a `wet` shelter (i.e. one that permits some alcohol to be consumed on site) in saving lives. It was pointed out by several speakers that, if the Committee permitted this shelter to close, they would be taking this decision the same month that conditions in the main Seaton House men`s shelter led to a violent outburst in which a man was beaten severely with a fire extinguisher, while another homeless man was found dead on Parliament Street.</p>
<p><img src="http://ocap.ca/files/June26-002.JPG" class="inline" width="300" height="225">Despite all this, the Committee voted to proceed with the depopulating and closing of the School House. It must be stated that it was not a bunch of Rob Ford loyalists who did this. Despite being chaired by right wing, Giorgio Mammoliti, the Community Development and Recreation Committee is dominated by `progressive` opponents of Ford and his allies. These include the Councillor in whose ward the School House is located, Kristyn Wong Tam. She presented a face saving amendment that speaks of `re-investing` the resources that will be freed up by locking up the School House. How this will done, when this will be done and where are all unclear but we can be sure it won`t be happening in her ward if Wong Tam and her developer friends have anything to do with it.</p>
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