Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford's motion to have the City of Toronto promptly remove encampments near school zones, daycares, and playgrounds was amended with some noteworthy changes at Toronto Council's meeting yesterday.
As part of Bradford's motion, encampments located within 200 metres of a school zone, playground, or daycare facility would be removed within 48 hours of being reported to the city.
However, at Thursday's (Nov. 13) council meeting, his motion received a mixed reception amongst other council members.
Some at the meeting expressed concern that clearing out encampments may prove to be difficult in the city's more densely populated neighbourhoods.
Toronto-Danforth Councillor Paula Fletcher, who was in support of Bradford's motion at the meeting, said the approach to removing encampments should be implemented gradually, addressing encampments within the closest proximity to at-risk areas first.
"The motion says to prioritize 200 metres. I'm thinking about making sure this happens because I agree that it's a difficult situation to have encampments so close to playgrounds," said Fletcher at the meeting.
"So, I'm wondering if there's a way to phase that, so we would start with 50 metres, then 100 metres, then 200 metres. If that would be something that we could expedite and initiate immediately, rather than sit down and prioritize them."
Gord Tanner, general manager of the city's Toronto Shelter and Support Services, said the suggestion for a distance-based approach to encampment removal is "operationally feasible."
According to Tanner, there are currently 355 encampments located in Toronto, 255 of which are situated in 92 city parks, and 199 located within 200 metres of a school, playground, or daycare.
Under Fletcher's distance-based approach, the city would need to address 18 encampments located within 50 metres of a school, playground, or daycare.
"The approach that was adopted by this council is a rights-based approach that puts people experiencing homelessness at the centre of our outreach efforts, with the goal of connecting with them, ultimately bringing them into the shelter system, or into permanent housing," said Tanner.
He said the current structure of removal has allowed the city to address encampments faster, and that the number of encampments has decreased by 185 since the new outreach model was adopted by Toronto Council in June 2024.
Tanner mentioned that "every encampment is different" and that currently there are no stipulations to determine how fast an encampment is removed by the city.
Following a contentious discussion, Bradford's original motion was amended to "prioritize removing encampments located within 200 metres of a school, daycare or playground within 24 hours of being reported, with prioritization based on most significant impact beginning at 50 metres, update the local Councillor within one business day of initiation, and provide regular updates on the status of the location, with coordination between the Fire Chief and Deputy City Manager, Community and Emergency Services, to ensure safety and operational factors are fully considered."
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on the morning of Friday, Nov. 14, Bradford said the amended "watered down" motion that council approved was not good enough.
"Yesterday, I moved a reasonable and common sense motion designed to give playgrounds back to our kids by clearing encampments near schools, parks and daycares," said Bradford in his X post. "Rather than listening to parents like Rakshitha and Jennifer, Mayor Chow and her allies on council watered down the motion to address only 5% of encampments across the entire city. That's not good enough for my family or for yours. It's time to build a safe and clean city where our kids can thrive."
In his X post, Bradford urged city residents to sign a petition in support of his original motion calling for the encampment exclusion zone around schools, parks and daycares. The petition can be accessed at: https://bey-bradbradford.nationbuilder.com/protect_parks_for_kids_and_families