Monday 4 April 2016

Town Hall Meeting: Gentrification and the Future of Moss Park




What’s happening to our community? Gentrification and the future of Moss Park 


Come to the Community Forum and Supper to discuss these issues. What can we do about it? How can we as a community respond? 

When April 7, 2016, 6pm - 8pm

Where John Innes Community Centre, 
150 Sherbourne near Shuter Street, Toronto

Wheelchair accessible

ASL, food, childcare and TTC tokens provided.

Major changes are proposed for Moss Park, the John Innes Centre, George Street and other neighbourhoods in Toronto’s Downtown East.

- What are we hearing about the new recreation centre at Moss Park?

- What is really behind the City of Toronto’s and the 519 Community Centre’s redevelopment plan?

- What will the City do to address the loss of shelter beds?

- How will the new condo developments affect the neighbourhood?

- What are the implications for sex workers?

Mced by Anna Willats (long-time Toronto social justice activist/educator) and Gaetan Heroux(a long time anti-poverty activist with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) who has worked as a social worker in East Downtown Toronto for more than twenty-five years).



Speakers include:

Monica Forrester is a queer Trans sexworker, advocating for the equality and rights of street based sex workers. Currently working with Maggie's Sexworker Action Project, the longest running agency for sexworkers. Also working with StreetHealth on the Safety First Project for sexworkers reporting bad clients and the violence they experience through their work. Executive Director and founder of Trans Pride Toronto since 2004, bringing awareness, accessibility and inclusion to Trans people in the community.



Sigrid Kneve (OCAP).



Helen Jefferson Lenskyj who has been a community activist since the 1970s, and has written extensively on gender, sexuality, sport and the Olympics (QTCD),



Río Rodríguez.



Syrus Marcus Ware.


Across the city we have seen gentrification negatively affect poor and working class people. We are told that developer investment and affluent homeowners will bring us prosperity and “economic development”. The City of Toronto and 519’s plan for Moss Park uses language such as “resiliency,” “inclusiveness” and “vibrancy” in order to assure us that we will also have a “seat at the table” and an equal share in the benefits when all is said and done.

However, rising rents and costs of living, increases in police violence, cuts to public services, racism and discrimination are what actually follows.

How do we fight back? Communities across Toronto are forming tenants unions, mobilizing against the police, forming grassroots community groups and other forms of resistance. Many queer and trans people are coming together to say that gentrification cannot take place in their names. We hope this community forum can help build a broad opposition to gentrification of our communities.

Sponsoring organizations:
Queer Trans Community Defence - Toronto, OCAP Toronto, Opirg Toronto, Queer Ontario

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About Queer Trans Community Defence:

Queer Trans Community Defence exists to defend and build people power within our communities. This way we can defend our neighbourhoods from the City, the developers and to challenge those in the Queer/LGBT community who are participating - knowingly or not - in projects that will drive out poor people from their homes. We reject the invoking of LGBT rights to try to prevent opposition to various‘ revitalization’ schemes and especially to the rapid gentrification of the DTE (Downtown East).

Monday 25 January 2016

A Brief History of the 519 Drop-In

"Allies are fabulous friends but will not be able to access this drop-in." -- Flyer for "The New Sunday Drop-In"

Since the 1970s, the 519 has offered a Sunday Drop-In (SDI) for local people in poverty, providing food, support, and community. At one time, the SDI was considered among its participants to be one of the best drop-ins in the neighbourhood. This past September 2015, however, the 519 implemented a new rule at the drop-in -- people must identify as LGBTQ in order to access the drop-in. With this rule, most of the SDI's participants are being turned away. Some who have accessed the drop-in for decades are no longer welcomed.

How the 519 determine who is eligible to access the drop-in: Participants are now required to write down their sexual orientation on a sign-in sheet at the door. The number of participants have dropped significantly since the rule was implemented; approximately 30 people are attending the drop-in each week, down from 130 when the drop-in was open to all. These changes were not proposed by the participants themselves. Although the 519 had these plans in the works for a number of years, participants were never asked along the way for their opinions on making the drop-in LGBTQ-only. Nor were they asked if they wanted the hours reduced: The hours of the drop-in have been cut to 2.5 hours, whereas previously the drop-in was open all day.

Opening an LGBTQ-only drop-in is not in itself a bad idea. However, it is a terrible idea to turn an existing drop-in that was open to all people into an LGBTQ-only drop-in and consequently turn away the majority of existing participants. Do people now have to lie to access the drop-in? As one participant remarked, "If they want to me to say I'm trisexual, I'll do it." Moreover, requiring people to openly identify themselves as LGBTQ may not be the best approach to foster safety for people trying to access a drop-in. Having a drop-in at the 519 that is open to all people ensures the participants access to an LGBTQ-friendly safe space without having to publicize their sexual orientation.

The drop-in staff claim that the SDI was originally LGBTQ-only; they say that only in recent times did the drop-in open up to others, and it is now time for the drop-in to again serve the LGBTQ community only. In actuality, the SDI began as a drop-in for everyone in the community. When the drop-in first opened in the 1970s, most people accessing the drop-in were men staying at Seaton House, who were required back then to leave the shelter for the day and needed a space to eat and rest. In recent years there is more diversity among the drop-in participants, but the great reduction in participants since the changes were implemented point to the fact that most of the existing participants cannot or will not attend an LGBTQ-only drop-in. 

Why the 519 implemented these changes to the drop-in: The bottom line is profit. The 519 has been participating in the process of gentrification for some time now, having cut numerous programs that had served the local community for decades, such as the Friday Night Club and the Clothing Bank. The process of cutting the SDI happened insidiously: During renovations to the community centre in 2007, the SDI had to move from the auditorium to a smaller room, reducing their capacity from 250 to 80 participants. In the following years, the SDI regularly squeezed in an extra 50 meals each week to meet the high demand. But after the renovations were completed, the 519 never moved the SDI back to the auditorium/ "ballroom", as this space became exclusive for donor-attractive programming and gala events. In 2012, the 519 tried to implement changes to turn away existing SDI participants, but a petition pressured the 519 to revoke the proposed changes. This time around, however, the 519 applied for and was granted funding from the City to run LGBTQ Specialized Drop-In Services for the next five years, thus allowing them to ordain the SDI LGBTQ-only, with complete disregard for the needs of the drop-in participants, and despite the fact that other drop-ins are already overwhelmed from the lack of services available on the weekends. 


The 519's process of gentrification is reflected in the changes to their mission statement over this past decade: In 2007, the mission statement was changed to reflect the 519's work not only with the local community, but with broader LGBTQ communities. However, the 519 recently replaced this mission to make the space more inclusive with one that aims for exclusivity - the latest mission statement no longer speaks of serving the local community. Moreover, the 519 has eliminated the words "Community Centre" from their name. The 519's discrimination, however, is based not on sexual orientation, but on class. By changing their mission to serve the LGBTQ community only, the 519 can justify promoting their specialized services to funders and donors while ignoring the needs of the local community who do not fit into their new mission. After all, the Pride Parade reaps in tons of profit, but the Poverty Parade? Not so much.