More than a dozen “unhoused” residents of Toronto received insulated foam structures on Sunday to help them get through the winter.

The structures were built by a group of volunteers and  “concerned residents” organized by ALAB Resource Clinic of Toronto.

M.J. Cully, executive director of the clinic, told The Caribbean Camera that the group got together on Sunday in  front of the condominium where Mayor John Tory lives, to build the structures.

He explained that the project was in response to requests from”encampment residents ” and several communnity organizations.

Cully noted that” the foam-based sleeping structures are outfitted with LED lights, air vents, and a smoke and carbon monoxide detector. The foam boards are made with a fire retardant and much safer than highly flammable and freezing cold tents.

“These structures are safer and warmer alternative shelters to tents in which the occupants rely on hazardous external heat sources like candles or heaters ”

Cully complained that ” the City is essentially weaponizing fire safety.

“They’re using it as an excuse to tear down people’s tents and threaten to remove tools that people need to survive without also offering enough shelter space or affordable housing.”

He noted that the City ‘s plan  to create 560 new indoor shelter spaces to accommodate homeless people “falls far short of what’s needed.

” Though the City claims 500 people are sleeping outdoors, advocates and outreach workers have counted over 1,000 people sleeping in encampments, with many more in stairwells, on grates and trains.

” For this reason organizations and incensed individuals in Toronto are stepping up to do the work they believe the City should already have done.”

” Housing is a basic human right. Yet the City of Toronto continues to prioritize the profits of property developers over peoples’ lives, failing to provide safe and humane living conditions to those who are unhoused, and criminalizing the attempts of many to survive the winter,” he remarked.

ALAB  Resource Clinic which has been working in the Dufferin  Grove community, was established after this year’s summer rallies for racial justice and defunding of the poilice.