LILLEY: Tent encampment makes park at Allan Gardens unusable

Instead of removing encampment, city has encouraged and helped people living in the park while ignoring local residents

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On a sunny Saturday morning at Allan Gardens, there are a few dog owners in the off-leash area but little other activity from local residents. There are few people taking a stroll through the walkways, but no children playing in the grass, despite being surrounded by high density residential developments. Few people are wandering the park.

That is except for the people who live in the park’s tent city.

Over the past several months, the encampment at Allan Gardens has grown from a few tents in the southeast quadrant to tents in every part of the park. This park, which should be a jewel in the city’s system, is now a homeless shantytown.

By one tent close to Sherbourne St. there are clothes hanging on a makeshift laundry line. There’s a collection of office chairs and patio furniture around the tent entrance, some traffic cones set up as if to mark off territory.

Further south, a giant teepee is set up, a sacred fire tended by some residents burns inside. We know it’s a sacred fire because the city has come by and posted an official sign marking it as such.

“This location is designated by the City of Toronto for First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities to hold Sacred Fires,” the recently installed and professionally manufactured plaque says.

“Sacred Fires have been around since time immemorial. They provide space for Indigenous Peoples to create relationships with each other, the natural world and the Spirit world.”

The area outside the teepee with the fire doesn’t look too sacred. There’s a shopping cart from a nearby grocery store, some trolleys, debris, and garbage.

In addition to putting up the plaque, city staff have ensured porta potties have been set up and extra garbage and recycling bins have been installed. This is all part of the effort by the city’s Encampment Outreach office to make sure things are running as smoothly as possible.

“Once they have an encampment office, there is no way the city wants to clear this away, they are invested in this,” one local resident complained.

It’s hard to argue with as the city hasn’t been discouraging this encampment at Allan Gardens. It’s been encouraging people to come set up shop here for the free services.

Meanwhile, despite the increase in services, locals have ongoing complaints. Open drug use and drinking, defecating in the park or on nearby properties, and even the encampments moving into mini-parks and open pieces of land in the residential areas around the park.

The park is currently unusable. While the city is performing a multi-million dollar restoration of the conservatory greenhouses, who will come here when that is complete if the park remains a homeless encampment?

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More than 1,300 people have signed an online petition calling on the city to deal with the issue.

“Many area residents are experiencing fear, stress, and anguish from this ever-increasing numbers of encampments in Allan Gardens. There has already been one murder and a stabbing in the park,” the petition reads.

“There is no legal or moral right to live in a city park, and doing so poses risks to both the encampment and neighbourhood residents.”

The residents signing onto the petition make clear that they want the city to do what it can to ensure the people currently living in the park have a place to live but also correctly point out that it can’t be in the park.

In addition to the fear and anxiety this encampment causes residents, in addition to taking away the use of vital greenspace from local residents, this encampment is a safety hazard. A fire in any one of these tents could quickly spread across the park. The unsanitary conditions are ripe for disease transmission.

Somehow though, the people we elect to run the city, and the people they employ, have decided that instead of dealing with the issues presented by encampments like this, they will normalize them.

This isn’t a compassionate response to an obvious crisis, it’s an abdication of responsibility.