WARMINGTON: Tent city in same neighbourhood as million dollar condos

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Location, location, Location.

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It’s probably one of Toronto’s most desired million-dollar neighbourhoods to live in.

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Other than the mud, discarded needles and constant screams from people ‘jonesing’ for drugs, it’s close to perfect.

And the best part of Clarence Square Park’s tent city on Spadina Ave. – just north of Front St. – is that it’s affordable. There is nowhere cheaper.

No one pays rent or a mortgage at this downtown housing development project, which is surrounded by buildings where people pay thousands of dollars a month.

They get to look out their windows at the utter disaster that one of Toronto’s oldest parks has become. The off-leash dog zone section is way more sane than the area where the dozens of people jammed into the tents live.

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Some describe it as looking similar to the shanty towns in that part of 1930s depression-era Toronto while others say it looks like San Francisco or the east side of Vancouver.

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It looks like something out of an apocalyptic movie. It reeks to high heaven. And it’s dangerous for who are inside the camp as well as those just walking by.

“No one feels safe walking through there now,” said one resident of an adjacent building. “It’s ruined the area.”

In addition to the symbolism of a knocked over Christmas tree, what you see there is horrific squalor with garbage strewn all over the place.

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The mild weather has turned the park into a slippery place to walk – something the residents here have countered by putting down strips of wood found in nearby construction sites. Despite their efforts to build pathway, the ground inside the park looks more suited for mud wrestling than a place for people to live.

People who walk through the park are stalked by people looking for money because the other thing this area has become is a place to buy and use illegal drugs.

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“I don’t actually live here,” said one man who was aggressively panhandling while twitching thanks to his cravings. “I live in a shelter around the corner.”

He came to the right place. There are drugs for sale there.

For others, it’s an ideal place to reside with no pesky rules, even though it looks like hell on earth.

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Inside this urban hamlet you see everything from port-a-potties to bikes to tv’s and computers – and everybody seems to have a smartphone.

In some ways the people living here have hit the jackpot. No high taxes for them.

But after talking to people on the street, it becomes clear there is no shortage of sad stories. The encampment residents are somebody’s sons or daughters and it’s not easy to see fellow human beings struggle like that.

The place is a disaster and it’s unbecoming of Toronto. It should not be there one more minute.

Perhaps the millions of tax dollars Mayor Olivia Chow and City Council plan to spend erasing the name Dundas from Toronto’s history could be used to get the encampment’s residents out of the mud and into more appropriate housing.

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Of course, sooner or later, the City will move people along – but another tent city will pop up in another park soon after.

Interestingly, the City announced plans just last week to build a new 2,600-square-foot park at 229 Richmond St. W. – just a couple of bocks northeast of Clarence Square Park in the city’s Entertainment District – with construction beginning in 2025.

“The Wàwàtesí design concept integrates culture, public art, landscape, light and space for performance,” said a City of Toronto news release. “This thoughtful approach provides an engaging green oasis for visitors, residents and those who work in the area to enjoy. Wàwàtesí will transport visitors through a woodland experience, all while in a downtown neighbourhood surrounded by highrise buildings.”

But who are we kidding.

It’s just more free downtown housing to go along with free syringes and crystal meth pipes that enable those addicted to drugs instead of helping them.

This new place, like many other city parks, will likely end up being nothing more than another downtown campsite courtesy of the Toronto taxpayers.

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