Full Description
In Displacement City, outreach worker Greg Cook and street nurse Cathy Crowe present the stories of frontline workers, advocates, and people living without homes during the pandemic. The book uses prose, poetry, and photography to document lived experiences of homelessness, responses to the housing crisis, efforts to fight back for homes, and possible solutions to move Toronto forward. Contributors provide particular insight into policies affecting Indigenous peoples and how the legacy of colonialism and displacement reached a critical point during the pandemic. Offering rich stories of care, mutual aid, and solidarity, Displacement City provides a vivid account of a humanitarian disaster.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
Cathy Crowe and Greg Cook
Part I: We Are [Not] in This Together
1. "Displaced Again and Again and Again"
Nikki Sutherland
2. The Housing Crisis and the Indian Residential School Legacy
Blue Sky, Leaders from the Houseless Community, Sandra Campbell, and Leigh Kern
3. Inconvenient Bodies and Toronto's History of Displacement
Lorraine Lam and Greg Cook
4. Displaced There, Displaced Here
Jenn McIntyre and Steve Meagher
5. Dystopian Realities
Michael Eschbach
Part II: Fighting Back
6. Responsibility Downloaded: How Drop-in Centres Stepped Up and Pushed Back during the Pandemic
Diana McNally
7. Surviving COVID-19 in the Shelter System
Brian Cleary
8. Social Murder: We Need More than Band Aids
Roxie Danielson
9. Slipped through the Fingertips of the System?
Greg Cook and Dredzz
10. The Toronto Encampment Support Network Fights Back
Simone Schmidt with Photos by Jeff Bierk
11. Wish You Were Here
Zoe Dodd
12. Fighting Ableism
Jennifer Jewell
Poem: Our Wilderness
Zachary Grant
13. Palliative Care in a Pandemic
Trevor McNally and Naheed Dosani
Profile: Building Tiny Homeless Shelters
Canadian Human Rights Commission
Poem: Lord We Pray
Zachary Grant
Graphic by Michael D.
Part III: COVID-19 in the Courts
14. In the Parks and in the Courts: The Legal Fight against Encampment Evictions
A.J. Withers and Derrick Black
15. COVID-Life
Sarah White
16. Two Metres
Doug Johnson Hatlem, Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, and Geetha Philipupillai
17. Homelessness, Housing, and Human Rights Accountability
Leilani Farha
Poem: There Is a Development Proposed for This Site
Zachary Grant
Afterword
Author Bios
