Hunger strike to go head after talks with city officials about homelessness go poorly

A hunger strike to call attention to predictable and preventable deaths of people living on London's streets will go ahead next week after talks between advocates and city officials broke off on Tuesday. 

"We went into our meeting with the city hoping for serious conversation regarding how to implement these necessary, life-saving changes but we were sorely disappointed," the organizing committee of The Forgotten519, a group of people who advocate for those experiencing homelessness, wrote in a statement.

"People are dying predictable and preventable deaths at appalling and ever-increasing rates. Continuing to do what has always been done has not stopped anything. In fact, things have only become worse."

City officials, including Mayor Ed Holder and bureaucrats, said there would be no immediate changes so the hunger strike will continue, the advocates said. 

The coalition of advocates has promised a hunger strike beginning Aug. 1 if three demands aren't met: 

The advocates say they were told by city officials that there are multiple complaints a day about people who are experiencing homelessness, that encampments are "violent places filled with unruly criminal outsiders" and that they're dismantled for the safety of all involved. 

Removing people from camps that they set up, however, is not the answer, the advocates said, adding that "forced displacement of encampment residents, without a safe place to move to, reduces housing outcomes, reduces positive health outcomes, ruins relationships with outreach teams, reduces communication with supports, and ends lives."

The advocates say they've witnessed the city's coordinated informed response team tear down single tents, destroy people's property and have had reports that the team goes in to clear sites while people are away to get lunch. 

On its website, the city describes its coordinated response team as a "trained, highly engaged" team of city employees and outreach workers who offer support and services to Londoners living unsheltered. 

"The CIR team offers a caring and compassionate approach of enforcement when it comes to maintaining the safety and cleanliness of our city and follows a clear process as a team," the description states.

"When the team comes across individuals living unsheltered that have set up an encampment or has received calls from the community, there is a procedure that the ( team) follows to ensure everyone involved — individual living unsheltered, community stakeholder, resident — is informed about what is happening."

The advocates have not said who will perform the hunger strike, only that it will be a prominent individual and that it will be done on the steps of city hall.