With another Toronto shelter hotel to close, residents call for action from new mayor

Despite residents receiving assurances they could stay at the hotel until Aug. 15, some were abruptly told they had to relocate this month, according to a volunteer-run group working closely with hotel residents.

Michael Smith wants to settle down.

At 71 years old, he imagines what it would be like to have his own home. Somewhere he can call up his friends, fire up the BBQ and share a meal over the sounds of his favourite music: Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley and The Doors.

Smith has been homeless for about 25 years. In that time, he says the closest he's come to a place of his own is in a downtown Toronto hotel, one of several sites the city converted to temporary homeless shelters at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smith - who has schizophrenia, a heart condition, walks with a cane and has survived multiple strokes - was connected with a nearby family doctor shortly after he moved to the hotel in 2020, he says. Almost everyone coming and going from the hotel says hello. A cashier at the Tim Hortons next door knows him by name and comes by his table later to warn about a storm brewing.

But Smith is set to be displaced when the Strathcona Hotel owner reclaims the site at the end of August and resumes regular hotel operations. It's a situation that has him and other site residents distressed at what the future will hold.

“Stop this harassment, kicking people out when they got no other options. Where are they going to go? Where am I going to go?” says Smith.

“It's better to sleep in a tent or underneath a bridge. At least the rent is free.”