1 person remains at encampment outside Toronto church after city began to clear site Friday

One person remains at a homeless encampment outside a Toronto church Saturday, after city crews began clearing the site Friday night when temperatures dipped below freezing.

Some protesters gathered Friday as the dismantling of the encampment got underway outside Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields Anglican Church on the corner of Bellevue Avenue and College Street in Kensington Market. The clearing started after nightfall, and by 9:30 p.m., several Toronto police officers were seen outside the church.

"By 5 p.m., nine people had accepted offers of shelter space with wraparound supports and one person remained on the City's right-of-way," the city said in a statement Saturday.

City crews removed debris and combustible materials Friday to "lessen the immediate risk," at the site, according to the city.

"As of 11 p.m., approximately half of the combustible material was removed from the location," it said.

The city said Streets to Homes and the city's Shelter, Support and Housing Administration (SSHA) teams will continue outreach work with the remaining individual to "encourage them to accept help and the offer of indoor space."

Jamie Lee Pauk, who's lived in the encampment since July, said she felt exhausted because this is not the first time the encampment has been cleared.

"It's just as if there's like a reset button and then we're back at this again," she said. "It's very repetitive and it's frustrating."

City calls clearing 'tool of last resort'

In an email late Friday, Const. Laura Brabant said one person remains at the encampment.

"Officers are there at the request of the city to prevent any breach of the peace. They are not there to remove the person living in the encampment," Brabant said.

In an email sent on Friday morning, city spokesperson Russell Baker had said the city would "service" the site Friday morning. Clearing, however, began later in the day.

"While this is a tool of last resort, we must address the accumulation of combustible and horded material on site, posing substantial risk to both those encamped there and those in the surrounding area," Baker said. 

Baker said there were about eight people at the site who were informed of the "planned work" on Friday. He said shelter spaces were offered to everyone encamped at the site. 

Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields Reverend Canon Maggie Helwig previously told CBC Toronto that although the land technically isn't owned by the church, it's been used as a churchyard for about 150 years and more recently a community spot for people experiencing homelessness. 

She said last month that the need for spaces like the churchyard has only grown in recent years due to the lack of affordable and supportive housing in the city — including the city's own shelter system, which at the time was turning away 275 people each night.

At the encampment on Friday, Helwig told CBC Toronto that her understanding was people who would not accept the city's shelter referral would be "removed from the site." She said she wants people to know that those living in front of the church are good people.

"These are ordinary people, these are people in a difficult situation who need dignity and care and appropriate shelter and to be treated like human beings," she said.

'We do not consent,' community member says

Diana Chan McNally, a community worker who has worked with some of the people who lived in the encampment, said they can be reluctant to trust city services because of past experiences at shelters. 

"A lot of people who have gone into the shelter system have been assaulted there, they've been sexually assaulted, they've had their things stolen," she said. "And so they're associating that kind of space with those particular traumas that they've endured in the past."

Coun. Alejandra Bravo, chair of the city's economic and community development committee, had expressed concern about the encampment clearing and reached out to the city's ombudsman about the plans. 

"As a councillor, I'm looking at every angle to make sure that people will be brought indoors," she said on CBC Radio's Metro Morning. 

She said many of the people living at the encampment will accept offers for hotel shelter or other forms of shelter. 

Dominique Russell, co-chair of the Kensington Market Community Land Trust, came to the encampment on Friday and said its clearing isn't something the neighbourhood wants.

"We do not consent, this is not done for us. It's not done for our children, for [our] safety," Russell said.

"People need to be housed, they need permanent housing. And in the absence of that, they shouldn't be destabilized and lose the supports that they've been able to find."