Hundreds of them walk around the grounds of the university’s downtown campus on any given day. For the most part, these non-community members— people who have no business with the university—roam around trouble-free.
It’s often hard to tell that those simply passing through or frequenting the stores on U of T property, are neither students, nor staff nor faculty members. According to campus police, an audit of Robarts Library, for example, would yield more people from outside the university community than actual members of this institution. It’s just a features of a downtonw university and the city’s population of 30,000 homeless individuals—a number that activist groups say is, in reality, much higher.
There are dozens of trespassing incidents on campus every month. This September, one of two such incidents involving a trespasser sleeping on campus took place at the orange-roofed Warren Stevens Building.
“Being in downtown Toronto, it’s endemic that you’re going to find more street people than in a typical suburban environment,” said Athletic Centre facility manager Paul Dutchak, as he looked down on a couch-laden lobby below. “Our lobby is more or less a public- access place, and we do have occasional vagrants that come through.”
While the Starbucks and sports store in the building help draw in visitors, bathrooms play their part as well. Every morning, a man and his dog show up to go through a hygienic routine in the lobby’s men’s washroom, says Dutchak, who notes that his staff generally turn a blind eye.
“Just because they’re a poor person with torn clothing and dishevelled hair does not necessarily make them bad people,” he said.
Police have usually only taken action in incidents where public safety is potentially at risk. But, as one of the few places on campus that requires identification to access the majority of the building, the Athletic Centre is likely one of the safest places to be. At least, according to Dutchak.
Trespassers are usually brought to the attention of U of T’s Campus Community Police through complaints made by community members. Reportings of these incidences therefore vary from day to day, depending on the tolerance of the students and staff in a particular building. If a complaint is made, Campus Police simply ask first-time offenders to leave, since the university buildings are private property. A second encounter nets the unwelcome guests a provincial citation for trespassing.
Campus Police operations manager Sam D’Angelo says that because of the university’s open and inviting atmosphere, “you can walk into almost any building and you’ll see people that are here not because they have university business. They are just here.”
According to D’Angelo, there comes a point when visitors outstay their welcome. “The invitation to ‘unwelcome guests,’ as I call them, expires when they become a hindrance to the university conducting business or a student studying,” he said. It doesn’t matter who the “guest” is or what they’re doing, he added.
Chris Lea recalls a time when a man took a swipe at him. The Hart House facility manager was telling a man who was “cracked up”—Lea noted his bloodshot eyes—that he had to leave. The rare case did not turn Lea off the view, shared by other building managers on campus, to approach homeless people with a laissez-faire attitude.
“If something terrible happened in our life, we could end up on the street. You don’t want to treat them badly,” said Lea.
“Our general policy is that people who are homeless are not necessarily bad people, they can be homeless for lots of different reasons.” Usually it is when a person is “smelling really bad” or “snoring really loudly” and thus upsetting a student that they have crossed the line and are asked by staff to leave. Though staff at Hart House have instructions from Lea to call campus police if someone is being belligerent, the university itself doesn’t have a clear outline on how to deal with the homeless—unlike other intuitions, Lea points out.
Seattle’s new Central Library, for example, boasts a security detail to patrol the facility for rule-breakers— such as those who wash their clothes in the sinks—and hand out cards informing patrons who give off an odour where they can find public hygiene facilities to grab a shower. After receiving a few complaints on the issue of “non-students” using Hart House, the house’s new Warden, Louise Cowin, says she has begun to think about the issue, but hasn’t reached any conclusions yet.
Nearly 10 years ago, Margaret Hancock, the previous Warden of Hart House, released a report on the role U of T could have in helping the homeless. The report was spurred on during a time when the growth in the ranks of homeless grew “visibly” in and around campus. The growth was attributable, Harris-era Progressive Conservative government. A push by students for a shelter on campus was rejected in Hancock’s report, owing to the large amount of resources that would be needed if it were to be well-run.
“You can imagine how people would get there, you’re seeing all these folks on the streets, it’s a horrible thing…people are thinking there’s all these empty buildings, why can’t we just open them up and let people sleep there?” said Hancock, who added that the university’s role lies elsewhere.
“I think that the university is the place where people think about these things, they do research on them. They’re influential with policy makers like government, for example, and governments need academics and students to study these things and to speak out about them.”
