Tomorrow: Researchers Launch FactcheckToronto.ca to Combat City of Toronto Misinformation on Housing and Homelessness
Frustrated with ongoing misinformation presented by the City of Toronto, two homelessness and housing researchers/advocates started the website FactcheckToronto.ca, which will go live at 5 am tomorrow, to hold the City accountable.
“The City has started weaponizing so-called ‘facts’ against public efforts to ensure that Torontonians without access to housing are able to survive the winter. This aggressive misinformation campaign is an attempt to neutralize the charges of homelessness advocates who have been working diligently through the pandemic to help people without housing survive. This is a life and death situation and instead of listening to advocates and encampment residents, the City is responding with propaganda. These people are experts in their own right, and this attempt by the City to undermine their credibility so as to avoid accountability is deeply upsetting. It’s hard to correct “official sources” because of the huge power imbalance; this is our attempt to address that,” says Melissa Goldstein, FactcheckToronto.ca founder and housing advocate.
“For years, there have been ongoing disputes between City officials and community members about what is true,” says Dr. A.J. Withers, FactcheckToronto.ca founder. “This site shows, often using the City’s own data, that the City is misleading the public.”
Among FactcheckToronto.ca’s more egregious findings: Contrary to the City’s claim that this year’s emergency shelter system and winter services plan for people experiencing homelessness “offers more space than any other previous year,” the City’s plan actually cuts the number of spaces available to people in need of shelter by 15% from what was available last winter.
Toronto is facing an eviction crisis in the middle of a pandemic at a time when there are already hundreds of people without housing living outside because they can’t access safer options. Ensuring everyone has access to safe shelter is more critical than ever. And yet, the City of Toronto is only planning to add 620 spaces this winter, bringing total capacity up to 6,752 people–1,158 fewer spaces than last year when maximum shelter capacity was 7,910 people.
The two founders and authors, in consultation with a variety of community consultants, began working on FactcheckToronto.ca just a few weeks ago. “It started with a news release the City issued on December 3rd, 2020. It was obviously a direct response to the advocacy efforts of the previous few days. It felt like the City was gaslighting us. It made people livid and there was no obvious way to challenge it. So we put together a shared document where people could start to rebut all the release’s falsehoods, half-truths, and misleading statements,” says Goldstein. “Shortly thereafter, the idea of FactcheckToronto.ca as both a public challenge and a public resource emerged” adds Withers.