Calling all Allies!

Members and supporters of OCAP have just opened the vacant building at 230 Sherbourne and are camping out in the adjoining lot.
 

Come down to support: We will be occupying this space for the next 16 hours, and then going to City Hall at 10AM to demand that this property be expropriated immediately for social housing and services for the poor.

Where: Dundas and Sherbourne
Bring: Food, tents, blankets, and friends.
 

Why: 230 Sherbourne: This building has a significant space and history in the neighborhood. Since after WWI this property has operated as a rooming house until it was shut down in 2008 and left empty all these years. 230 Sherbourne is in the heart of the Downtown East right at the corner of Dundas/Sherbourne – keeping this space in the hands of the community would be a victory against the onslaught of gentrification. 

 

In 1985, Drina Joubert, a 41 year old homeless woman froze to death in a truck at the back of this building and it would be only fitting for her memory to be honoured by the creation of affordable housing and services on this site to take place in her name. Join us in building Drina’s House, and in Taking Back the Downtown East.   Come down to support, sign the statement below, join us in the ongoing campaign.

 

On December 17, 1985  Drina Joubert, a 41 year old homeless woman was found dead at the back of 230 Sherbourne Street.  She was one of hundreds whose lives have been taken by homelessness and poverty.  The building where she died was a rooming house as far back as the First World War and generations of poor people have called it home.  For the last several years, it has stood empty as have many other such buildings in this area and through-out the City.  While homeless shelters overflow and a housing crisis threatens to put ever more people on the streets, property owners board up buildings that could and should be housing people in need while they wait for an offer from a condo developer.

Cities in Ontario have the power to expropriate property and Toronto has previously used it to take back a neglected property at 1495 Queen Street West, which was opened as Edmund Place in 2011. We are calling on the City of Toronto to expropriate 230 Sherbourne and the adjoining properties at 226 and 224 and to ensure that this space provide housing and services for poor people in this neighbourhood.  Furthermore, it would be only fitting to name such a project on this site after the memory of one woman for whom housing came too late, Drina Joubert.

*Sign on to this Statement today as an individual, organization or social agency to demand for the expropriation of 230 Sherbourne. Email: ocap@tao.ca or call 416-925-6939

 

Email: nooneisillegal@riseup.net
Web: http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org

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No One Is Illegal-Toronto is an all volunteer grassroots migrant justice organization that fights for livelihood, food, education, healthcare, childcare, shelter, accessible services, freedom of movement, justice and dignity for all people, particularly undocumented and migrant worker communities in Toronto. We also act in solidarity with Indigenous movements for self-determination and organize against wars, economic and environmental attacks that push people out of their homes in the first place.