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[Hartley]

Police evict man living under Gardiner
Activist has refused offer of an apartment in the past
Aug. 23, 2006. 04:44 PM
STAFF REPORTER


A man who has made his home underneath the Gardiner Expressway for the last eight years was removed by police this morning after he rejected an order to leave.
The occupant, a street person who became known as Chris "Gardiner" after the roadway that ran above him, was taken out of the enclosure after a brief standoff between police and protesters supporting his right to stay.

The city ordered Chris out in order to make way for repairs on the highway overhead.

Outreach workers with the city's Streets into Homes project showed up early this morning around 7 a.m. to try to convince the six people to move into subsidized housing.

The protesters initially refused to leave. After briefly locking themselves behind a chain link fence, several people were escorted out by police without incident.

Chris and three of his roommates were taken to 14 Division, where police said charges of trespassing could be laid.

About 30 people showed up to protest the eviction.

"This was like a second home for me," said Ryan Gazen, who's lived in Chris' shack off and on over the past few years. "I don't understand why people can't live the way they want to live, especially if they're keeping the peace."

Friends and well-wishers said they couldn't understand why Chris had been targeted. They described him as a law-abiding citizen who chose to live on the streets but stayed out of people's way.

Chris has said he does not recognize the right of landlords to charge rent.

People described his three-room shack, which included a couch, a propane-powered stove, a TV, a light bulb running off batteries and even a kitchen sink, as a place where other homeless people were always welcome.

"I remember he would cook Christmas dinner for all the people who get a little depressed that time of year," said Shawn Simpson, who was evicted with Chris this morning but not taken into custody.

"But see behind there, the condos being built? Nobody in there wants to look at this," Simpson said, pointing to the chainlink fence surrounding Chris' home, deftly hidden with wooden branches.

Iain De Jong, a worker with the city's Streets into Homes program said the eviction had nothing to do with the condominiums.

He said the city has been trying to get homeless people living under the Gardiner to move before re-construction of the underside of the highway gets started. Several people have been escorted away from a makeshift house under Toronto's Gardiner Expressway that a man has called home for eight years.


City officials have warned Chris, who sometimes uses the last name "Gardiner," that his home would need to be demolished to make room for repair work on the expressway.

About 30 members of an anti-poverty group showed up at the scene this morning to support Chris's efforts to remain in the home he erected out of scrap wood.

The protesters, from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, argue that Chris should not be forced to leave his home, regardless of its appearance.

Many protesters were escorted from the area by police officers.

Chris has refused an apartment and various support services offered by the city, saying he does not recognize the right of landlords to charge rent.

[jag]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Hartley

Chris has refused an apartment and various support services offered by the city, saying he does not recognize the right of landlords to charge rent.</end quote></div>

obviously had nails for breakfast....

[leoj2002]

if the man wants to live off the land..send him up yonge st. 4 or 5 hours, lots of room to setup for him[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

[count zero]

I have a lot of sympathy for people like this guy. I'd rather live under the freeway than in some ticky-tack condo too. Guessing his house was not all that bad.

Met a lot of this kind of person when helping a photographer friend with a project a few years back. Saw a lot of homemade structures that were as clean and carefully tended as regular houses. Most of the people in them were borderline mentally ill, but could function if they didn't have to deal with people. Maybe not pillars of society, but not deserving of scorn, IMO.

[jag]

it's not funny; but painful, to look back when we didn't have a problem with turning out the mentally ill; guess it's just progress... my fondest memories were hanging out at the elipse and you would never see a homeless person; BAM... now every grate has one... for those short in the tooth; i would be speaking about pre-trickle-down days... my apologies if i have offended anyone...