Toronto’s 1950s emergency housing: An informative, comprehensive overview by Kevin Brushett (2007)
I’ve added this photo as a way to help position, in my mind, the 1950s as it played out in Toronto. The image is from @thebentway, whose Fab. 2, 2017 tweet reads: This 1950s photo shows the last tenants of the space under the Gardiner Expressway. The Bentway is ready to be the next.
*
Where will the people go?
At a previous post, I’ve shared a PDF link for a paper entitled: “Where will the people go: Toronto’s Emergency Housing Program and the Limits of Canadian Social Housing Policy, 1944-1957 (2007).”
This is a valuable paper. I’ve learned a tremendous amount from its overview of the history of Toronto-area postwar emergency housing.
You can access the paper at the above-noted link. The question mark in “Where will the people go?” is omitted in the title of the paper; I’ve copied the title as it is. Actually, from my perspective, the lack of a question mark works fine.
In this post, I’ve condensed the paper, in order to ensure that site visitors can readily acquaint themselves with its key contents.
You can access the PDF link to the article here
To read the original paper, by Kevin Brushett of the Royal Military College of Canada, please click on this link for the PDF version of it.
Radial bridge over Highway 2 (now Lake Shore Blvd. West) approximately 1927. In the background is Etobicoke Creek. To the west of the creek still further in the background of the photo, is the land on which the Small Arms Ltd. munitions plant was located during the Second World War. Photo © Durance family and Robert Lansdale. Click on photo to enlarge it; click again to enlarge it further.
In my condensed overview, I’ve occasionally added comments of my own. For example, I’ve noted that the Long Branch emergency housing, which is discussed in the article, was located west of the Village of Long Branch, not east of it as the paper asserts (p. 381).
At the end of this post, I’ve included a sampling of the bibliographical notes for the paper.
A previous post about postwar emergency housing is entitled:
Ted Long shares photos from the Long Branch army camp in the 1950s; with comments from Garry Burke
Related topics include military history, the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, and the history of the Second World War.
Fifth Canadian Div-Perth Regiment & Lord Strathcona Horse tanks reach the Zuider Zee; civilians greet them, Harderwijk, Netherlands. 19 April 1945
Source (from about Feb. 2, 2017): @CanadasMilHist
pic.twitter.com/pUqm7bsRXP Click on the photo to enlarge it.
Association of Women Electors: Brief presented in 1954
The paper begins with an excerpt from an Oct. 12, 1954 brief, to the Board of Control and City Council (Toronto), from the Association of Women Electors (AWE).
The brief refers to families that are “unable to find decent housing because of low income, unemployment, number of children, disability or illness.”
“There is no justification,” the association asserts, “for further waste of public money on outworn army barracks that have become hovels conducive to every form of mental and moral degradation.”
The brief adds that the wartime emergency shelters were not necessarily the worst housing in Toronto. Even more residents, elsewhere in the city, experienced housing conditions “characterized by doubling up, overcrowding, substandard accommodation, and rents beyond their means to pay.”
The photo is from an April 5, 2017 tweet from the Archives of Ontario @ArchivesOntario:
“Elsie MacGill was Canada’s first female engineer. She led the production of Hawker Hurricane fighter planes during #WWII.” Click on the image to enlarge it.
Toronto’s emergency shelters were intended, according to the article, as a temporary solution to wartime housing shortages.
By 1954, however, they had become “the city’s ‘other’ public housing program, accommodating more than 450 families and nearly fifteen hundred children.” For a decade, many groups had appeared before city councillors, “to tell them to clean them up or close them down.”
The other public housing program, that the previous sentence refers to, is probably the Regent Park housing development.
Shelter program lasted until September 1958
The last family moved out from the wartime shelters (to be specific, the Long Branch shelters) on Sept. 1, 1958, but the problem of where people were going to go had not been solved, given that “more than a thousand Toronto families were effectively homeless during the 1950s.”
Brushett adds that “former army barracks housed more than five thousand people well into the early 1950s.”
The paper refers, as well, to emergency shelters in other Canadian cities including Vancouver, Halifax, and Quebec City.
History of Regent Park has been explored at previous posts at the Preserved Stories website
Toronto was the birthplace of Regent Park, which was set up in 1949. The paper describes Regent Park as “Canada’s first slum-clearance public housing project.”
The reference to a “first” brings to mind a reference to Regent Park in another study, namely Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History (2006). It’s noted (p. 228), in the latter study, that the redevelopment of Regent Park “became the country’s first large-scale social housing program since Halifax’s Hydrostone project after the First World War.”
That is to say, when we speak of “firsts,” it’s good to keep in mind that what is first is often a matter of definition. For information regarding the Hydrostone development, a good resource is a CBC Digital Archives article entitled: “Halifax rebuilding after the explosion.”
I have explored the history of Regent Park in previous posts including:
Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto
Construction of new housing was slow in Toronto given a lack of land for building, and the inability of suburban municipalities to pay for servicing new housing developments, until the formation of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto in 1953.
[To round out the discussion, we can add that, on Jan. 2, 1998, 19 years ago as of today’s date, the six previous municipalities that made up Metro Toronto – Etobicoke, Scarborough, York, East York, North York, and the City of Toronto – were amalgamated into a new singular City of Toronto, as a Jan. 1, 2017 Toronto Star article notes.]
Provincial and federal governments were reluctant, Brushett notes, to develop a significant social-housing program, instead preferring private solutions.
In addition, there were disputes between Toronto and the outlying municipalities where most of the housing projects were located:
“Suburban mayors demanded that the projects close, not only because these projects occupied valuable land awaiting development but also because of the additional costs the residents of the projects placed on lean municipal budgets. Suburban residents and officials refused to be burdened by Toronto’s poor and disadvantaged.”
Dominion Housing Act (1935)
Canada gave minimal state support for social housing during the interwar years, as compared to other Allied countries, according to the paper. Instead, governments were strongly committed to the private market to remedy housing shortages.
“Canada’s first housing act, the Dominion Housing Act (1935),” Brushett observes, “reflected this philosophy by working with financial institutions to reduce down payments on new houses and to amortize mortgages over longer terms.”
With financial institutions reluctant to lend during the Depression, few houses were built. Low-cost housing was not a significant feature of the Dominion Housing Act, given that the private sector was unwilling to build or finance it. With the approach of war, furthermore, the federal government curtailed the building of houses, in order to avoid diversion of labour and materials from the war effort.
Ajax (east of Scarborough), 1951. Most of the housing shown here was built during the Second World War by Wartime Housing Limited. Source: Ontario Archives. The photo is featured in an Urban History Review 1986 article by Jill Wade entitled: “Wartime Housing Limited, 1941-1947: Canadian Housing Policy at the Crossroads.”
Wartime Housing Limited
As a consequence, the government body known as Wartime Housing Limited (later CMHC) was set up in February 1941, in order to alleviate the significant housing shortage that existed at the time.
Click here for additional background about Wartime Housing Limited.
[A 1986 Urban History Review article by Jill Wade is entitled: “Wartime Housing Limited, 1941-1947: Canadian Housing Policy at the Crossroads.” ]
Emergency Shelter Administration (1944)
Social-service organizations in the city noted that the housing shortage was responsible for the “breakdown of the family and of individual dignity.”
“Unable to cope with life in single rooms and basements,” the paper notes, “many families left children with relatives or turned them over to foster homes until they could find suitable housing.”
Public Notice on Housing Shortage
July 29, 1944
City of Toronto Archives
Series 361, Subseries 1, File 566. The image is from a City of Toronto webpage entitled; “Your Home Our City: Wartime Housing.”
In December 1944, the federal government had set up the Emergency Shelter Administration (ESA) to address the acute shortage of housing across Canada. All cities were assigned administrators to address the shortages, but the supply of accommodations remained restricted. As a consequence, the ESA restricted people from moving to Canada’s major cities without prior authorization.
National Housing Act (1944)
Federal officials estimated 15,000 to 20,000 eviction notices would be given, in cities across Canada, nearly half of them in Toronto, before the fall of 1944. At least 60 percent of the evictions would affect families of servicemen still overseas. Citizen and veterans groups began to block evictions and called for veterans and public housing projects. In response, authorities froze all evictions in July 1945.
I’ve added this photo as a way to position Toronto in the two or three years after 1945 in my mind. It’s from a @TOhistoricsites tweet, which reads: 1945 at @ZionSchoolhouse Mr. Herdman, School Superintendent, is the distinguished gentleman in the suit and tie #TOhistory #TBT. [End]. Click on image to enlarge it; click again to enlarge it further. [A comment from Joanne (please see below) notes that the photo more likely dates from two or three years after 1945.]
Given the ongoing shortage, veterans had begun to occupy abandoned buildings and barracks. In August 1945, the Emergency Shelter Administration sought out surplus army barracks and staff houses, which could be transferred to municipalities to create temporary shelter.
The federal-municipal partnership was pursued enthusiastically in Toronto, Halifax, and Vancouver but with less enthusiasm in Montreal and Quebec City. In Toronto, more than 1,600 units of emergency housing were found and converted.
Camp Little Norway, Toronto, ca. 1940.
from Jon Tvedte: Flyvningen. Det moderne eventyr (Oslo, 1958)
Image courtesy Wikipedia.org: Little Norway
The shelters were deemed a refuge of last resort. A family had to be homeless, or about to be, in order to qualify. The official CMHC policy was that the shelters were to provide minimal housing needs but not “all the comforts of home.” The expectation was that people would make it a priority to seek out housing on the private market.
Workers at the Victory Aircraft Plant in Malton, celebrating the roll out of KB799, the one hundredth Canadian built Lancaster. Source: The Canadian Lancasters webpage.
Only $1,000 per unit was allocated for conversion, and the municipalities had to cover the administrative costs. “At best,” Brushett notes, “the projects provided four walls and a roof. Families were herded together, isolated from the larger community, and provided with few recreational facilities for their children.” The conditions were associated, the paper notes, with marriage breakdown among other effects.
Emergency housing in pre-Amalgamation City of Toronto
In Toronto, the first property in this category, acquired in 1944, was known as Little Norway, because the facility had been used in wartime to house and train Norwegian airmen.
Toronto also acquired Stanley Barracks, on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition.
The barracks were first built in 1841 to house British solders, and later to house soldiers before they went overseas.
[An article by Carl Benn in the Fall 1996 issue of Material Culture Review, entitled “British Army Officer Housing in Upper Canada, 1784-1841,” provides background related to the Stanley Barracks.]
Emergency shelters outside pre-Amalgamation City of Toronto
Three other facilities were located in areas outside of Toronto, including staff houses built for war workers at Victory Aircraft in Malton.
Factory worker posed with finished Sten sub-machinegun, Small Arms Plant, Long Branch, Ontario, Canada, 26 May 1942
Photographer: Nicholas Morant
Source: ww2dbaseLibrary and Archives Canada,
Identification Code WRM-1929
Just beyond the western edge of Toronto was the Small Arms Ltd. munitions plant in what is now Lakeview in Mississauga. The paper describes the plant, [originally known as the Small Arms Factory,] as “just east of the village [lowercase] of Long Branch.” In fact, it was just west of the Village [uppercase] of Long Branch, in what was then called Toronto Township.
[An interesting feature of the Long Branch emergency housing facility is that the housing did not, in fact, have a direct, geographical connection to the historic Village of Long Branch.
[As was the case with the Long Branch Rifle Ranges and the Long Branch Aerodrome, the Long Branch Barracks and Staff House were in fact located in Toronto Township, a community that existed to the west of Long Branch. Toronto Township is now called Mississauga; the rifle ranges, aerodrome, and emergency-housing buildings were never located inside the boundaries of Long Branch.
Corporate logo of the Village of Long Branch (Toronto not New Jersey). Source: Long Branch Historical Society archives
[At a previous post about the history of Long Branch, I’ve discussed how it came about that the name “Long Branch” came to be named for facilities outside of the Village of Long Branch.
[It may be noted that “Long Branch” is an appealing name – it involves visual imagery that appeals to people: One can picture a river; it has two branches; one is the short branch, the other is the long branch of the river.]
Click here to access a PDF resource at mississauga.ca with background about Small Arms Ltd. >
Click here to access a Toronto Transit overview about the wartime Small Arms streetcar loop >
A third location for emergency housing was at the General Engineering Co. (GECO) munitions plant in Scarborough, in buildings that were only intended to last the duration of the Second World War.
“Since the latter three projects housed Torontonians outside the city limits,” the paper notes, “the city had to pay any education, health, and welfare costs to the suburban municipalities.”
Upwards of 1,000 families lived in the five former military installations
More than 1,000 families, of the nearly 1,500 families housed by the emergency programs, lived at the five above-noted former military installations.
Work takes place at the General Engineering Company Canada Ltd. (GECO) munitions plant in Scarborough during the Second World War. Source: Nov. 7, 2016 insidetoronto.ca article entitled: Scarborough’s Bomb Girls helped win Second World War.
The housing gave rise to complaints of overcrowding. In some cases, 10 to 12 family members occupied a three-bedroom unit. Walls were thin and often did not reach the ceiling. There were communal bathrooms and showers. Rats and cockroaches abounded. Recreational and school facilities, constructed for wartime workers, had been dismantled.
“Stagnant water on the grounds of the camps and damp apartments,” Brushett notes, “led to various health problems including an outbreak of polio at Stanley Barracks in the summer of 1947. As part of its response to the out-break, the city erected a twelve-foot-high fence topped with barbed wire to quarantine residents from the fair goers during the annual three-week Canadian National Exhibition.”
He adds that “residents, many of them veterans, did not appreciate the concentration camp-like conditions.”
The rents were low at about $30 a month [about $420 in 2016 dollars, according to a calculation at Bank of Canada – Inflation Calculator] but transportation and food costs could be high.
Only a small percentage of the residents were “on relief.” Many residents in Malton had jobs in aircraft manufacturing.
Veterans who lived in emergency shelters noted that the setting was reminiscent of army life. “The enemy was defeated,” one veteran noted. “We were welcomed home, but many of us were forced back to wartime shelters.”
In the summer of 1947, tenants at the shelters began to form tenant councils.
Royal Canadian Dragoons leaving Stanley Barracks through the arch, c 1925 (courtesy City of Toronto Archives/Fonds 1266, Item 4985). The photo is from a citiesintime.ca webpage entitled: Stanley Barracks: Toronto’s Last Fort.
“The movement began,” the paper notes, “among resident veterans at Stanley Barracks who threatened a protest during the CNE unless the city cleaned up the conditions at the camp that had led to the out-break of polio. Encouraged by their initial success, tenant organizations from the other camps headed to City Hall to protest both the poor living conditions and the lack of recreational facilities for their children.”
Despite the protests, progress in repairs and cleanup did not follow.
Citizens’ Emergency Housing Council (1947)
In 1947, after the city proposed to raise rents by 25 percent, tenants at the camps formed the Citizens’ Emergency Housing Council.
The council demanded adequate recreational facilities, a 20-percent rent reduction, and prevention of evictions unless alternative accommodations were available. In 1948, rent strikes followed. The city tried to evict those in arrears, but the size of the protest and lack of alternative accommodations thwarted the effort.
H.V. Locke Realty takes over management of emergency housing (1949)
In 1949 the city, which had had incurred large deficits in running the shelters, withdrew from the emergency housing business.
“Many on the city council,” the paper notes, “believed that the city was doing these families a favor in providing them with cheap emergency shelter. Those who complained were labeled as ‘agitators,’ ‘troublemakers,’ and ‘reds.’ ”
The city received four bids to transfer management of the emergency housing program to a private firm. The winning bidder, H.V. Locke Realty, proposed that the city would make an estimate of its emergency shelter operating expenses for 1949, and that the private firm’s fee would be based on a 75-percent portion of any savings that would be realized on the expenses. The resulting agreement, the paper notes, was “controversial from the outset.”
Media coverage
Brushett describes the second decade of Toronto’s emergency housing program as the “dump estate” phase of the program’s history.
“Although the shelters continued to house some veterans,” the paper notes, “they soon became the last refuge for the ‘hard to house,’ large families, families on relief, female-led families, and ‘multiproblem’ families, or in other words, those deemed ‘unfit’ for public housing.”
The camps became stigmatized as “city-owned slums,” and the residents became stigmatized as “slum dwellers.”
“Media coverage helped to dramatize the situation and reinforce a ‘moral panic’ through the creation of sensational and often distorted stereotypes of residents. More important, the concentration of such families in these run-down cramped barracks produced nightmarish conditions for the residents and mocked the ideals of state assisted housing as a social service that could help families get back on their feet.”
Many people believed that families at the shelters were taking advantage of the cheap rents.
National housing boom in place by 1949
Toronto did not initially participate in the national housing boom that was in place by 1949.
The number of new dwellings built in Metropolitan Toronto between 1947 and 1954, the paper notes, represented only one-tenth of its population growth.
Toronto and its inner suburbs lacked room to build, while the outer suburbs (North York, Etobicoke, and Scarborough) had space but lacked service land, a challenge that played a key role in the founding of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto in 1953.
In 1956, according to the CMHC, Toronto’s housing shortage was no better than it was in 1945, and overcrowding remained a major issue, in comparison with other Canadian cities.
Rising house prices and and difficulties with financing also remained a barrier for many families. In 1956, a suburban house in Toronto cost about $10,000, with new homes selling for $15,000 to $18,000 [in value that in 2016 would be about $131,900 to $158,300 – Source: Inflation Calculator – Bank of Canada].
Income required for a National Housing Act mortgage was $3,600 [$32,700 in 2016 dollars]. Average Toronto income was $3,120 [$27,440 in 2016 dollars].
“Previous strategies,” the paper notes, “of owner building in the suburbs – prevalent and popular in Toronto in the first half of the century, as historical geographer Richard Harris has shown – were largely closed down after the war because of more stringent building standards established by suburban municipalities and CMHC.”
Redlining of unserviced suburban land
The paper also notes that mortgage lenders redlined – [that is, refused mortgages within specific geographical areas] – unserviced suburban land, making it difficult to get NHA financing until the late 1950s, when services the outer suburbs were installed.
Brushett notes that the Veterans Land Act, which put home ownership within the reach of limited-income families, “had an antiurban bias that initially limited its use for veterans who lived and worked in or near urban centers.”
Home ownership, despite the barriers, went from 40 percent in 1941 to over 60 percent in 1951. In Scarborough, site of the GECO project, homes were reportedly available for as low as $1,200 down, with monthly payments of $48 to $55 a month.
Of the 827 families at the camps in August 1952, only one-quarter relied on some form of government assistance. Some government reports noted many families at the camps owned more than $3,600 annually, including a few earning over $6,000 [$54,640 in 2016 dollars]. Given these statistics, some councillors believed tenants were unable to move into private housing because they were mismanaging their resources.
Brushett notes, however, that a majority of shelter families earned combined incomes that were too low to make them eligible for NHA-backed mortgages. As well, more than two-thirds of the families had at least five members and another quarter had more than seven members.
Rent-geared-to-income policy
In addition, a rent-geared-to-income policy, set up in 1954 (with provisions for family size), made it difficult for families to save for a down payment.
A 1952 survey of working families in the shelters in the shelters indicated over 70 percent wanted to become homeowners. However, only a minority believed they could come up with the down payment.
At the Malton camp, early in 1952, the aircraft manufacturer A.V. Roe bought the land on which the camp was located, in order to expand its production during the Korean War.
The company was concerned that a fire at the camp would disrupt employment, and thus hinder defence production. The tenants asked for a delay so they could explore formation of a co-operative to build prefabricated houses on nearby farmland. However, CMHC refused mortgage support, because it would not meet the CMHC’s building regulations, and, according to the paper, because CMHC “frowned on co-ops.”
The paper argues that local politicians had ingrained stereotypes about the “undeserving poor” and were ignorant of the barriers low-income families faced in finding housing.
Doors to private rentals were also closed, Brushett adds. In 1947, CMHC had recognized that rental housing was the most pressing need in Canadian cities, but did little to encourage private builders to enter the rental market. A shortage of apartment buildings led to rising rents. In the mid-1950s, a six-room house rented for $125 a month plus services; a five-bedroom apartment rented for $90 a month.
Hard to close the camps
Many landlords refused to rent to families with children. Low-income families consequently had “to accept high rents for substandard and cramped accommodations.”
For families on relief, 70 percent of budgets went to housing costs. For families not on relief, rents consumed 40 percent of monthly budgets.
For these reasons, it was hard to close the camps. To close some of them, such as the Stanley Barracks and Malton Staff House, tenants were moved from one housing project to another, while the city’s welfare department continued to place evicted families in the emergency shelters, given a lack of other options.
Local politicians, welfare workers, and social-housing activists argued, in the circumstances, that the solution would be the building of more public housing, such as Regent Park.
The paper notes, however, that although amendments in 1949 to the National Housing Act allowed the federal government to subsidize the operating losses of public housing, “other changes to the act were primarily responsible for ensuring that CMHC would be subsidizing as few units as possible.”
The amendments, Brushett adds, “virtually ensured that the housing market would remain in private hands.”
These views of Regent Park, showing the re-introduction of local street patterns, are from the Regent Park Revitalization Study (2002) A previous post, entitled History of Regent Park, outlines the relation between Regent Park, as originally designed, and the “modern movement” in architecture.
The units that were added in the Regent Park South and and suburban Lawrence Heights projects had minimal impact on the waiting list for public housing.
Among those with a hostile attitude toward public housing, the paper notes, were Ontario Premier Leslie Frost, Metropolitan Toronto Chairman Frederick Gardiner, and suburban mayors.
The paper also refers to an “unwritten rule that the number of welfare recipients admitted to the city’s public housing projects should be no more than 20 percent.”
The camps were used, Brushett adds, to keep certain families away from public housing, and “were also isolated in the least desirable units or locations within the camps.”
Conditions for other families, aside from the “problem” families, also deteriorated under the management of H.V. Locke Realty. The company saved money by curtailing maintenance, a strategy that coincided with the city’s lack of reinforcement of relevant health and building bylaws.
Condemnation of emergency housing projects by social reform groups
Between June and October 1959, social reform groups submitted reports condemning the projects as “city-owned slums” and a “public disgrace.”
The groups included the Community Planning Association, the Association of Women Electors, and the Welfare Committee of Peel County, which pointed to an increase in demoralization, break-ups, and deterioration in mental health.
The groups noted that in a decade, conditions had deteriorated despite the spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“The two largest camps, GECO and Long Branch,” the paper notes, were filthy, verminous, dangerously rundown, and seriously overcrowded. One of the huts at Long Branch, which had been claimed by fire, remained half demolished, while another building that had been condemned by local health officials still housed families. Although officials remarked that the conditions inside many the apartments bore little resemblance to the filth they found outside and in the communal areas, they were still grossly overcrowded; at times as many as eight children lived in two rooms with their parents.”
Many observers noted that “in spite of the conditions, the residents, especially the children, were clean, healthy, and well behaved.”
“Officials of the Greater Toronto Investment Corporation,” the paper adds, “which assumed control of the GECO properties on their closing, remarked that the residents were ‘far from the dirty, delinquent . . . very bad lot’ that they had been made out to be in the newspapers.”
That said, many commentators scorned the residents, Brushett notes:
“A report by Peel County social welfare workers on Long Branch camp tenants commented that ‘many residents lacked self-respect, honesty, respect for the rights of others, regard for law and the principles of good citizenship.’ ”
There were also comments regarding children.
“Although reminiscences of children who grew up in them sometimes recalled a great life of adventure,” the paper notes, “the camps did not provide safe or appropriate places to play. One child drowned at the Little Norway camp, while another couple of children had been killed or injured by explosives while wandering on the neighboring Long Branch rifle ranges formerly used for grenade practice. Most attention was paid to the problems of teenaged children.
“According to police and social workers, gangs of teenagers roamed the camps, vandalizing the property, tearing out screens, and painting graffiti on walls in the bathrooms and corridors. Others turned to petty, and in the case of an elaborate bicycle-stealing operation at the Long Branch camp, not so petty crime.
“Scores of teenagers had been hauled before the authorities in recent years, while dozens of others reported regularly to police or juvenile court officials. Skirmishes between gangs from the different projects were a regular enough occurrence that area police forces organized ‘flying squads’ to cope with the situation. Teenagers also reportedly consumed alcohol given to them by their parents.”
“Second only to concerns of juvenile delinquency,” the paper adds, “was the concern for the sexual morals of children. The lack of privacy both within the apartments and especially in the dark communal hallways and washrooms was most disturbing. Walls in the camp were paper-thin and often did not extend to the ceilings.”
There was also concern about “overcrowded units, which did not permit separate sleeping areas for girls and boys.”
Re-evaluation of the emergency shelter program
In time, the city re-evaluated its decision to pass the management of the emergency housing program to H.V. Locke Realty. In 1956, the Toronto Housing Authority assumed control over the Long Branch Staff House, Little Norway, and 166 temporary houses across the city. It also took responsibility for finding 424 families more permanent housing.
The Toronto Housing Authority reportedly tried to hide the existence of the shelters when it assumed management of them.
To help some of the families, the city developed an experimental rehabilitation program, seeking to house the families in city-owned housing Wartime Housing, away from the shelters. However, the Wartime Housing dwellings were not permanent destinations, as they did not meet the city’s building code.
A pilot project featured a duplex, built to be “fireproof, vermin-proof, and indestructible,” in a middle-class neighbourhood. The better housing would feature regular visits by social workers, who would engage in a form of “moral instruction.”
The last family left the Long Branch camp on Sept. 1, 1958.
In its conclusion, the paper notes that Toronto spoke of the need to ensure decent housing for all, but the need was not met. The senior levels of the Canadian state, the paper observes, were reluctant “to assume the responsibility for housing low-income Canadians.”
“The number of social-housing units in Canada is tiny,” the paper adds, “representing less than 5 percent of the total housing stock, much of it built in a brief flurry between 1964 and 1974. Before the 1960s, social housing in Canada was negligible at best, insignificant at worst.”
The 2007 paper concludes that the City of Toronto “reaps the seeds of Canada’s late and feeble entry into the field of social housing,” and that homelessness remains “the most visible failure of Canadian housing policies.”
Bibliographical notes: Following excerpt is a direct quotation from the end of the 2007 paper by Kevin Brushett
A person who’s keen about biographical notes can readily consult the online PDF of the 2007 paper.
Below are listed the first five, out of a total of 60 notes, from the paper.
[I have added links, to this sample of references.]
1. City of Toronto Archives (hereafter CTA), Brief to the Board of Control and City Council, October 12, 1954, Re: Emergency Housing Shelters, Papers of the Association of Women Electors (hereafter AWE Papers), SC 8, Box 7, File 2.
2. See Doug Owram, Born at the Right Time: A History of the Baby Boom Generation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996); and John R. Miron, Housing in Postwar Canada: Demographic Change, Household Formation, and Housing Demand (Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1988). For a more critical appraisal of suburban development in the 1950s, see S. D. Clark, The Suburban Society (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966); and more recently, Richard Harris, Creeping Conformity: How Canada Became Suburban, 1900-1960 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004).
3. According to Jack Layton, a search of newspapers from the 1960s to the early 1980s reveals not one reference to homelessness. Jack Layton, Homelessness: The Making and Unmaking of a Crisis (Toronto: Penguin, 2000), 3.
[A 2008 edition of the book is also available.]
4. See J. Bacher and D. Hulchanski, “Keeping Warm and Dry: The Policy Response to the Struggle for Shelter among Canada’s Homeless, 1900-1960,” Urban History Review, 16 (1987) 147-63; J. Bacher, Keeping to the Marketplace: The Evolution of Canadian Housing Policy (Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1993); Jill Wade, Houses for All: The Struggle for Social Housing in Vancouver, 1919–1950 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1994); and Chantal Charron, “La Crise du Logement à Québec et le Village des ‘Cove Fields’: Ghettoïsation de la Misère et Stratégies de Survie sur les Plaines D’Abraham (1945-1951)” (master’s thesis, Université de Québec à Montréal, January 2004).
5. The most accepted definition of homelessness embodies not only those without a physical place of shelter but also those whose shelter is impermanent, temporary, or unstable, is generally not intended for permanent residential occupancy, or cannot fulfill the essential functions of shelter, including privacy, security, and personal control. Furthermore, most definitions also include those who are “doubled-up” with family, friends, and others involuntarily because of a lack of shelter for themselves and their family. The latter element of the definition would significantly expand the number of homeless people in Toronto during the first decade after World War II. See Layton, Homelessness, 19–35.
[End]
[The following is some additional background, which I have added to this post, highlighting the demographic changes that have occurred in the Toronto CMC (Census Metropolitan Area) since 1970. Toronto in the past had many people in the middle class. With the passage of time, the middle class has been steadily shrinking. The proportion of people living in poverty has been increasing.
The Three Cities Within Toronto (2010)
[A wide range of data visualizations Canadian cities are available online, showing demographic changes that have occurred since the Second World War, in cities across Canada. Among them is a 2010 study entitled: The Three Cities Within Toronto: Income Polarization Among Toronto’s Neighbourhoods, 1970-2005.
Source: The Three Cities Within Toronto: Income Polarization Among Toronto’s Neighbourhoods, 1970-2005 (2010). Click on the map to enlarge it.
[Links to additional studies are available at the Neighbourhood Change website at http://neighbourhoodchange.ca]
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!
A Ph.D. thesis By Kevin Brushett is entitled: “Blots on the Face of the City: The Politics of Slum Housing and Urban Renewal in Toronto, 1940-1970.”
An thesis by Leonard J. Evenden is entitled: “Wartime Housing as Cultural Landscape: National Creation and Personal Creativity.” Urban History Review / Revue d’histoire urbaine, vol. 25, n° 2, 1997, p. 41-52.
A Ph.D. thesis by thesis by Ioana Teodorescu is entitled: “Building Small Houses in Postwar Canada: Architects, Homeowners and Bureaucratic Ideals, 1947-1974”
A Jan. 7, 2016 Spacing article is entitled: “The good intentions of Toronto’s suburbs.”
Of interest as well (by a Russian Nobel-Laureate author who focuses on oral history): Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II (2017)
Also of interest: Jobs and Justice: Fighting Discrimination in Wartime Canada, 1939-1945 (2012)
A blurb reads:
Despite acute labour shortages during the Second World War, Canadian employers – with the complicity of state officials – discriminated against workers of African, Asian, and Eastern and Southern European origin, excluding them from both white collar and skilled jobs. Jobs and Justice argues that, while the war intensified hostility and suspicion toward minority workers, the urgent need for their contributions and the egalitarian rhetoric used to mobilize the war effort also created an opportunity for minority activists and their English Canadian allies to challenge discrimination.
Juxtaposing a discussion of state policy with ideas of race and citizenship in Canadian civil society, Carmela K. Patrias shows how minority activists were able to bring national attention to racist employment discrimination and obtain official condemnation of such discrimination. Extensively researched and engagingly written, Jobs and Justice offers a new perspective on the Second World War, the racist dimensions of state policy, and the origins of human rights campaigns in Canada.
[End]
An article by Jill Wade is entitled: “Wartime Housing Limited, 1941-1947: Canadian Housing Policy at the Crossroads,” Urban History Review / Revue d’histoire urbaine, vol. 15, no. 1, 1986, p. 40-59. It’s also mentioned at the post you are now reading. I mention it again, by way of bringing attention to it.
The article’s concluding paragraph reads:
In 1944-1945, the Canadian government had the opportunity of implementing the Curtis report’s major recommendation – a comprehensive, planned national housing program emphasizing low income accommodation. When it created CMHC, the government could as easily have channelled WHL’s expertise into the constitution of a national low-rental housing agency. A single federal authority could have administered and co-ordinated both agencies and initiated a comprehensive nation-wide housing plan. Instead, the government disregarded the Curtis report’s suggestion and maintained its pre-war commitment to private enterprise and home ownership. In retrospect, federal affirmation of the “market welfare” approach has restricted state activity in public and social housing and precluded the introduction of a national housing plan for forty years. Only a shift in attitude fully recognizing the social need for housing will bring about any significant change in federal policy.
[End]
I’ve also discussed postwar housing at a post entitled:
Ville St-Laurent, Quebec: Wartime housing and architectural change, 1942-92: Article by Annmarie Adams & Pieter Sijpkes (1994)
The article suggests that “architectural change is tied closely to changes in family size and structure, the availability of credit, and evolving trends in the use of building materials.”
With regard to wartime housing in Malton, a document entitled “Heritage Impact Statement on the Property at 7181 Lancaster Avenue, Mississauga (Malton Community)” is of interest.
An excerpt reads (p. 5):
Adams and Sijpkes go on to describe four basic house models erected in WHL neighbourhoods: 1) Type H1, a one-storey, 24 by 24 foot dwelling with a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen and bath; 2) the reverse of this plan; 3) Type H22, a slightly larger, 24 1⁄2 by 28-foot version of Type H1; and 4) Type H12, a one-storey, 24 by 28- foot dwelling with an additional two bedrooms in the loft enclosed by its tall roof. They include illustrations of three of the types as published in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (Fig. 14).
In Malton, in April 1942, WHL expropriated 15.75 acres along Airport Road from farmer Frederick Codlin (where he and a Toronto developer had in 1939 registered a plan of subdivision), another acre on a branch of Mimico Creek for sewage disposal, and a right- of-way and easement for a sewer between the two parcels of land (Fig. 15). In June, WHL expropriated another half-acre adjacent to the parcel for sewage disposal; and in October, it took and paid for 73.36 acres contiguous to the two parcels.
In 1951, Ontario land surveyor H.C. Sewell surveyed the small subdivision of 200 house lots on the east side of Airport Road (Fig. 16). The dashed lines on his plan, Plan 436, showed the limits and streets of the 1939 plan of subdivision that was totally ignored when Victory Village was laid out. The house lots, usually 40 feet wide and 100 feet deep, were laid out in a grid that was intersected by curving Victory Crescent. Block A, where the park and community hall are, and Block B, where the church is found, were common lands in the planned community. The street names evoked the war effort. Lancaster Avenue, for example, was named for the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, a variant of which was built at Victory Aircraft Limited in Malton. The four-engined Avro Lancaster was the main night bomber used by the Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving with the Royal Air Force. The street currently called Etude Drive was originally named Anson Avenue for the standard twin-engined training plane used in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan – the Avro Anson.
A Jan. 9, 2017 Pacific Standard article is entitled: “Why Grandpa Is Homeless:
A sagging economy, a complex job market, and a lack of social programs have led to an increase in the number of elderly people living – and dying – on the streets.”
An excerpt reads:
Cherie’s odds of securing a Section 8 were close to zero, but, as a veteran, Herb stood a fair chance. In 2010, President Barack Obama launched an initiative to end homelessness among veterans, greatly expanding funding toward that goal (with $534 million in spending from the Department of Veterans Affairs that first year, and $1.6 billion budgeted for 2017). The VA went to work implementing several research-backed solutions for getting veterans off the streets and preventing at-risk individuals from losing their homes in the first place. Part of this work involved developing analytic models for predicting who is most at risk of becoming homeless, of returning to homelessness, and of suffering adverse outcomes while homeless, and then ensuring those potential outcomes do not play out.
[End]
A Jan. 12, 2017 Science of Us article is entitled: “Why Scandinavians Care More Than Americans About Inequality.”
The opening paragraphs read:
Scandinavia is held up by American lefties as a socialist alternate reality — look at how good statecraft could be! It’s a fantasy that gains urgency when you’re reminded that one-percenters take home 18 to 19 percent of all the income in the U.S., compared with taking in 5 to 8 percent in Scandinavian countries.
Given that gap, you have to wonder why — save for an Occupy Wall Street or two — Americans are so comparatively chill about inequality. It’s a question that a team of researchers at Norwegian School of Economics — Ingvild Almås, Alexander Cappelen, and Bertil Tungodden — recently sought to answer in a cleverly designed discussion paper, highlighted by Alana Semuels at The Atlantic. The research team came to a startling and illuminating conclusion: Maybe Americans and Scandis frame fairness differently, and maybe that’s part of why the two societies are set up so differently.
[End]
An Aug. 4, 2016 Projects for Public Spaces article is entitled: “Equity and Inclusion: Getting Down to the Heart of Placemaking.”
With regard to the long-term influence of planning, or the lack of it, on many aspects of life, a Jan. 29, 2017 CBC article is entitled: “People in Peel drive when they could walk, but don’t blame car culture, planners say: Region updating transportation plan in effort to get more people out of their cars.”
With regard to planning for the future, in areas such as sustainability, my sense is that the City of Mississauga is very much on the right track.
A Feb. 10, 2017 Toronto Star article reads: “GTA builders warn of looming housing shortage: Census data reveals the community has grown 30 per cent in the last five years.”
A Feb. 10, 2017 Guardian article is entitled: “Out of the box: councils try innovative projects to provide social housing: Constrained by government and with a lack of funding, local authorities are becoming developers to tackle the homes crisis.”
By way of sharing backstories and contexts related to urban planning issues in the GTA:
A Feb. 8, 2017 CBC article is entitled: “Population of metropolitan area of Toronto outpaced national growth rate: City of Toronto population hit 2.7 million, 2016 census data shows.”
A Feb. 10, 2017 Toronto Star article is entitled: “Don Mills home sells for $1.15 million over asking: The sellers have lived in the three-bedroom home for 50 years.”
A Feb. 10, 2017 CBC article is entitled: Brampton home draws 532 showings and 82 offers: And by the way it sold for more than $200K over its asking price.”
The opening paragraph reads: “The intense competition in the GTA’s record-setting real estate market is starting to baffle even veteran realtors, who are seeing a startling amount of interest in certain properties.”
A Feb. 11, 2017 Toronto Star article is entitled: “Sheltering Toronto’s most vulnerable proves to be a struggle: Toronto’s emergency shelter system struggles to accommodate all those in need in an increasingly unaffordable city.”
It’s really valuable to read your message, Douglas. Many things to think about. I’m really pleased you contacted me some time back. I’ve been writing many posts about emergency housing as a result. Have been doing some valuable networking among people, who have a connection with emergency housing as well.
One of the interesting things about the 1950s is that kids as a rule were physically very active. We now have all manner of labour saving devices. Cars are everywhere. People tend to go by car instead of walking; in many parts of Canada, the car has taken over everything. Fortunately, there is a push-back against having the car take over everything. Speaking for myself, I try to get some walking in, every day. I also work out at a fitness place. We as human beings were meant to be active. Kids know that. But as adults, we have on occasion forgotten this basic thing about what it means to be human.
I will be posting more things at this website about emergency housing and postwar housing, and also I make a point to connect the past to the present, to the here and now. Because we only know the past from what we can see, in the present moment.
And each generation looks at the past anew, and makes sense of the past all over again, as if for the first time. Because when we look at things in the present moment, it’s like we are looking at things for the first time.
We are constantly look at things afresh. And it’s great if we have the opportunity to compare notes with each other, as we take a look at the past and at the present, and as we try to see the future as well. Although the future is a little murky. Not clear at all, until it arrives, which is happening all the time, in the present moment.
For more background related to current demographics trends, a recent post is entitled:
Urban Toronto’s Growth to Watch For Takes Stock of Toronto’s West End: Feb. 8, 2017 Urban Toronto article
It’s good to read your messages, Douglas. You discuss topics are of interest to many people. Many people think about the topics you have addressed.
I look forward to meeting you for coffee in the future, as we had discussed.
As a result of your earlier messages to me, and the resulting posts that I wrote about postwar emergency housing in the Greater Toronto Region, many people who lived in emergency housing in their childhood years have contacted me through this website.
As a result, many people have been able to reconnect with each other, in at least one case after the passage of 63 years. I will be posting additional items about emergency housing when time permits.
Your messages have led to extensive networking and reconnecting, by phone and by email. You have done a tremendously valuable service, on behalf of a good number of people.
We owe you many thanks!
douglas hanlon emergency housing stall house and long branch army camp a MEMORIAL FOR ALL THE MOTHERS AROUND MOTHER EARTH OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER CREATED MOTHER EARTH HIS PURPOSE MOTHER EARTH A KINGDOM ON TO HER SELF HER PURPOSE A PLAY GROUND FOR ALL THE PRINCESS AND THEIR CHILDREN PRINCE AND PRINCESS THE PRINCESS ARE THE CREATORS OF ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH THE MOTHER PURPOSE OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER CREATED THE CYCLE OF LIFE HIS PURPOSE ALL THIS CREATION WAS FOR THE PRINCESS AND THEIR CHILDREN TO JOURNEY MOTHER EARTH AND SEE AND FIELD MOTHER NATURE AND ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS PRINCE AND PRINCESS FOR EACH CHILD GIVEN BIRTH ON MOTHER EARTH A CHILD OF THE MOTHER IS GIVEN THE BIRTH OF A HEAVENLY CHILD IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD HEAVENLY PURPOSE SO SHE WILL NEVER BE ALONE ON MOTHER EARTH YOUR HEAVEN THERE WILL BE NO GRIEF WHEN SHE PASS ON TO THE HEAVEN THE CYCLE OF LIFE CREATED BY OUR HEAVENLY FATHER HIS PURPOSE MEMORIAL WITH GOD BLESSING THERE NO GRIEF IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD PRINCE AND PRINCESS ARE KINGDOM ON TO THEM SELF INDEPENDENCE OF ALL OTHER KINGDOM OF ONE SELF THEY ARE JOINT OF ONE FLESH BY OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER PRINCES ARE CARE TAKERS OF MOTHER EARTH BUILDERS OF SHELTERS FOR THE MOTHER AND CHILDREN AND THEIR SHELTERS ON THE JOURNEY AROUND MOTHER EARTH
douglas hanlon emergency housing long branch army camp and staff house MEMORIAL TO THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS TO REMEMBER ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH ARE KINGDOMS OF ONE SELF WHEN TWO KINGDOMS OF ONE SELF ARE JOINT OF ONE FLESH BY OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER THEY BECOME THE CREATOR OF ALL THE GENERATIONS OF ALL THE CHILD PRINCE AND CHILD PRINCESS TO BE GIVEN BIRTH TO CREATE THE NEXT GENERATION THE CYCLE OF LIFE CHRISTMAS IS EVER DAY OF YOUR LIFE FILL OF JOY HAPPINESS LOVE FOR ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH THE DAY JESUS WAS GIVEN BIRTH HE OUR BIG BROTHER WHO LOOK AFTER THE HOUSE OF THE LORD HIS PURPOSE AND ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH AND HEAVEN SAYING THAT WE ARE ALL ONE FAMILY WE ALL ARE ALL JUST TRYING TO LEAVED SOME THING BEHIND FOR THE NEXT GENERATION THEY CAN TELL THE STORIES THE CYCLE LIFE—THE ANSWER FROM HEAVEN— KINGDOM OF ONE SELF—THE SEX DRIVE—NEVER TO BE ALONE— THE JOINING OF ONE FLESH FOR CREATION—LOVE—FAITH—PURPOSE—FOUNDATION FOR THE CYCLE OF LIFE—FINDING OUT WHO WE ARE—THE HEAVEN GIFT YOU HAVE—WE ARE ALL INDEPENDANCE— TO BE CONTINUE
douglas hanlon staff house and long branch army camp WHAT WORD HAS A AFFECT ON ALL THE LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH GRIEF AND MORE GRIEF GET LARGER EACH AN EVER YEAR WE ALL NEED A MEMORIAL TO REMEMBER WHAT GRIEF CAN CAUSE AND EFFECT ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH THERE ARE 8 BILLION PEOPLE AND 8 TRILLION SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS ARE EFFECTED BY GRIEF GRIEF IS WITH US AND ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS FROM THE DAY WE ARE GIVEN BIRTH THERE IS NO PURPOSE FOR GRIEF ONE NEED TO HAVE A FOUNDATION TO STOP THE FEEDINGS OF GRIEF THIS CAN ONLY COME FROM UNDER STANDING THE MAN MADE WORLD HAS CREATED GRIEF OVER THE LAST 2500 YEARS FOR ALL LIFE ON MOTHERS EARTH THERE ARE A TRILLION TRILLION TRILLION STORIES THAT SHOULD BE TOLD FOR THE LOST OF THEIR LOVE AND ALL THE LOVE ON MOTHER EARTH I DO NOT NEED TO CRY FOR YOU GRANNY FOR I KNOW YOU ARE RETURNING HOME TO THE HEAVENS HEART BRAKE OF ANY KINE CAN CAUSE GRIEF FOR A LIFE TIME JUST A YOUNG GIRL SAYING TO A YOUNG BOY I DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOU ANY MORE HOW MANY HEARTS HAVE BEEN BROKEN OVER THE LAST 2500 YEAR IN THE NAME OF SOME ONE ACTIONS THIS JUST ONE STORY OF GRIEF WE WERE OUT OF TOWN WHEN MY SON BE ILL WE RETURN TO TORONTO SICK CHILDREN HOSPITAL I WAS IN THE WAITING ROOM WITH MY SON THERE WAS A MAN AND TWO YOUNG GIRL TWINS THE MAN TOLD ME THEIR FARTHER AND THEIR MOTHER HAD PASS WAY IN A CAR ACCIDENT WE ARE ALL WAY IN OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER HANDS MY SON WAS IN THE HOSPITAL FOR TWO WEEK WE WERE THERE WITH HIM EVER DAY FOR THOSE TWO WEEKS AS OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER WILL ALL WAY BE WITH MY SON AND THE TWO TWINS AND THE FARTHER AND MOTHER WHO PASS ON TO THE HEAVENS A DAY OF GRIEF AND A LIFE TIME OF GRIEF THIS IS HAPPENING EVER DAY MY SON WAS FIVE YEARS OLD HE IS FIFTY YEAR OLD TO DAY THE TWO TWINS FIFTY THREE YEARS OLD TO DAY NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN ARE STILL IN THE HAND OF OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER GRIEF HAS NO PURPOSE ON MOTHER EARTH THIS IS ONLY ONE STORY OUT OF A TRILLION I KNOW I WAS THERE I KNOW THE MAN WAS THERE I KNOW THE TWINS WERE THERE I KNOW OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER WAS THERE WE ALL NEEDED HIS HELP
douglas hanlon the long branch army camp and staff emergency housing AN MEMORIAL TO REMEMBER THANK TO JAAN PILL AND HIS INSIGHT FAMILY CAN NOW UNDERSTAND THEIR PASS AND THEIR FUTURE THE TORONTO EMERGENCY HOUSING ACROSS CANADA TIME OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR ALL THE FAMILY MEMBERS ALL SO THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND INTEREST IN ALL OUR FAMILIES WELL BEING A MEMORIAL TO REMEMBER FOR ALL OF US HOW MANY PEOPLE LIVE IN POVERTY IN THE WORLD THERE ARE EIGHT BILLION PEOPLE ON MOTHER EARTH FOUR BILLION PEOPLE LIVE IN POVERTY 22,000 CHILDREN DIE EACH DAY THANK TO JAAN PILL INSIGHT IT OPEN UP THE PURPOSE WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG POVERTY AND GRIEF GO HAND IN HAND WHERE THERE ONE THERE THE OTHER THERE NO PURPOSE FOR POVERTY THERE NO PURPOSE GRIEF BOTH ARE INFECTIOUS DISEASE WITH NO PURPOSE WE ALL MUST REMEMBER WE ARE ALL KINGDOM ON TO OUR SELF AS ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS PRINCE AND PRINCESS FOR WITH OUT THEM ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH THERE BE NO LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH IS ONE FAMILY KINGDOM GOD WISDOM POVERTY AND GRIEF ARE THE MAKING OF A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY WITH NO PURPOSE WE ALL NEED THE ANSWERS , KINGDOM ON TO ONE SELF,LOVE, FAITH,FREEDOM,NEVER TO BE A LONE. PURPOSE, FOUNDATION, HEART AND SOUL WISDOM, UNDERSTANDING OUR SEX DRIVE,INDEPENDENCE OF OUR SELF,YOUR OWN HOME FROM THE DAY YOU ARE GIVING BIRTH VERY IMPORTANT ,AN ACRE OF LAND TO BUILD EACH ONE FOUNDATIONS ON WE ARE ALL CREATOR OF ONE SELF AND INDEPENDENCE KINGDOM,NO NEED TO LIVE WITH FARTHER OR MOTHER OR ALL THE OTHER BROTHERS AND SISTERS MON AND DAD HAVE IN ONE HOUSE TOGETHER A DYSFUNCTIONAL PLACE TO BE CREATIVE IF MON AND DAD HAVE 14 CHILDREN DYSFUNCTIONAL HOME ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS ARE CREATOR THEY ALL HAVE THEIR OWN HOME WHEN GIVEN BIRTH IT CALL MOTHER EARTH THE SKY THE OCEAN THE RIVERS THE MOUNTAINS ,FREEDOM,TO GO WERE EVER THEY WANT TO GO ,LOVE FAITH,PURPOSE, BIRDS CARRY THE SEEDS OF ALL PLANTS WORLD WIDE,TO START A FOUNDATIONS ON NEW LANDS VERY INDEPENDENCE FISH HELP THE FOREST TO GROW THEY TO ARE KINGDOM ON TO THEM SELF WE ARE ALL PART ONE FAMILY IT CALL LIFE WE ARE ALL CREATOR OF LIFE AND WE ALL COME FROM THE HEAVENS
douglas hanlon the long branch army camp and staff A MEMORIAL TO REMEMBER POVERTY AND GRIEF ARE THE MAKING OF A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY AND THE CREATION OF A DYSFUNCTIONAL MOTHER EARTH HOW MANY PRINCE AND PRINCESS LIVE IN POVERTY AND GRIEF ON MOTHER EARTH HOW MANY PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS LIVE IN POVERTY AND GRIEF IS ALL LIFE CONNECTED TO POVERTY AND GRIEF YES LONG BRANCH ARMY CAMP OVER CROWDING TWO PARENT TEN CHILDREN IN TWO ROOMS NO SPACE EVERY ONE NEEDS THEIR OWN SPACE TO CREATE THEIR LIFE THEY NEED THEIR OWN HOME THEY NEED AN ACRE OF LAND TO CREATE 12 HOMES TO STOP DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY HOW MANY PEOPLE ON MOTHER EARTH LIVE IN POVERTY AND GRIEF THERE ARE EIGHT BILLION PEOPLE ON MOTHER EARTH NEARLY HAFT FOUR BILLION PEOPLE ARE DYSFUNCTIONAL DUE TO SLUM CONDITIONS THERE WAS A TIME IN MY LIFE WHEN I WAS THIRTY YEARS OLD I HAD A GOOD PAYING JOB 1973 HOME COST TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR IT WAS A TIME I SHOULD HAVE HELP FAMILY IN NEED THESE TIMES ONLY COME ONCE OR TWICE IN ONE LIFE TIME
douglas hanlon toronto emergency housing is now a world wide epidemic OF ALL THE LOST SOULS AND SPIRITS THEIR LOVE THEIR FAITH THEIR PURPOSE THEY HAVE NO FOUNDATIONS TO BUILD ON FOR THE NEXT GENERATIONS AN MEMORIAL TO REMEMBER SELF SACRIFICE A DESIRE FOR THE GREATER GOOD TO HELP OTHER JESUS DEATH AS A SACRIFICE WARS AROUND THE WORLD SINCE 550 DC ALL THOSE YOUNG SOLDIER SACRIFICE AND THE YOUNG CIVILIAN SACRIFICE TAKEN FROM THEIR PURPOSE AND CREATION PRINCE AND PRINCESS PURPOSE IS ONLY TO CREATE THE NEXT GENERATIONS WARS HAVE EFFECTED ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS SINCE 550 DC WARS HAVE EFFECTED ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH GENOCIDE HAS BEEN CREATED FROM 550 DC AND IT STILL GOING ON TO DAY 2018 THE CREATION OF SLUM NO MORE PURPOSE FOR MOTHER EARTH WHY ARE WE ALL SO SMALL LIVING ON A GRAIN OF SAND IN THE UNIVERSE IS BELIEVED TO BE AT LEAST 10 BILLION LIGHT IN DIAMETER WE WILL NEVER KNOW UN TILL WE PASS ON TO THE HEAVEN WE ALL ARE GIVEN BIRTH AS A CHILD AND OUR SELF SACRIFICE AND ACTIONS SHOW WHO WE ALL ARE THE DAY WE ARE GIVEN BIRTH IT THE FIRST DAY OF OUR LIFE AND WE HAVE ONLY ONE SELF SACRIFICE AND ONE PURPOSE TO LOVE THE NEXT GENERATIONS FOR ALL THE MOTHERS ARE THE CREATORS OF ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH AND A GIFT TO THEM IS THE CREATION OF A HEAVENLY FAMILY THE DAY THEY THERE FIRST CHILD IS GIVEN BIRTH ON MOTHER EARTH SO SHE WILL NEVER BE ALONE ON MOTHER EARTH OR IN THE HEAVENS
douglas hanlon EMERGENCY HOUSING 1933 TO 1957 I AM 75 NOW 2018 WERE ARE THE BOYS AND GIRLS NOW DEC 2 2018 FROM 1,350 FAMILY HOW MANY HAVE BROTHERS AND SISTERS GRAND CHILDREN GREAT GRAND CHILDREN ARE THEY STILL IN ONTARIO CANADA I WAS GIVEN BIRTH TORONTO GENERAL HOSPITAL 1943 NO MATTER HOW GOOD OR HOW BAD OUR LIFE HAS BEEN WE ALL STARTED FROM A FAMILY OF 1,350 FAMILIES WE ARE ALL LUCKY WE WERE IN TORONTO CANADA OTHER CHILDREN WERE NOT SO LUCKY IN CITY AROUND THE WORLD 1939 TO 1945 THE SECOND WORLD WAR THANK TO OUR LUCKY STAR THERE SHOULD BE A MEMORIAL WITH ALL THE EMERGENCY HOUSING FAMILY NAMES AND THEIR CHILDREN NAME AND THEIR GRAND CHILDREN NAME FROM 1933 TO 1957 OF ALL THE EMERGENCY HOUSING ACROSS CANADA FOR THEY TO WERE PART OF OUR FAMILY WHERE CAN WE GET THE INFORMATION FROM AND WERE CAN THIS MEMORIAL BE PLACE AND ALL THE RECORDS BROTH UP TO DATE 2018 OUR GREAT GRAND CHILDREN WILL THANK ONE DAY
douglas hanlon EMERGENCY HOUSING LONG BRANCH ARMY CAMP AND STAFF HOUSE A MEMORIAL TO REMEMBER OF ALL THE FAMILY THE CREATION OF A TIME CAPSULE FOR EACH FAMILY MEMBER A COMMUNITY PROJECT A SCHOOL PROJECT A FAMILY PROJECT FROM THE FIRST WORLD TO THE END OF THE CENTURY 2000 IF SOME ONE HAD THE FOR SIGHT A TIME CAPSULE HAS THE FOR SITE OF INFORMATION USUALLY INTENDED AS A METHOD OF COMMUNICATION WITH THE FUTURE ALL THIS INFORMATION WOULD BE WITH ALL OF US TODAY ALL THE NAMES AND STORY FOR ALL THE CHILDREN OF TODAY AND ALL THE GENERATIONS TO COME TO TELL THEIR STORY EACH CHILD WITH THE HELP OF THEIR FRIENDS FAMILY COMMUNITY THE EMERGENCY HOUSING THE CLOSING OF THE EMERGENCY HOUSING 1320 FAMILY HISTORY AND WERE THEY ARE TODAY WITH THEIR CHILDREN THEIR GRAND CHILDREN AND GREAT GREAT GRAND CHILDREN A MEMORIAL IN THE FORM OF A TIME CAPSULE EIGHT BILLION CHILDREN ON MOTHER EARTH WITH ALL THEIR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS THE TIME CAPSULE TO SEE OUR PASS AND OUR FUTURE ALL CHILDREN NEED THEIR OWN TIME CAPSULE FOR ALL THE STORY TO BE WRITTEN OF THEM THEIR FAMILY THEIR HISTORY
douglas hanlon TORONTO,S 1950 EMERGENCY HOUSING : AN INFORMATIVE : COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW LONG BRANCH ARMY CAMP AND STAFF HOUSE A MEMORIAL TO REMEMBER A TIME CAPSULE MIRACLES EACH OF US START WITH A MIRACLE THE CYCLE OF LIFE THE GIFTS WE ARE GIVEN IS THE CREATION OF MIRACLES THE SEX DRIVE LOVE FAITH PURPOSE THE UNDERSTANDING OF GRIEF AND THE BUILDING OF A FOUNDATION TO CREATE SHELTER FOR US AND ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS TIME CAPSULE MEMORIAL MIRACLES ONE HURRICANE HAZEL I WAS TEN TEARS OLD ETOBICOKE CREEK AND LAKE ONTARIO THE DAY AFTER THE STORM I WAS BY MY SELF MIRACLE TWO STAFF HOUSE I WAS TEN YEAR OLD THE MIRACLE THE JOINTING OF ONE FLESH TO A YOUNG GIRL COLLEEN IN THE HEAVENLY SOFT LIGHT AROUND US IN THE PRESENT OF OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER MIRACLE THREE A MIRACLE I WAS SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD CAR ACCIDENT ON KEELE ST SOUTH OF 7 HWY HIT A TREE WHEN THE TIRE WENT FLAT IT WAS A MIRACLE FOR ALL THREE OF US NO ONE WAS KILLED MIRACLE FOUR ON JANE ST SOUTH OF STEEL ST A MIRACLE HAPPEN TO ME THAT SHOW ME THERE IS A HEAVENLY FARTHER I WAS TWENTY SEVEN YEAR OLD MIRACLE FIVE I WENT OUT TO BC TO SEE SOME FRIENDS ONE NIGHT A FEELING CAME OVER ME SOME THING WAS WRONG THE NEXT DAY I FOUND OUT MY BROTHER HAD PASS ON WE ARE ALL JOINT TO EACH OTHER MIRACLE SIX I WAS DRIVING A TRUCK HIT THE TOP OF A UNDER PASS RAIL ROAD TRACK LINE IT WAS A BAD ACCIDENT WHAT SAVE ME WAS THE STRENGTH IN MY ARMS AND THE HELP OF MY HEAVENLY FARTHER MIRACLE SEVEN WITH OUT MY HEAVENLY FARTHER I COULD HAVE FALLEN 200 FEET OFF THE ROOF OF THE OLD BASEBALL STADIUM ON LAKE SHORE WEST MIRACLE EIGHT A MIRACLE THAT WAS TO STAY WITH ME ALL MY LIFE I HAVE CARRY THE LOVE OF COLLEEN WITH ME ALL OF MY LIFE LIFE IS A MIRACLE IN IT SELF WE ARE ALL KINGDOM ON TO OUR SELF WE ARE ALL TRYING TO LEAVE SOME THING BEHIND FOR THE NEXT GENERATIONS THE BEST WAY IS A TIME CAPSULE ALL THESE STORY I HAVE WRITTEN CAN NOW BE PUT INTO A TIME CAPSULE A TIME CAPSULE IS FOR EVERY ONE TO SEE THE TIME CAPSULE TO BE OPEN NOW
DOUGLAS HANLON TO JAAN PILL I PLACE SOME INFORMATION ON BARBARA DICKSON AUTHOR HISTORIAN AERIAL VIEW OF GECO WED SITE TO CONTINUE THE JOURNEY OF LIFE AND THE CREATION OF TORONTO EMERGENCY HOUSING 1950 STARTED 2500 YEARS AGO A LONG WITH THE EMERGENCY HOUSING ACROSS CANADA AND AROUND THE WORLD THE REASON IS OUR SEX DRIVE FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME LEAVING THE NATURAL WORLD THE ONE WE WERE CREATED FOR WE ENTER THE MAN MADE WORLD 2500 YEARS AGO OUR SEX DRIVE HAS CREATED OVER POPULATION WARS EXPORTATION OF OUR SEX DRIVE A HEAVENLY GIFT GIVEN TO ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH US AND ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FIENDS SO MANY FRIENDS THEY ARE IN THE TRILLION OF TRILLION OF TRILLION THERE ARE A TRILLION GIVEN BIRTH EACH DAY WHY ARE WE ALL SO SMALL WHY IS MOTHER EARTH ONLY A GRAIN OF SAND IN THE HEAVENS OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER WISDOM HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS JAAN FAMILY AND ALL THE ALL EMERGENCY HOUSING ACROSS CANADA AND AROUND MOTHER EARTH MARRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR HEAVENLY SOULS AND SPIRITS AND ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS AND MARRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER I LOVE HIM FOR ALL THE MIRACLES I HAVE RECEIVED AND THE LOVE OF ONE OF HIS HEAVENLY ANGELS COLLEEN COYLE
douglas hanlon WHAT IS A NEW YEAR REVOLUTION A SACRIFICE FOR THE BETTER GOOD OF ALL THE CHILDREN AND ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH AND THE TORONTO EMERGENCY HOUSING ACROSS CANADA AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF TEN YEARS RELIEF CAMPS OUR HISTORY SHOW US THE COST OF LIVING IN CANADA KEEP GOING UP EACH YEAR TO KEEP UP TO THE TIMES AT ONE TIME 1943 A HOME IN YORKVILLE TORONTO $3,823.00 WAGES $0.72 CENTS AN HOUR A PACK OF CIGARETTES 1943 WAS 35 CENTS WE ALL HAVE TO FACE THE REVOLUTION TO DAY ACROSS CANADA A PACK COST $ 20.00 to $24.00 A PACK = A PACK A DAY FOR ONE YEAR=$7,300 YEAR A PACK $24.00 = $8,760 YEARLY IN 50 YEAR OF ONE LIFE = $438.000 DOLLARS WITH NO EQUITY AND NO INTEREST % OVER THE 50 YEARS SMOKING COST ALL THEIR FAMILY HOME THEIR CHILDREN FOUNDATIONS FOR ALL GENERATIONS TO COME WE ALL CAN MAKE MIRACLES HAPPEN ACROSS CANADA 2019 NEW YEAR EVE AND AROUND MOTHER EARTH FOR ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH I QUIT SMOKING TO DAY I AM 75 YEARS OLD GO TO GOOGLE SEARCH WHEN WAS THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY STARTED WEBSITE THEN GO TO THE HISTORY OF TOBACCO ANOTHER WEBSITE WHAT WAS TOBACCO USED FOR IN NATURE HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR TO ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH REMEMBER THERE ARE EIGHT BILLION PEOPLE ON MOTHER EARTH THAT EIGHT BILLION NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS THAT CAN CHANGE THE MAN MADE WORLD BACK TO THE NATURAL WORLD WE ALL WERE CREATED FOR LOVE FOR ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH OUR HOME FOR ALL LIFE THEIR HOME THE HEAVEN HOME FOR ALL LIFE MOTHER EARTH IS A KINGDOM ON TO HER SELF HER THE ONLY PURPOSE OF MOTHER EARTH THE CHILDREN PLAY GROUND HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR CALL
DOUGLAS HANLON IN 1944 THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAD SET UP THE EMERGENCY HOUSING SHELTER JULY 1945 WHEN DID MY JOURNEY START 1943 I WAS GIVEN BIRTH AT TORONTO GENERAL HOSPITAL MY FIRST HOME STANLEY BARRACKS CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBITION CLOSED 1946 THEN OUR FAMILY MOVED TO GECO 1946 TO 1954 CLOSED THEN MY FAMILY MOVED TO LONG BRANCH ARMY CAMP AND STAFF HOUSE UNTIL IT CLOSED 1958 OTHER FAMILY MOVED TO LITTLE NORWAY UNTIL THE CAMP WAS DEMOLISHED 1956 THEN THOSE FAMILY MOVED TO LONG BRANCH ARMY CAMP AND STAFF HOUSE UNTIL IT CLOSE 1958 THEN MY FAMILY MOVED TO EARLSCOURT PARK OTHER FAMILY MOVED TO EAST END TORONTO AND OTHER WAR TIME HOUSING FOR SIGNAL FAMILY HOMES 162 CITY OWN WAR TIME HOUSING AND REGENT PARK HOUSING COMPLEX THEN THE HOMES AT EARLSCOURT PARK WERE SOLD OFF TO INDEPENDANCE BUYER THEN MY MOTHER PASS ON LEAVING MY SELF BROTHER AN SISTER AND FATHER EARLSCOURT PARK CLOSED 1960 ALL THE FAMILY HAVE LOST THEIR HOMES LOST THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR A FEELING OF GRIEF FOR THE LOST OF ALL THEIR FAMILY FRIENDS FOR A LIFE TIME THE MOTHERS WERE THE SAVERS OF THE CHILDREN THEY WERE MOTHER TO ALL THE CHILDREN NOT JUST THEIR OWN I SPENT SEVENTEEN YEARS IN THE POST WAR EMERGENCY HOUSING WERE ALL ACROSS CANADA AND AROUND THE WORLD GRIEF CONCENTRATION CAMPS PRISONER OF WAR CAMPS BARRACKS WE TO ALL SLEPT IN THE BARRACKS OF ALL ARE FALLEN BROTHERS AND SISTER I KNOW WE ALL WILL REMEMBER ALL OF THEM OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN HALLOWED BE THY NAME THY KINGDOM COME THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD AND FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US FOR THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY DO FARTHER AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND POWER AND THE GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER A MEN FOR ALL OUR FALLEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS WOULD NEVER EVER FORSAKEN US FOR THEY ARE WITH OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER WE ARE ALL IN THE HANDS OF OUR HEAVENLY CALL NO ONE AS EVER BEEN FOR GOTTEN OR FORSAKEN BY OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS PRINCE OR PRINCESS ARE IN THE TRILLIONS OF WE ARE THEIR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS CALL
DOUGLAS HANLON THE EMERGENCY HOUSING AND RELIEF RELIEF CAMPS EMERGENCY HOUSING ACROSS CANADA AND AROUND MOTHER EARTH 1900 TO 2019 OUR SALVATION TO CHANGE MOTHER EARTH FROM THE MAN MADE WORLD BACK TO THE NATURAL WORLD WITH NATURE FIRST WHAT MADE THE MAN MADE WORLD THE TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN SOCIETY FROM HUNTING AND GATHERING FOOD TO AGRICULTURE FARMING BETWEEN 10000 BC AND 2000 BC STARTED IN THE MIDDLE EAST NOW TO DAY THEY HAVE FISH FARMS BIOFUEL ETHANOL MADE FROM CORN THERE NO PLACE TO JOURNEY TO ANY MORE WE HAVE NO MORE PURPOSE IN THE MAN MADE WORLD OUR SALVATION THERE ARE 8 BILLION OF GODS CHILDREN ON MOTHER EARTH IF EACH ONE GIVE $1.00 EACH EVERY DAY THAT IS EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS PER IN TEN DAY THAT IS 80 BILLION DOLLARS A TRILLION DOLLARS IS A BILLION DOLLARS TIMES 1000 THERE WOULD BE NO MORE SLUMS THERE BE NO MORE WARS THERE BE NO MORE TEMTATIONS 80 BILLIONS DOLLARS IN TEN DAY OUR SALVATION THE WORLD SALVATION THE SALVATION OF EIGHT BILLION OF GODS HEAVENLY CHILDREN WITH OUR HEAVENLY FATHERS WISDOM TO GUILD US ON OUR BACK TO THE NATURAL WORLD WITH NATURE
SALVATION FOR ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS AND AND ALL LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH FOR THEIR PRINCE AND PRINCESS ALL LIFE IN THE OCEANS AND ALL THE ONES THAT FLY THE SKY ALL THE FORESTS THERE ARE TRILLIONS UPON TRILLIONS AND EACH HAS THEIR PURPOSE IN THE CYCLE OF LIFE ON MOTHER EARTH NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN FOR THEY TO ARE KINGDOM ON TO ONE SELF
douglas hanlon LONG BRANCH ARMY CAMP AND STAFF HOUSE 1950 THE INVENTION OF THE NUCLEAR REACTOR – THE INVENTION OF THE A BOMB ALL OF MOTHER EARTH IS CONTAMINATED LAND WATER SKY ONTARIO CANADA THE MAN MAD WORLD HAS CREATED THE ENDS OF DAYS WARS CREATED THE BOMB AGRICULTURE CREATED THE MAN MADE WORLD CANADA HAS 18 CANDU REACTORS THE ONLY PURPOSE OF MOTHER EARTH WAS THE CHILDREN PLAY GROUND FOR US AND ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS PRINCE AND PRINCESS
DOUGLAS HANLON SALVATION I TOOK ACTION FOR MY GRAND CHILDREN AND GREAT GRAND CHILDREN IN PEI THE COST OF HOME IN TORONTO AND ALL OF ONTARIO CANADA IS OUT OF THEIR REACH JUST TO COME UP WITH THE DOWN PAYMENT COST IN ONTARIO CANADA WE HAVE PURCHASE 35 ACRES IN PEI SO THEY WILL NOT BE HOMELESS WITH OUT A FOUNDATION OF LIFE THEIR OWN HOME TO CREATE THEIR NEW BEGINNING AS CANADIANS CHILDREN AS THEIR GRAND PARENT AND GREAT GRAND PARENT WHO HAD NO HOPE TO PROVIDE HOMES FOR THEM IN THE LONG BRANCH ARMY CAMP AND STAFF HOUSE EMERGENCY HOUSING CITY OF TORONTO 1940 TO 1970 EACH ONE WILL HAVE AN ACRE FOR A RETIREMENT HOME AND A HOME FOR EACH OF THEIR PRINCE AND PRINCESS GIVEN BIRTH ON PEI SOIL CONFEDERATION SOIL THERE WERE SEVEN EMERGENCY HOUSE LOCATION TORONTO AND UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF CAMPS ACROSS CANADA AND EMERGENCY HOUSING ACROSS CANADA WE ALL NEED TO CREATE CONFEDERATION ALL OVER AGAIN FOR ALL THE CHILDREN FROM THE PASS 1900 TO 2018 WITH LOVE AND OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER SO HE CAN SEE WE CAN LOOK AFTER OUR CHILDREN WHO ARE HIS HEAVENLY ANGLE ALL OF US AND ALL OUR SOCIAL FAMILY FRIENDS CANADA CONFEDERATION KINGDOM OF ONE SELF INDEPENDENCE
DOUGLAS HANLON TO HAVE A NEW BEGINNING ONE MUST END THE PASS AND CREATE THE NEW BEGINNING TAKE ACTION PERSONAL ACTION FOR THE FUTURE FOR ALL THE CHILDREN IF ONE PERSON ONLY BUY BUY 1OO ACRES 2018 IN TWENTY FIVE THAT ONE PERSON CAN CREATE ALL THE TORONTO EMERGENCY HOUSING FIVE LOCATIONS THAT HOUSE 1,400 POOR FAMILY 1939 –1970 CHILDREN WITH OUT HOPE TO CREATE THEIR OWN FUTURE THE TORONTO EMERGENCY HOUSING IS STILL HERE TODAY ALL ACROSS CANADA TAKE PERSONAL ACTION LEAVE THE MAN MADE WORLD BUY THAT 100 ACRES AND CREATE A MIRACLE FOR ALL THE CHIDREN
DOUGLAS HANLON TAKE ACTION NOW YOU NEED THAT ACRES OF LAND FOR A HOME A CHILD NEEDS A SAVING ACCOUNT FROM BIRTH CHILDREN LIVE NOW TO BE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD I LIVE AT THE TORONTO EMERGENCY HOUSING FOR 17 YEARS AT 3 OUT OF 5 LOCATIONS I AM NOW 77 YEARS YOUNG I HAVE ANOTHER 23 YEARS A CHILD NEEDS A LIFE TIME RETIREMENT PLAN AND A HOME AT BIRTH YOU WILL NOT FINE THIS IN THE MAN MADE WORLD THE PERSONAL COST IS TO GREAT THERE IS NO PURPOSE IN THE MAN MADE WORLD JUST THE TORONTO EMERGENCY HOUSING 1000 DROP IN CENTERS AND ALL THE OTHER DROP IN CENTERS AROUND MOTHER EARTH FOLLOW YOUR HEART AND LOVE TO TAKE ACTION
I remember a Doug Hanlon when I lived at the Staff House. I didn’t attend the Staff House school like most kids from those overcrowded, wartime apartments. My mother insisted that we attend the Catholic school, Christ the King, in Long Branch. I have nothing but warm memories of those years, 1948 to 1955. But unlike Doug, I won’t sermonize.
We owe many thanks to Douglas Hanlon for getting in touch with me some years ago; it was Douglas who suggested I write about the history of postwar housing – about the history of places like the Long Branch Army Camp. That’s what got the ball rolling. Many people, as a result of the stories we’ve posted at this website since then, have gotten in touch with each other, who knew each other in postwar housing as children.
DOUGLAS HANLON WERE WOULD WE ALL BE TODAY SEPT 11 2019 IF THE WAR 1939 TO 1945 HAD WHEN THE OTHER WAY OUR ARMY 50000000 STOP THEM WITH THEIR SACRIFICE OF THEIR LOVE FAITH GOODNESS FOR ALL TIME OUR HEAVENLY FARTHER TO SACRIFICE ONE OWN LIFE IS THE GREATEST SACRIFICE OF ALL
The picture with the people in it, is not 1945 its about 2-3 yrs later, I recognize 2 faces!
I much appreciate knowing this detail Joanne. I have revised the caption; I much appreciate your comment.
I have warm memories of the Camp ’48/49, and the Staff House across from Small Arms, ’49 to ’55. Much safer than subsidized housing today — … no gangs, no drugs, no guns. You could walk around those facilities at night without continually looking over your shoulder. But yes, we did feel the social stigma of living there. And that hurt.
s