The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty spent Saturday night and Sunday morning camping out in front of Mayor John Tory's condo to bring attention to Toronto's homeless problem.
In a release the OCAP says "At this critical time, we are going back to John Tory’s multi-million condo home for a sleep out to drive home the need for shelters for the homeless in a City that drips with wealth. We will set up at 7:00 p.m. with a meal, speakers and entertainment. Come out and stay for as long as you can to help us win the right to shelter for those Tory and his friends are abandoning to the streets."
One of the organizers, Yogi Acharya, told NEWSTALK 1010 they are there to "add pressure to city council and Mayor John Tory to do the right thing."
Acharya adds in the Mayor's case it's to "open desperately needed shelter space for the homeless and opening up the armories as a temporary respite measure to reduce pressure on the system."
In February, city council voted to cut funding to the municipal shelter system.
At the time, Tory told council there was no evidence to suggest the cut would impact the quality of shelter operations.
The city says it has added 600 shelter beds to the overall system since Dec. 2016, but Acharya says a lot of those beds are replacement beds, not new beds.
He also says the shelters are overcrowded and bug-infested.
OCAP says that a homeless person dies in Toronto roughly every 10 days.
With files from Corinne Van Dusen