Voices for Unhoused Liberation is a group of activists and community members who have past or present lived experience of poverty, insecure housing and/or being unhoused. Voices was formed out of the solidarity work around the closing of the Novotel shelter hotel by OCAP. When OCAP folded we decided to continue the work as Voices from the Shelter Hotels. We fought alongside former residents of Novotel to have their rights respected, and to ensure they were moved in a proper and timely manner, especially since the shelter hotel program was supposed to be a pathway to housing. What we witnessed was a brutal displacement process often involving police, 3 AM evictions with little notice, accompanied by the loss of belongings. Voices was able to witness and document these events, and subsequently present them to Gord Tanner, along with a list of demands on behalf of the residents, at a press conference at Metro-Hall. This information was also presented to the Novotel management in an occupation of the front lobby. While protesters were aggressively removed by police, we managed to get the situation in the media which highlighted for the public, some of the many brutal shelter practices.
Since many of the residents of the Novotel were moved to the Delta shelter hotel in north Scarborough - we moved our work there too. We continue to build community by doing Out-Reach once a week where we offer coffee and snacks, "know your rights" literature, and other necessities. We continue to help residents organize and launch campaigns based on their demands and to challenge the shelter management with respect to their harmful practices. We also do case-work to support individual residents on the on-going harms they experience, especially the brutal punitive practices of service restrictions. We recently changed our name to Voices 4 Unhoused Liberation and remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting the needs of the unhoused community.
As an intersectional social strata disproportionately made up of Indigenous, Black, disabled, queer, trans identified people and women, as among the most vulnerablized, criminalized, and stigmatized - Voices sees the struggles of poor people to be a vital perspective in the fight for a transformed future that is sustainable, redistributive, and based on care and reciprocity.