Who we are

Encampment Support Network Parkdale (ESNP) is a volunteer-run group of housed and unhoused community members fighting back against the City of Toronto's ongoing harassment, criminalization and displacement of unhoused people.

At the beginning of 2022, Encampment Support Network’s broader network dissolved. Some individual neighbourhood committees, including Encampment Support Network Parkdale, continued to organize on their own, reaching beyond Parkdale to do outreach, actions, and advocacy throughout Toronto.

Group shot of ESNP members

What we do

We do daily outreach in encampments, shelter hotels, social housing, where many of our members live, organize, and have joined the fight. We provide support by delivering critical, life-saving supplies to encampments (such as tents, sleeping backs, socks, harm reduction material, and snacks), connecting residents to essential services, defending against the City of Toronto's ongoing harassment, criminalization and displacement of unhoused people, and demanding that the City of Toronto provide safe housing options for all.

We also have a bursary program to ease some of the financial barriers to participation in organizing.

Member of ESNP speaking in front of a microphone Tents in the Clarence Square encampment in summer 2022
Small illustration of blue tents Small illustration of blue tents

Why we do this work

The criminalization of encampments and ongoing violent displacement of residents who choose to live outside rather than at congregate shelters reveals the ideological motivations of the City of Toronto in failing to address the root causes of the homelessness and housing crises. With over $1 billion going to Toronto Police Services, the City’s priorities are clearly expressed in its budget. By clearing encampments and pushing residents to unsafe shelters, the City is determined to invisibilize the unhoused and uphold the supremacy of private property at all costs.

ESNP is organizing to demand that the City distribute its immense wealth and prosperity to provide safe housing and ongoing social support to those who want it, while fighting back against the City of Toronto's ongoing harassment and criminalization of unhoused people.

We are a volunteer-run group of unhoused, housed, and recently-housed members. Unified in our fight against a government that upholds the supremacy of private property over human life, we are overcoming the class divisions that often impede effective organizing.

Support our work

ESNP does outreach 7 days a week and distributes supplies across Toronto’s encampments, shelter hotels, and social housing (where many of our members have joined the fight).

Your support will fund things like:

  1. Basic supplies for people living outside (tents, sleeping bags, nutritional shakes, socks etc.).

  2. A monthly bursary program alleviating some of the barriers some members may face in participating in the organizing, allowing us to facilitate involvement from members with lived experience.

  3. Meetings, events and actions that will build a vision for strong, self-sustaining communities that consider each individual's life to be inherently valuable, and worth fighting for.

We've supported our friends through the daily indignities of the shelter system, and stood with them in resistance to continual displacement, in the fight toward housing for all.

Support our Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/esnparkdale

If you'd rather do a one-time donation, please etransfer us at parkdaleesn@gmail.com.