TORONTO

Richard Dunbar has lived on the street for two years since being evicted for non-payment of rent.

Nevertheless, the 56-year-old survives quite nicely — even on winter’s coldest nights — travelling from church to synagogue every day to partake in that day’s Out of the Cold program.

At these programs, he’s fed, clothed and given accommodation for the night.

“You have breakfast, get up and go on to next destination, go to next church,” he said. “It’s a full-time job.”

Funded to the tune of $930,000 this year, the Out of the Cold program operates at 18 churches and synagogues from November to March.

When I met Dunbar Tuesday night at Metro Hall’s Warming Centre — where he’d come in from -19C temperatures and a -33C windchill — he was very eager to talk about the city’s rich variety of services for the homeless.

“As far as I’m concerned the city of Toronto has everything to offer … it’s beautiful,” he said. “There’s no reason for anybody to be hungry.”

In fact, he said, with all the services in Toronto there’s no reason to be living on the street — except “by choice.”

Having been categorized a Level 1 offender and in and out of jail during his lifetime, he concedes alcohol is indeed at the root of his problems.

It was precisely with those rich variety of services in mind — including the focus of the city’s homeless officials on finding permanent shelter for Toronto’s street people — that I decided to do a tour of the downtown streets and the homeless haunts I’ve come to know with Toronto Sun photographer Ernest Doroszuk.

I chose one of the coldest nights of January so far to see if the homeless were indeed coming in from the cold and if not, why not.

After all, for virtually all of my 16 years covering city and provincial politics, I’ve watched as hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into counting the hard-core homeless, getting them off the street and into not-so-affordable housing.

Since 2005 when mayor David Miller was in power — and continuing under Rob Ford — some $14 million alone has been spent yearly on an army of social workers (66 at present) whose job it is to find permanent homes for the homeless and to encourage beggars not to ply their trade on the city’s streets. Another $11.5 million was shelled out for the Peter St. shelter and assessment centre — a project that went 100% over budget.

The most recent homeless census costing $120,000 and taken on the evening of April 17 of last year — and on which I was a volunteer — found that 447 hard-core homeless were living on the street. A total of 5,253 homeless were counted in Toronto, if one includes those residing in hostels, hospitals and correctional facilities.

With a cold weather alert in effect, which is supposed to relax capacity restrictions in all homeless shelters, add 26 extra shelter spaces and beef up the city’s overnight street outreach resources, I hoped not to see not a single street person in the downtown core that night.

It was reassuring not to find a single soul camping out at Nathan Phillips Square, in part no doubt due to increased vigilance ever since the Toronto Sun discovered 63 people sleeping at Hotel NPS in September 2012, despite a bylaw banning anyone from sleeping or camping in the square.

But it was not the same situation at Seaton House on George St.

Ernest and I found at least eight or nine men outside who were informed they couldn’t be accommodated.

David Ferguson, a 31-year-old who has been on the streets for three years, said he was told there were no beds, no tokens to go elsewhere — and to “beat it.”

“They don’t give us nothing, man,” he said, noting when he does sleep outside, he has to go to restaurants and Tim Hortons to warm up.

Patrick O’Hara, 29, was standing outside in just a hoodie and no coat. He said he was told by Seaton House staff to walk to the Peter St. assessment centre, about three kilometres away.

“I have nowhere to go,” said O’Hara, who admits to be battling an addiction to drugs like crack cocaine and OxyContin.

Phillip Abraham, the city’s general manager of shelter, support and housing, said that was contrary to what is supposed to happen and that there are spaces available “every single night” at Seaton House.

“Definitely there are beds there,” he said. “Staff at Seaton House are trained … they wouldn’t tell people there is no room at the Inn … they would go into the system and find people a bed.”

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty’s (OCAP) John Clarke says he believes a large number of people are being turned away from shelters on cold nights and that isn’t showing up in the occupancy stats, which the city has pegged at around 92%.

He said the Out of the Cold programs this winter are all at 110%-120% of capacity.

That is why OCAP and a “chorus of people” were pressing for a warming centre at Metro Hall, Clarke adds.

The centre opened as a pilot this year to get a better understanding of the vulnerable street people with more complex needs who are coming in off the street, says Abraham.

“The point of everything we do should be stable housing,” he said, emphasizing that people shouldn’t be maintained in a state of permanent homelessness.

But Abraham conceded that there are those who are resistent to services and the city can’t force them into a shelter, even on a bitterly cold night.

On Tuesday night, the warming centre was doing an absolutely booming business with 50 people either sleeping on mats covered in Red Cross blankets or sitting in chairs, eating a hot meal, their worldly possessions at their side.

Mike Mason, who suffers from schizophrenia and has been on the streets for two years, took the TTC to the warming centre after the pipes froze at Beth Shalom synagogue, which operates an Out of the Cold program on Tuesday nights.

He makes the rounds of the Out of the Cold programs in the winter but claims he “could stay out all night” if he had to.

“I’m a seasoned hard-core street person,” the 33-year-old said.

Down the street at Evangel Hall, Ernie Geddes was grabbing a smoke before bedding down for the night.

The 65-year-old says his homeless situation is just temporary. He lost his place in the summer when he was charged with threatening and thrown in the Don Jail for a month.

He has nothing but good things to say about the Out of the Cold program at Evangel Hall.

“I came early at 2:30 p.m. and they said I could come in because it was so cold,” he said. “They were good to me.”