After almost a week of backlash, Toronto General Hospital is removing bars it installed across a vent outside its Gerrard St. emergency room entrance to keep people from sleeping on it at night.

The curved grey bars make it next to impossible to sleep comfortably across the vent, a technique used by homeless people to keep warm while exposed to the elements. It’s an example of what’s known as hostile architecture: structures designed to prevent people from using a structure in any manner other than what it was intended to do.

Mark Iantorno, a 34-year-old computer programmer at Toronto General, saw the grating on his way in to work last week. He made his first post to Twitter about in on March 29.

“I noticed it because I walk by it every morning, so I tweeted about it,” he said, adding that the bars on the grating didn’t appear to be necessary. It doesn’t cause any problems around the emergency room, he said.

Over the next couple of days, Iantorno continued to post photos of the grating along with calls for the University Health Network — the health organization which runs Toronto General, Toronto Western, and Princess Margaret Hospitals, along with five rehab clinics — to get rid of it.

“Architecture that discriminates against an already marginalized population is the laziest way to address the issue of homelessness,” Iantorno wrote in his first tweet about the grate. “If we, as a public health provider, resort to doing this, what kind of example are we setting?”

Toronto General Hospital originally installed the bars because of high traffic around the emergency room entrance, as well as the presence of discarded needles and garbage around it, according to a statement from UHN interim president Dr. Charlie Chan.

“It was a short-sighted solution, I think,” Iantorno later told the Star.

Structures such as armrests in the middle of park benches, studs on long stretches of marble, or iron bars outside recessed ground floor windows are all examples of hostile architecture, which homeless advocates say are becoming more common.

“I think it’s becoming more of the norm, which is kind of sad,” said Cathy Crowe, a Toronto street nurse and long-time advocate for the homeless. “I think that concept is inserting itself in urban architecture plans.”

Iantorno told the Star that, until Wednesday, he never heard back from UHN. But a number of experts on homelessness and health noticed, including Crowe, Toronto Overdose Prevention Society organizer Zoe Dodd and Globe and Mail health columnist André Picard.

Meanwhile, Iantorno kept tweeting.

“It just kind of snowballed,” he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, UHN took down the grating. In Dr. Chan’s statement, the hospital admitted that “... we created the impression that we are unfeeling and unconcerned about the needs of the homeless.”

“Of course, this isn’t true,” the statement continued. “People at UHN are kind, compassionate and provide daily care for people who don’t have a home.”

The UHN promised in its statement to work with staff in the hospital’s emergency department to see if there is anything more Toronto General can do to provide further aid to homeless people.

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Crowe said the hospital should have been more willing to work with other anti-homelessness activists on expanding shelter beds and medical care for homeless people in Toronto, instead of installing the bars on the grate.

“I think I want to say (to them): you know, you should have known better,” Crowe said.