A bar structure preventing homeless people from sleeping on top of a vent outside Toronto General Hospital is the latest example of a growing phenomenon dubbed “hostile architecture,” anti-homelessness advocates say.

From armrests on park benches to studs on concrete, such designs prevent people from using the space in a way other than its intended use. That includes homeless people seeking a safe place to spend the night.

In a statement released Wednesday, Dr. Charlie Chan, interim president and CEO of the University Health Network said the structure was removed after staff raised concerns that it wasn’t something a hospital should have installed.

Read more:

Toronto General Hospital removes bars from vent after backlash over displacing homeless people

Opinion | Edward Keenan: As spring begins, it’s time to think about serving Toronto’s homeless next winter

City to set new standards for 24/7 drop-ins, warming centres

It’s far from the first time that hostile architecture have provoked ire.

Installations in Montreal and London, England, as well as a planter on a downtown Toronto sidewalk have also made headlines.

Cathy Crowe, a Toronto street nurse and long-time advocate for the homeless, documents instances of hostile architecture she said she encounters around the city. She said it is “everywhere.”

“There’s hardly ever a park bench that’s developed nowadays that doesn’t have bars in it,” Crowe said. “I’m standing in a bus shelter right now that’s the same thing.”

Patricia Anderson, manager of Shelter, Support and Housing Administration for Toronto, told the Star that the city doesn’t have structures that deliberately prevent homeless people from sleeping outside.

In Ottawa, plans for Ogilvy Square in 2016 — a pedestrian concourse redevelopment near the downtown ByWard Market — initially had no benches.

Concerns were raised that the benches were excluded to keep panhandlers and homeless people from congregating. Mayor Jim Watson then asked that benches be installed.

“The mayor did so because he deemed it unfair that those who are most vulnerable in our city be single out as a deterrent for installing the benches,” Watson’s spokesperson Livia Belcea said in an email.

Growing instances of hostile architecture across Canada have raised the question of what responsibility — if any — institutions have to the people sleeping, loitering and panhandling on their property.

Stephen Hwang, a Toronto physician and researcher, said he thinks “there is no obligation that institutions have to allow people to sleep on their private property.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“But certainly to think that, as a matter of wanting to have a civil and caring society, we don’t want to essentially force people out of places where they are sleeping out of necessity,” Hwang said.

In the past, authorities would remove people who were sleeping or loitering, said Cara Chellew, a research administrator for the Global Suburbanisms Project at York University.

“But now, we’re using the built environment to do these controversial tasks.”

Chellew said hostile architecture goes unnoticed.

“They are so unobtrusive until you’re the target,” she said. “The hospital was a very explicit example, but we have to also consider all of these other ways that we’re restricting the built environment to create a certain image of the city.”

A day after the bars were removed outside the hospital, a man was seen sleeping on the vent.

Chan’s statement read that “this is a problem that is bigger than UHN, but I want you to know that people’s concerns and compassion have made a difference.”

The bars were installed to prevent the collection of garbage and used needles nearby, UHN spokesperson Gillian Howard said. With the bars now removed, hospital staff and security will patrol the area more frequently to keep the area clean and safe.

“I think our obligation is to provide care for people who seek care, and access to that care is through the emergency department,” Howard said, when asked about the hospital’s responsibility to people sleeping or staying on its property.

“We definitely see that as a responsibility. The issue of solving someone’s homelessness is a much bigger issue than the hospital can solve. We’re a part of it, but it really is going to take a much more concerted effort on the part of the city and other agencies.”