No tiny homes to be removed from Toronto park ‘in near future’ as mayor seeks solution, her office says
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has intervened in a dispute between the city and a man who has built several tiny mobile homes for unhoused people, saying she has reached out to him and none of his structures will be removed from a city park “in the near future.”
In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for Chow said the mayor’s office would like to reach a resolution with Ryan Donais, founder of Tiny Tiny Homes.
Last Friday, Donais received a letter from city lawyers informing him that the structures were “unlawfully occupying” city property and violated the city’s municipal code. At least five of his homes for people experiencing homelessness have been placed in St. James Park near King Street E. and Jarvis Street, according to the city.
“Everyone deserves a safe place to call home – no one should be sleeping out in the cold,” Zeus Eden, press secretary for Chow, said in the statement.
“Our office has reached out to Tiny Tiny Homes and are working towards a solution that gets people safely indoors. No temporary housing will be removed in the near future.”
In the cease and desist letter sent to Donais on Feb. 7, city lawyers said the installation and occupancy of the homes is “unlawful” and interferes with the city’s rights of ownership.
“We recognize and appreciate that you are acting with good intentions. However, the City does not condone and cannot permit the installation of these structures for occupation on City property,” the letter reads.
The letter said the structures interfere with the public’s right to use city parks, may also interfere with the city’s outreach work with people in encampments and raise health and safety concerns.
The letter demanded that Donais stop installing the structures on city property and stop supplying them to people who would use them on city property. It also asked him to remove the structures and it gave him a deadline of Friday to do so.
“Should you fail to take the above-demanded action, the City will consider its available remedies, including taking legal, enforcement and other steps to remove the structures,” the letter reads.
“If we do not receive a response from you by February 14, 2025, we will assume that you will not comply with the above-listed demands and the City will turn its focus to the remedial steps available to it.”
CBC Toronto has reached out to Donais on Friday, but has not yet heard back.
In a recent interview with CBC Toronto, Donais said he started building the small modular homes last summer, later registering his own non-profit organization, Tiny Tiny Homes, to help create more.
He added that he designed the homes with several safety features, such as smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and a fire extinguisher. They can be attached to the back of a bicycle and transported to other locations.
Tiny Tiny Homes responded to the cease-and-desist in a letter Wednesday, arguing that that the shelters are mobile and aren’t installed in any set place. The letter also says Tiny Tiny Homes won’t construct any more shelters “until we have resolved this.”
According to Eden, the mayor “remains focused on a comprehensive solution to homelessness, by building more homes, protecting existing rental units to prevent homelessness and tackling mental health and addictions challenges.”
A total of 11,780 people were actively homeless in Toronto in the last three months, according to the city’s own data. A total of 11,483 used the city’s homeless shelter system on Thursday night. And an average of 114 people nightly were turned away from city shelters in December, the data shows.
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