Researchers say homeless people may receive multiple tickets in the same incident with the police, ranging from alleged “aggressive soliciting,” encumbering the sidewalk or consuming alcohol in a place other than permitted.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The number of tickets issued to Toronto homeless people for panhandling has increased by over 2,000 per cent in the past 11 years, according to a new report co-authored by professors at York University and the University of Guelph.
The tickets were issued after the province's Safe Streets Act was put into action in 2000. The law allows police to ticket people who solicit money in an "aggressive manner," or who stake out ATMs, bus stops or other "captive audiences."
Since its implementation, the number of tickets issued exploded from 710 in 2000 to 15,324 in 2010. The study's authors say that the Safe Street Act's recommended fine is $500 for a first offence, but the average penalty is usually just $60.
The report was published on homelesshub.ca, a library and resource centre supported by the Canadian Homelessness Research Network.
The researchers said that homeless people may receive multiple tickets in the same incident with the police, ranging from alleged "aggressive soliciting," encumbering the sidewalk or consuming alcohol in a place other than permitted. They will often receive additional tickets for the same offences upon moving to a new spot.
The focus of the report is street youth under 25.
While these youth have received just over 10 per cent of the tickets in the 11 years, 6,388 out of the 6,400 tickets have fines outstanding. That means than less than one per cent of tickets issued to younger offenders have been paid, creating a amount owing of $723,068 from 2000 to 2010.
"They get these tickets [and]they can't afford to pay them," said Stephen Gaetz, who was the lead co-author with Bill O'Grady, a researcher at the University of Guelph. "You carry the debt with you."
Mr. Gaetz is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at York University and the principal investigator of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network. His research interests include homelessness and community development. He stressed that loading street youth with tickets hampers their ability to get back on their feet.
"This doesn't seem to me to be a valid response to homelessness. It doesn't seem to me to be a valid use of police resources. It's a wasteful expenditure at a time [the city is]looking for gravy," said Mr. Gaetz, pointing to city hall's stymied efforts to trim 10 per cent from the 2012 police budget. "Instead of dealing with the cause of the problem, which is homelessness, we address the symptoms."
However, ticketing has had an impact. A sample group of 365 street youth in 1999 reported that 12 per cent relied on panhandling as a primary form of income, while 16 per cent relied on squeegeeing. Those numbers decreased sharply when another group of youth under 25 was polled 10 years later, in 2009: 0 per cent of males and 1.7 per cent of females reported squeegeeing as a chief way of making money, while 0.9 per cent of males and 3.4 per cent of females attributed their earnings to panhandling.
Toronto Police Services has declined to comment on the report until it has a chance to review it.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Stephen Gaetz as an Associate Dean of Research and Field Development at York University. Mr. Gaetz is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at York University and the principal investigator of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network. This version has been corrected.