Toronto Star writer Edward Keenan has embarked on a three-part series (if you please) dealing with NIMBYism. You can find the first one here. He mentions the Jefferson Homeless Shelter hoax. South Bayview residents are still stinging from the calculated dishonesty and entrapment perpetrated by the homeless charity Raise the Roof and the ad agency Leo Burnett. On October 2, 2015, pedestrians on Bayview Ave. were informed by signage that a 62-bed shelter was moving into a vacant building. The affairs of this new hostel would be managed by three volunteers. In nearby shops “staff” of the hostel sought out residents to confirm that buses would indeed ferry the homeless from wherever they might be found to fill the place. The Jefferson Shelter said in a notice that it knew people living in South Bayview might have questions. How thoughtful. Why not call the number provided and (it was implied) hear our side, said the notice. Of course there was no one at the other end of the line, just a recording to leave a message.
MEDIA FELL OVERBOARD
The whiz kids at Leo Burnett knew that this was their access to juicy recorded material that would permit them to paint their lurid picture. With suckers like the people of Leaside and Davisville who needed paid actors? The holy warriors of anti-NIMBYism would be fully unleashed with this stuff. The media fell overboard. Writers snickered that people might cry at being told that a homeless hostel was moving in. But one respectable single woman renting a flat above a shop next door to the fictitious shelter did cry. How silly of her to think that maybe as she walked from the bus after dark she might not feel as safe as she once did. Yes, and some people who own fine homes here actually wondered if they should sell them. It is a distress that comfortable reporters no doubt think these people deserved. You know, it’s what you get when you react badly to carefully calculated deceit and entrapment.
