On the day that a homeless advocate began a hunger strike outside of London City Hall, city officials announced they have invited #TheForgotten519 to another meeting to find a solution London's homelessness crisis.
On Tuesday, the City of London announced that it has invited #TheForgotten519, a group of front line workers who serve people experiencing homelessness in London, to a gathering this Thursday with community representatives and agencies to address concerns and calls for action for the city's most vulnerable.
"The City is calling for agencies to come together to participate in two working sessions that will be facilitated by a third party, beginning this week," a statement issued Tuesday from the City of London read. "The focus for the first session will be on creating space to broadly share and listen to the experiences of those providing service in the community that has been gathered by #TheForgotten519 and discuss the ideas for immediate action."
Several hours before the announcement of a meeting, Dan Oudshoorn, a member of #TheForgotten519, arrived at city hall located at 300 Dufferin Street with a tent. He said he is prepared to live in front of the building and not eat until the group agrees to ends the protest.
The hunger strike began on schedule after the group gave the city a deadline to comply with a list of three demands. According to the coalition, initial talks with city officials did not go well.
Ahead of the second meeting, Kevin Dickins, the city's Deputy City Manager of Social and Health Development said staff will look to identify additional ways to support those experiencing homelessness in London.
"The actions of this coalition have shone the spotlight on systemic problems. We are not working against agencies who are responding to and supporting vulnerable people. We work with them," a statement from Dickins read. "Our hope is that gathering with our community agencies and frontline workers will allow us to agree on what we can do right now to move to better health, social and housing outcomes – as a municipality, as a system and as a community."
Two of the demands from #TheForgotten519 included allowing all encampments on public and neglected private property to exist throughout London and changing the city's Coordinated Informed Response (CIR) team to an outreach and support model, not displacement.
Dickins explained that most encampments have been allowed to exist on public property. He said action to encampments on public property only occurs when there are risks to health and safety for the individuals or to the surrounding areas. He said city officials have no ability to direct what happens to encampments on private property.
Related: Craig Needles Podcast Episode 93: Kevin Dickins on hunger strike, homelessness.
"We can talk about encampments and displacements and the number of encampments, but the real problem is that we have encampments at all," said Dickens "There are just not enough places with supports for people to go and that should concern all of us."
The City said staff will look internally to identify any other supports including access to funding, and focused and targeted advocacy with other levels of government.
"The actions of #TheForgotten519 have given voice to the concerns of frontline workers and raised awareness about the critical need to do more for vulnerable people in our community. They have also underlined the urgency," Dickins added.