We Are Not the Virus - podcast cover

We Are Not the Virus

Encampment Support Networkwearenotthevir.us
In the midst of an overdose crisis and a housing emergency, a pandemic happened. As overcrowded shelters became incubators for the virus, people started pitching tents instead. Spend some time inside the encampments that sprung up because of the City of Toronto’s inaction. Each episode draws on one of the four elements—earth, water, wind and fire—to talk about encampment life, local histories and the creative ways residents are making a home in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
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Episodes

Wind.

In the late 90s, over a hundred people built a tent city in an empty lot on Toronto's windy lakeshore. Twenty years later, people are posting up again in empty lots, under bridges and in the woods along the shoreline. When you live on the exclusive waterfront, location is everything. How do you get to the water without attracting resentful neighbours? How do you keep your camp hidden from view but close enough to a bus route so that you can still move supplies? How do you beef up your tent for w...

Dec 24, 202055 minSeason 1Ep. 2

Water.

In Toronto’s downtown eastside, Moss Park’s encampment is home to a lot of people with deep ties to the neighbourhood. The site of the city’s first overdose prevention facility—a hard-won resource that started in an unsanctioned trailer—Moss Park’s residents are used to claiming space and fighting for what they need. Relationships are important in every encampment. And in Moss Park, people go way back, but while blood may be thicker than water...you can’t drink blood. And the city isn’t deliveri...

Sep 01, 202040 minSeason 1Ep. 1
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