This green space is Clarence Square Park, close to Wellington Street and Spadina Avenue.  Throughout the pandemic, people live there in tents and small structures.
Just a week ago, however, the city issued 72-hour breach alerts to its residents and enforced those orders shortly after 7 a.m. today.
In a statement, they said eight of the park’s 10 structures had been removed and two of its four “known occupants” referred to it as “inside”.  One person remained on the spot, while another person “returned to housing,” the city said.
Stressing its commitment to a “first approach to housing on the road and camp approach and to providing integrated, customer-centric case management to people living outdoors, constructively and non-confrontationally,” the city told Streets Homes’s approach team has worked with Clarence Square residents 152 times since January, referring 17 of them to “indoor accommodation.”
Douglas Johnson Hatlem, a street pastor with Ministry of Sanctuary and longtime advocate for poverty / housing, helps those living in Clarence Square.  He said six people actually lived there and expects most, if not all, of them to return in a matter of days.
And while things were somewhat peaceful and no arrests were made during the clearing this morning, Hatlem said the unexpected raid on a homeless camp on a rainy Sunday shows a “lack of respect and dignity” for those living there.
“Not only is it violent and disrespectful, but it is also likely to be harmful in the long run,” he said, adding that the city should have followed the same approach it did last summer at Dufferin Grove Park, where residents were given time to determine best housing or shelter options that worked for them.  Hatlem said he was optimistic something similar would happen in Clarence Square, as city officials were present a week ago and seemed interested in taking the time to work with residents.  That all changed early Saturday, June 6, he said, when people in Clarence Square Park received a 72-hour alert.
ESN Parkdale, which calls itself a group of homeless and non-neighbors who support each other and counterattack, is also closely monitoring the situation.
In a tweet, they described today’s “violent and unexpected raid” as the beginning of “another summer of violent evictions”.  The group said it was committed to doing all it could to support homeless people.

	This morning, the city of Toronto, with the help of Toronto police, ousted most of the camp in Clarence Square in a brutal and unexpected raid.  At least 10 constructions were here (shown in the first picture), and now only the tiny shelter and a tent.  pic.twitter.com/cvS9Qh7mkX
– ESN Parkdale (@ESNParkdale) June 12, 2022
Speaking to reporters Sunday, Toronto Mayor John Tori said he could not forgive people living in parks while not instructing law enforcement and city officials to clear the camps.
Calling the camps “unsafe, unhealthy and illegal,” Tori said the city has and will continue to make “intensive efforts” to help shelter homeless people, sometimes adding that “decisions need to be made” about to ensure that parks are ‘safe and accessible.  for “all the people in Toronto.”