The big bad streets of Toronto.

On Thursday the 8th I was well into my morning routine of breakfast and the Toronto Star when I found an article that peaked my interest. It was titled "Condo seekers hire stand-buys" and it went on to describe how real estate agents had hired university students to camp-out in line for spots One Bloor East, the hottest new condo development in Toronto at Bloor and Yonge. The article then described how these kids were getting paid salaries enough to cover a cruise vacation, "and then some." The line holders were well looked after and even had a catering service. One girl, Sandra was even quoted as saying, "If I want sushi, I get sushi". It was hysterical. I had to get involved. Not only was it a ludicrous story that I could retell for years to come, but I could also then say that I'd gone from living on a yacht to living on the streets. I started my google invenstigation immediately.

I managed to trace the story back to Hersch Litvack who is self toted as the "sweetest man in real estate" and had started what we would later refer to fondly as 'Camp Bloor' in anticipation of the November 13th private realtor sales date. I then e-mailed Hersch to find out if they needed any more people, and on midnight of Saturday the 10th I joined the party as the 'freshmeat', helping to relieve the other representatives of 'Team Hersch' who had been out there since the previous Monday. They were certainly glad and more than a little surprised to see me. Jess Melanson or 'Me-la-la-la-nonsense' was shocked that I had actually joined them out of my own validation and that's when I discovered that the majority of Team Hersch were middle to upper middle class Thornhill Jews that had known each other in some respect or another for tens of years. This was about to become an interesting social experiment.

In my journal entry from November 11th I wrote that after a certain amount of time, everyone here goes crazy. That statement managed to prove itself time and time again. One day a Middle-eastern realtor actually threatened our lives after his representative, a homeless man that he had hired for $2.92 an hour lost his place in line. Fortunatly we had off-duty cops hired for our protection, and heat lamps, as well as a hotel room that we rotated into for some much needed respite for a couple of hours every day. We were the most privileged of all the professional stand-buys. And yet we still went a little bit coo-coo. Having 12 hours of sleep over a three day period will do that to you. Sitting outside in a shanty-town constructed of blue tarps and duct-taped umbrellas in a downpour will do that to you. And certainly taking away the basic necessity of shelter from someone fortunate enough to have never gone without it before, will drive you to empathy with homeless people that was previously unrealized. It is not easy being a bum. Even being paid to sit outside for 24 hours a day with role call as my only duty was difficult. It all added up to one of the more unique challenges that I have ever put myself up to.

And now that it's all said and done I find the experience a hard one to let go of easily. I was homeless for a few days. That kind of thing has a way of affecting a person.


The picture from the article in the Toronto Star that originally peaked my interest.


This is the lineup. We had roll call every 2 hours in the day, every three in the evening and every 4 at night to ensure that 'the list' - the correct lineup was adhered to.


precious roll call moments


Anna Cass and Hersch Litvack