Trapped in liminality: homelessness in Toronto during COVID-19

Abstract When COVID-19 struck in 2020, a large number of persons experiencing homelessness in Toronto filtered out into public spaces and makeshift shelters to try to limit further community spread. Using city council reports, transcripts from community meetings, and media publications, this article employs a novel framing device called “liminal positionality” to grasp how people who were resettled in new shelters were at once embedded among and newly rejected by the people living around these shelters. Existing residents then pressured the state to build new spatial boundaries between themselves and their new neighbours within these shared spaces.