Calls for personal hygiene products for the city's most vulnerable

Guest: Diana Chan McNally, training and engagement co-ordinator for the Toronto Drop-in Network Host: Jennifer Pagliaro As the city grapples with another pandemic budget and how to pay for basic city services, there are calls for an increase to funding to help the city's most vulnerable. On one point, advocates approached the budget committee to plead for resources to provide menstrual and incontinence products to clients who use drop-in spaces all over the city — people who are low-income, precariously housed and those experiencing homelessness. Even though the city added over $220,000 in funding for free menstrual products in city-funded shelters and other spaces in 2020, that money has not benefited a network of over 50 drop-in sites that mostly rely on fundraising to provide their clients a place to rest, something to eat and access to other services. Now there is a push to increase the city's funding to make sure more people are served.