Province, Toronto add funding for asylum seekers, but say feds still need to do more

Toronto city councillors unanimously passed a motion Wednesday to expand funding and resources to help house asylum seekers in the city, in the midst of mounting pressure to take action with newcomers forced to sleep on the street because of an overburdened shelter system.

Both Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Premier Doug Ford say their respective governments are pledging millions to help house refugee claimants who have nowhere else to go — but they also say that the federal government needs to do more to establish long-term solutions for the situation.

In a joint statement issued Wednesday morning, Chow and Ford said that Ontario and Toronto are each providing $6.67 million as a one-time funding top up to the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit to get more people into permanent housing and quickly free up spaces in the shelter system.

"The scenes we're seeing with some of the most vulnerable being forced to sleep on the streets are heartbreaking," the statement reads. "It's never been more important for all levels of government to work together to fix this crisis."

Chow and Ford say that historically, the federal government contributes two-thirds of the cost of the housing benefit program, and to help more people move into permanent housing, they are urging the federal government to provide $26.7 million in funding.

That number would be in addition to the $97 million the federal government committed to help the city house an influx of newcomers earlier this week.

Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said Tuesday the money for Toronto is part of a one-time injection of $212 million into the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) that will last until March 31, 2024. IHAP works on a cost-sharing basis with municipalities and provinces to provide temporary housing to asylum claimants.

"Our modelling demonstrates this should more than cover the cost of interim housing for the people who are currently being denied access to the shelter system by the City of Toronto," Fraser said.

Calls for action

That funding money came after the federal government faced growing calls from the city and advocacy groups to help cover the increasing costs of housing newcomers turned away from the overwhelmed shelter network.

Ford and Chow said in their joint statement that they welcome the federal government's investment as "a great first step," but say it isn't enough.

'That's why we are calling on the federal government to build on its stop-gap funding by fully funding the supports needed to shelter and care for these refugees and asylum seekers in the city. At the same time, while the problem is most extreme in Toronto, it is a challenge facing communities across Ontario. We need the federal government to deliver long-term province-wide solutions."

The pair also urged Ottawa to dispatch resources in Toronto to help refugees and asylum seekers complete paperwork and process applications so they can begin applying for jobs in weeks, "rather than the years it can currently take."

Chow's first council meeting as mayor

Meanwhile Wednesday, Chow's first Toronto city council meeting as mayor opened with a motion about the refugee shelter and housing crisis.

City council kicked off three days of meetings, the first of Chow's mayoral term after she officially took office last week.

In her first week, Chow lobbied the federal government for more shelter support for asylum claimants, some of whom had been left to sleep on city sidewalks as different levels of government wrangled over funding.

The motion, which was moved by Chow and seconded by Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie, says that Toronto's shelter system accommodates nearly 9,000 people — but of that, more than 35 per cent of people in the system are refugees.

A controversial city policy, brought in under McKelvie, has seen asylum claimants looking for a spot in non-refugee-specific Toronto shelter beds directed toward federal programs.

Other elements of the motion include:

• A request that the federal government develop a refugee reception area that can provide access to services when refugees arrive, which is similar to what was done for Ukrainian refugees.
• That the city manager make available temporary shelter for a minimum of 150 refugees and further find locations for an additional 100 refugees after that's completed.
• That the city manager to develop an outreach strategy to invite property owners in the region who are willing to provide rental accommodation to refugee claimants to notify the city, so it can use the housing benefit to move people into permanent housing quickly.