Mayor Olivia Chow outlines next steps for housing asylum seekers in Toronto

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow on Thursday outlined some of the city's next steps to try to find housing for refugee claimants who were previously camped outside a downtown shelter intake office.

A motion passed unanimously by city council this week called on staff to find 150 hotel rooms for newcomers, primarily by renewing shelter hotel contracts, and to find 100 more spaces in the coming days. Chow told CBC Radio's Metro Morning that the process of identifying potential spaces is already underway.

More than 200 refugees and asylum seekers have been living at two churches in North York for several days after spending weeks living rough downtown.

A policy put in place last month under the tenure of Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie denied access to asylum claimants to the city's overwhelmed shelter system, which is already operating at capacity. The policy led a coalition of advocates to call for the resignation of Gord Tanner, the general manager of Shelter Support and Housing Administration.

Chow said she would officially end the policy but defended Tanner.

"That was a council decision, so blame the politicians. Not the people who implement what the politicians decide," Chow said.

She added that shelters are already full, meaning that even without the policy in place, there is simply no more space to house any more people in the system.

Chow said the plan put in place by the city this week is only a temporary solution, and again called on the federal government to provide increased, regular funding to help house newcomers.

Listen to the full interview: