Winter respite centre to open at Exhibition Place as city pleads for more federal shelter funding

Toronto officials are once again calling on the federal government to "step up" with more funding for the city's strained shelter system, as staff project daily demand for spaces to reach 10,000 once winter temperatures set in.

"The city of Toronto's taxpayers have been paying for a significant amount of the services and programs that we are providing at an unprecedented level," said Gord Tanner, Toronto's director of homelessness initiatives, at a Wednesday morning update on the city's winter services plan.

"We do the best that we can with the resources that we have. But that's why we're here today again ... underlining the fact that we need longer-term financial support from the federal government to assist, specifically on a component of the shelter system that is playing a significant role in the immigration space," he said.

Many of the details of the winter services plan were previously outlined during an October news conference. Among the new developments is a temporary shelter at the Better Living Centre, on the grounds of Exhibition Place, set to open Thursday. Forty spots will become available each day until it reaches capacity at 240 beds on Dec. 26, Tanner said. It will stay open until late March. 

The city has previously used the Better Living Centre as a shelter, including during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are two other winter respite centres already open at 20 Gerrard St. E. and 502 Spadina Ave.

The plan also includes four warming centres that open when temperatures reach -5 C. They're located at 136 Spadina Road, 75 Elizabeth Street, 15 Olive Avenue in North York (at the Willowdale Baptist Church) and 885 Scarborough Golf Club Rd. Some advocates argue that the city's -5 C temperature threshold is too rigid and fails to account for wind chill values.

Meanwhile, Covenant House has opened a 24/7 respite centre for youth with 30 beds, Tanner said.

During the October update, Tanner said the city was opening up 275 spots in supportive housing. On Wednesday, he said 100 of those spots had been filled.

WATCH | 240-space winter shelter to open at Exhibition Place:

Tanner also provided some stark data to illustrate the burden Toronto's shelter system is under as he urged the federal government to come to the table with additional funding.

Since September 2021, when many COVID-related border closures and travel restrictions were ended, the city has added 2,865 shelter beds. In that same period, the number of people relying on the system has ballooned 44 per cent, particularly refugee claimants.

On Dec. 17, the most recent day for which the city has data available, 9,370 people stayed in Toronto shelters — 4,045 of them, or roughly 43 per cent, were refugee claimants, Tanner said. That figure could grow to 10,000 per night in the depths of winter, he added.

"We have never sheltered close to 10,000 in the city on a single night, that is not a good signal with respect to the need that is out there in the community," he said.

Refugees entering system at double the speed city can provide housing

In November alone, 685 refugee claimants were admitted to shelters while a total of 334 people were moved into permanent housing. In other words, refugee claimants are entering the system at roughly twice the rate the city can house people, Tanner said.

An average of 238 people are being turned away from shelters each night, he added, and city staff are aware of roughly 300 tent encampments currently being occupied throughout Toronto.

The demand has become so overwhelming that the city now keeps a wait list for families seeking shelter beds that has grown to 467, of which 322 are refugee claimants. The city pays for hotel accommodations for families on the wait list until appropriate shelter space can be found, Tanner said.

The city projects it will spend $200 million on its "refugee response" in the 2023 fiscal year, and $250 million in 2024. The Shelter, Support and Housing Administration's total projected budget for next year is $787 million.

Meanwhile, Tanner said that a program called the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit has been "the leading pathway out of homelessness" in Toronto since it was launched in 2022, accounting for about 75 per cent of instances of unhoused people moving into private housing. 

The program is essentially a rent supplement, and is usually funded two-thirds by Ottawa and one-third by the province. Toronto's 2023 funding allotment was exhausted by mid-June, Mayor Olivia Chow has previously said, but additional money from the city and province announced in August has kept the program running.

According to Tanner, that money has helped some 1,300 households move out of homelessness since August, with a total of 2,000 households forecasted to be helped into permanent housing by the time the funding runs out in March.

As part of the "new deal" Toronto and Queen's Park recently signed, the provincial government has pledged $200 million annually for three years to help the city's shelter system. But that funding is conditional on a matching commitment from the federal government.

"The city of Toronto cannot do this alone, specifically when almost half of those beds are currently in use by folks who are fleeing different, very challenging situations around the world. We want to welcome them, and we want to support them," Tanner said.

"But fundamentally we believe that the federal government has jurisdiction for immigration in this country and we need them to play a part. Not only for the bill for today and next year, but frankly for a long-term strategy."