Demand for shelters ‘higher than ever before:’ City of Toronto

As Toronto issues extreme weather alerts, the city says the demand for shelter remains higher than ever before and some advocates are asking to call in extra resources, including federal assistance, for relief.

Lorraine Lam, an outreach worker for Sanctuary Toronto, shared audio on social media of an unanswered phone with a city service that provides people with beds from Monday afternoon.

“We are experiencing higher than usual call volume, please call back at a later time to speak with an agent,” can be heard in a clip of the phone call.

Monday night temperatures were forecasted to reach -18 C with a wind chill of -25. “Even before the pandemic, it was really hard to get a bed in the shelter system. It was way beyond capacity … the status quo wasn’t working. And so, I think even now, more so, there are just no shelter beds available for people who want to get inside,” explained Lam.

Lam said within 24 hours, she and her colleagues have had a zero percent success rate in helping people get shelter.

“Yesterday, they were so overwhelmed … they didn’t even have the capacity to pick up the phone. And that’s not their fault,” said Lam. “I think they’re just under resourced as well and the demand is really high. So, it really does point to some real systemic gaps here”

Earlier on Tuesday, protestors took to the streets to demand more beds for those experiencing homelessness outside Old City Hall. CityNews cameras captured people sleeping outside on the sidewalk and in tents.

At the rate things are going, Lam said the city needs to be prepared for increased encampments. “Encampments are a visible symptom of a real deeper problem. If people have nowhere to go, they’re going to do what they need to do to survive.”

“I think if the city decided to actually invest in long term options, and instead of spending so much money on policing and fencing and evicting people from parks last year and actually looked into longer term solutions, we might actually be in a different place right now,” added Lam.

She says we need federal relief and actual solutions to happen in order to combat these issues.

According to the City, there are currently 75 shelters and respite sites. During the pandemic, 26 temporary sites have been added to provide distancing in shelters.

According to the most recent estimate by the Street Needs Assessment conducted in April 2021, approximately 742 people are sleeping outdoors. However, the city added it is difficult to determine how many people are living outdoors at any one time.

They have added more than 325 more spaces as a part of the 2021/2022 winter services plan to provide additional space for people to come indoors.

“The City also activates approximately 165 spaces at four Warming Centres when an Extreme Cold Weather Alert is called, along with additional street outreach,” read a statement from the City.

When asked about capacity, the city said, “People enter and leave the shelter system each day … When a client calls Central Intake requesting shelter, we look for an available space that fits their needs. So, a client may call looking for a specific type of space and there are no beds available at that moment that meet this need, but that can change.”

The city says they are also working with partners to create more space.

In partnership with Homes First, the city opened up a new shelter on December 30 in Scarborough, offering 51 spaces at a crucial time.

“The demand in the city is so high right now, the minute we open a bed, it’s basically filled,” said Gary Muirhead who is the Manager of Shelters at Homes First.

Homes First operates seven shelters in the GTA, operating at lower capacity to allow for distancing during the pandemic which poses another challenge for shelters.

“The congregate settings is harder to manage. We’ve had outbreaks in the past where we then have to wait on the city who have got isolation hotels to get to send the clients those spaces and it’s a lot of coordination,” said Muirhead.

“We’re all client focused, we’re all working towards the same goal to make sure we’ve got safe clients, healthy clients and clients in beds as much as we can,” added Muirhead.

Advocates, like Lam, say there needs to be long-term solutions, like accessible and affordable housing. But in the short-term, more warming centers, beds and hotel shelter beds for people are needed.

The City agrees, telling CityNews in a statement, while emergency responses are critical to fill the gap when people are in immediate housing, permanent housing with supports is key.

“HousingTO 2020 -2030 includes actions across the full housing spectrum – from homelessness to rental and ownership housing to long-term care for seniors,” read the statement from the city. “The plan calls for the approval of 40,000 new affordable rental homes including 18,000 new supportive homes.”

On Tuesday, Lam says they added 10 more names to the Toronto Homeless Memorial at Holy Trinity Church, 10 people who died in the last month homeless for preventable reasons.

“Until we actually fix some of these policy gaps and make immediate changes, people are going to die from things that they don’t have to die from. People don’t have to freeze to death in Toronto, but this happens every year,” Lam exclaimed.