Site chosen for men’s shelter in Scarborough shocks local councillor

A Toronto city councillor says the plan to convert a Scarborough building in a residential neighbourhood to an eighty-bed men’s shelter makes no sense.

Sources have confirmed to CityNews that City of Toronto staff are planning on moving ahead with purchasing the building at 2535 Gerrard Street East, although the City declined to comment citing confidential negotiations.

In an exclusive interview, Parthi Kandavel, councillor for the Scarborough Southwest ward said, “If that’s what’s being proposed, then we need to do more homework and due diligence.”

The property in question is currently an empty commercial building beside residential townhomes and across the street from a daycare.

“My wife has already been on the phone to our realtor,” said one area resident who declined to be interviewed.

“I’ve supported that we need 20 new shelters, and this is the first batch of those,” said Kandavel of a city wide push to increase shelter space.

In the spring, Toronto City Council voted to direct staff to find new shelter locations and reaffirmed a decision from 2017 to keep politics out of the process by giving site selection power to bureaucrats, not councillors. 

Kandavel, elected in a by-election and voted in favour of the measure, is now unsure if he did the right thing.

“I was a few months as city councillor, I would rethink that decision at this point,” he said.

Records show 2535 Gerrard East is owned by a numbered company that bought the property in 2020 for $4.3 million.

As news spread in this mostly single-family home neighbourhood, residents gathered in a local school parking lot to talk about it.

One woman stressed she supported building shelters, but in places with more transit options and social services than exist near the Gerrard Street site.