Toronto says it has found temporary space for 212 refugee claimants and asylum seekers

The City of Toronto says that it has been able to locate indoor space for 212 asylum-seekers so far after initially setting a goal of finding 150 immediate spots.

Last week, city council unanimously approved a motion by Mayor Olivia Chow to immediately open 150 shelter spaces through hotel lease extensions and to work to identify an additional hundred spaces in the coming weeks.

The city said Tuesday that it has been able to secure space at two hotels, as well as at a city emergency shelter.

“As of today, 212 asylum seekers have been referred to indoor space,” the city said in its release. “Work will continue this week to review space options to reach council’s decision to make 250 shelter spaces temporarily available.”

The city has long said that its shelters have been overwhelmed by refugees and asylum seekers, who make up a third of users in the system. The city started turning refugees away from the shelter system in June, referring them instead to federal programs. That brought the issue to a head as asylum-seekers then spent weeks sleeping outside a shelter intake centre on Peter Street in the hopes of finding a spot.

Community groups stepped in to find temporary accommodation for the refugees at churches, and to coordinate donations of food and clothing.

The situation eventually prompted the federal government to kick in $97 million — approximately two thirds of the money that the city had been asking for in order to support caring for refugees and asylum-seekers, an area of federal responsibility.

Council’s motion to open more shelter space followed.

“The city extends its sincere thanks for the leadership and mobilization of Black-led community and faith organizations in Toronto, who organized temporary shelter and provided food, clothing and a sense of community for the asylum claimants from African countries until more permanent solutions could be arranged,” the city said in its release, recognizing the gap the groups filled.

Officials reiterated Tuesday that the federal support does not go far enough to deal with the crisis of asylum seekers and refugees needing support.

“The city welcomes the approximately $97 million the Government of Canada announced last week that will be earmarked for Toronto through the Interim Housing Assistance Program; however, it falls significantly short of what is required,” the release states. “The City has emphasized to its Federal partners that the need is $157 million and growing. The strain on the system is increasing and some of our current programs are simply not sustainable without the appropriate levels of support.”

Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said yesterday that the federal government is already providing lots of support to Toronto for various programs and cannot spend ‘infinite’ amounts in response to Chow’s request for more financial support for the city.

Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath also released a letter Tuesday calling on the federal government to provide more funding to her city to cope with refugees, warning that “the exponential influx of refugee and asylum seekers is placing our emergency response systems at the risk of collapse.”

She echoed Chow’s call for an intake centre to be set up near Pearson International Airport to properly place refugees and asylum seekers and asked for an immediate funding boost of $9.095 million to support Hamilton’s shelter system.

“The financial impact of these policies cannot be downloaded to local governments, and these individuals and families cannot continue to suffer while federal and provincial governments fight to avoid responsibility for their care,” Horwath wrote.

Toronto also put out a call Tuesday for landlords with available space to flag it to the city, saying that refugee claimants will receive support to pay their rent from the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit.

Donations of food, clothing or household items can also be made to partner agencies such as United Way or through the city’s DonateTO webpage.