Toronto says it will provide 1,200 more spaces for the homeless this winter, but more help is needed

Toronto is calling on other levels of government to provide more help for its unhoused population as the city unveils its winter strategy for those experiencing homelessness.

“We need the federal and provincial governments to step up as partners and ensure everyone has a safe and secure place to call home, including real commitments to increase deeply affordable housing and supportive housing,” Coun. Alejandra Bravo said Tuesday.

She made the comments as Toronto unveiled its Winter Services Plan for the unhoused population which includes up to 530 temporary spaces in the shelter system; 218 spaces in four warming centres; bringing up to 286 new supportive homes and available social housing units online throughout the winter; and extending operating hours at several daytime drop-in programs.

The Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place will once again be used as a dedicated 24-hour winter respite starting in mid-December.

Speaking alongside Bravo Tuesday, Shelter & Support Services General Manager Gordon Tanner said the city is grateful for a number of federal and provincial initiatives in recent years. However he said more support is needed.

Tanner noted Toronto’s homelessness service system costs more than $780 million annually, but “far greater” services are needed to provide proper support.

“We welcome the most recent allocation of the 2024 funding through the Canada Ontario Housing Benefit. Funding through that program will support 1,700 households to move into private market housing and create more shelter system flow so we can serve more people,” Tanner said.

“To help more people get housed, we urge the federal government to launch the fourth phase of the Rapid Housing Initiative in a very successful program that creates the supportive and rent-geared-to-income housing for people who are homeless.”

Tanner also noted that the federal government announced $250 million in its spring budget to help respond to encampments nationally. However that money is conditional on matching funds from the province.

“So in Toronto, we are very eager and awaiting an update on how that money will be made available to flow. Assisting people in encampments has become a much bigger part of the work that we do,” Tanner said.

He said that while outreach workers have referred 560 people from the street to indoor accommodation so far this year, more and more people are entering homelessness and help is “desperately” needed.

As part of a 10-year strategy for dealing with homelessness, the city is working on building 20 permanent purpose-built shelters by 2033 as it moves away from a shelter hotel strategy. Tanner said the city is finalizing plans for the first six locations and more details will be revealed in the coming weeks.

The city said it is also providing funding to create 200 new spaces in refugee houses, 100 of which will open this winter.

More than half of the people currently using municipal shelter accommodations are refugee claimants, the city noted in a release.

“While additional shelter space, warming centres and new housing will help many in need this winter, seasonal plans cannot fully address the increasing demand for shelter,” the city said in the release.  “More than 12,200 people are currently being supported in the shelter system and outside the shelter system in bridging hotels, and an average of 223 people are turned away each night because demand is currently greater than the system can accommodate.”

The city said its seasonal plan will provide approximately 1,200 new shelter system and housing spaces from Nov. 15 through to April 15.