'Unacceptable conditions:' Protesters rally for more shelter supports ahead of Toronto council meeting

The high noon sun bounced off City Hall’s two towers, but the ground below was still iced over and cold. Nonetheless, dozens of Torontonians laid down on the frozen square Monday, dramatizing sleeping on the street.

“Life is really, really fragile and really worth protecting, and that’s at the bare minimum what the city should be doing to ensure that people don’t actually have to sleep on the pavement,” Susan Bender, manager of the Toronto Drop-In Network, told CTV News Toronto.

The protesters rallying outside the doors of Toronto City Hall called on council to increase shelter spaces and other social supports, ahead of a series of council votes that would determine the fate of certain temporary shelters and warming centres, as well as operating spending.

“We see people sleeping outside and in stairwells, trying to stay in coffee shops and ride the TTC all night,” one protester said. “It’s really unacceptable conditions.”

The Shelter Housing Justice Network (SHJN) is calling on city council to keep warming centres open 24-7 for the rest of the winter, instead of operating them only when the temperature drops to -15 C. According to city data, 99 per cent of warming centre spaces were occupied on Friday during the extreme cold weather warning.

“I’ve lost a lot of friends, just from being homeless, friends that were frozen to death, that passed out in the cold and then were found deceased,” Kat Clouse, who used to be homeless, told CTV News Toronto.

Council will also consider Tuesday a call for the declaration of homelessness as a public health crisis in Toronto.

The SHJN is also calling on council to keep the doors open on five shelters that opened during the pandemic and are slated to close this year, as the city transitions away from the temporary sites.

It is also asking that the proposed nearly $50-million increase to the police budget be redirected to funding safe shelters, instead of more officers on the street and in the transit system.

“The reality is that people who are unhoused might be riding the train to stay warm because there are no options for people to go,” shouted one protester.

“Mayor Tory’s primary concern in winter months, and all year, is to make sure the City of Toronto is continuing to support our most vulnerable residents,” Mayor John Tory’s office told CTV News Toronto in a statement, adding that there are 9,000 shelter beds in the city’s 2023 budget, up from 6,000 pre-pandemic.

But a December city staff report indicated that despite this increase, the shelter system is at full capacity most nights.

“I just don’t want to see it again,” Clouse said of the deaths related to the extreme cold. “It’s really got to stop.”

City council meets Tuesday.