After two men died on the streets of Toronto in frigid temperatures, one advocate for the homeless says the city must do something about chronically crowded shelters.
Gaetan Heroux of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty is calling on the City of Toronto to open up the armouries for emergency shelter while a deep freeze settles in across southern Ontario.
“We’ve had a chronic problem with overcrowding (in shelters) that’s been around for decades, that the city is refusing to address,” Heroux told CTV News Channel Tuesday.
After three homeless men froze to death in Toronto in 1996, the city opened up the armouries to accommodate people who could not find a spot in local shelters. Heroux said the city should do the same now, in the wake of the two deaths.
“We have a serious situation. We can’t allow people to freeze and die on the streets,” he said. “We’re asking the city … to open up something for a couple of weeks, allow people to come in, and give some relief (to shelters).”
Heroux said homeless people in Toronto are turned away from shelters on a daily basis because of overcrowding. He said the situation is problematic year-round, not just during cold winter months.
When Toronto is under an extreme cold weather alert, the city opens two 24-hour drop-in centres where homeless residents can go to warm up. Shelters are directed to relax any service restrictions they have, and transit tokens are made available at drop-in sites.
Toronto Mayor John Tory has requested that the 24-hour warming centres open on Tuesday afternoon, when Environment Canada issues an extreme cold weather warning.
