Advocates unveil their own winter homelessness plan, saying Toronto's response 'atrociously inadequate'

Advocates for unhoused people in Toronto presented their own winter homelessness plan on Friday, saying the city isn't doing enough to address the need for safe indoor spaces for people who have nowhere to go.

"The city's winter plan is and has always been atrociously inadequate," Mika Wee, spokesperson for the advocacy group Shelter and Housing Justice Network (SHJN), told reporters on Friday.

"Their plan of having one 24-hour respite site with 40 spaces, 170 warming centre spaces across four sites set to open at -5 C and additional spots by reducing physical distancing in already overcrowded shelters is only setting up for more failure and harm," Wee said.

On Oct. 17, the city released its winter services plan outlining how it will help unhoused people over the winter months. The plan includes "additional shelter space, expanded warming centre operations and new permanent housing ready for occupancy," it said in a news release.

The city said it will add 180 spaces to its shelter system, make available 170 spaces through its four warming centres and provide about 40 spaces at its 24-hour respite site.

Wee, however, said that plan is not sufficient given the number of unhoused people in Toronto. She said SHJN has developed its own plan that is community-led and has been developed with the help of people experiencing homelessness.

According to the city's Daily Shelter and Overnight Service Usage page, 9,250 people used its shelter system on Thursday night. Its Shelter System Flow Data page says the number of people actively homeless in the last three months is 10,111.

In October, the city's Shelter System Request for Referrals page indicates an average of 291 people were turned away from its shelter system nightly.

"Our alternative to the city's winter plan outlines a state of this crisis and highlights five key areas of action for city council to effectively intervene in the housing and homelessness emergency," Wee said.

The five key areas are as follows:

• Expand capacity for access to safe indoor spaces.
• Ensure dignified, humane and responsive conditions in city services.
• Promote survival for people living in encampments.
• Work to ensure that everyone has access to safe and dignified housing options, given housing has become a commodity.
• Implement measures that work to increase housing security and stability.

Lynn Walker, a former resident of Allan Gardens, said encampment residents need safe and warm spaces, need to be treated like human beings and need housing. Walker said she was evicted and ended up outside, but now has a place to live. She lived outside for two years and a month before she accepted housing.

"The winter time is a hard time for people. I've gone through frostbite. Sometimes the food isn't here in the winter," she said. "It's hard to get sleeping bags and tents. It's been a hard experience."

Greg Cook, an outreach worker at Sanctuary Toronto, said Mayor Olivia Chow acknowledges homelessness in Toronto is an emergency but says city has not yet provided more money, shelter beds and respite beds.

Cook said about 3,000 more shelter beds are needed and the conditions inside shelters need to be improved. He also said there needs to be a moratorium on encampment evictions and a rent freeze to keep people in the housing they have.

"The city has even said, it's an emergency, but has done nothing," he said.

'We have to collectively do more,' mayor says

Chow, for her part, said on Friday that all Toronto residents deserve a roof over their heads.

"Since I became the mayor, I changed the threshold in opening the warming centres from -15 to -5 C. I'm willing to consider other changes, but that's what I've done so far," she said.

Chow said the city has taken a number of steps to help unhoused people, such as opening 390 more spaces in its shelter system, moving 844 unhoused people into housing through its rent supplement program and opening a 24-hour respite centre. 

It has also called on the federal government to open its armouries and to support refugees in the city's shelter system. Neither the Department of Defence nor Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada has responded to CBC Toronto's inquiries about whether the armouries will be opened.

"Is that enough? No," Chow said. 

"We have to collectively do more," she said. "I don't have all the solutions but I'm doing my best, given the $1.5-billion budget deficit we have."

Chow has previously said Toronto needs federal help to address the growing numbers of refugees in its emergency shelter system. The mayor met with federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland for the first time in Toronto in late September to address the city's deficit.

While both called the meeting positive, Freeland said at the time the federal government's own fiscal position is "constrained."