Coalition assisting refugees demands action to help asylum seekers sleeping on Toronto streets

On a day that city officials are set to meet with their provincial and federal counterparts about aid for refugee settlement efforts, a coalition of groups working with asylum seekers in Toronto is calling on all levels of government to act immediately to help newcomers to Canada who have been locked out of the city's overwhelmed shelter system.

At a news conference held Friday near Toronto's shelter intake office at Peter and Richmond streets downtown, a host of speakers demanded that politicians stop pointing fingers and start doing something to address a problem that has left asylum seekers from Africa and other locales sleeping outside because there is no shelter space.

One of those speakers was Kizito Musabimana, the founder and executive director of the Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre. He is a Rwandan who came to Canada in 2000 as a refugee.

"The country that I came to, the country that saved me, was not this," he said.

"The federal government is pointing fingers … the city was pointing fingers or at least saying they need help, and the provincial government of course sometimes is not at the table. We want everybody to get at the table and answer to everybody here," he said, to chants of "now" from the amassed crowd.

Toronto's at-capacity shelter system has been turning away refugees and asylum seekers since the beginning of June and referring them to federal programs, saying it needs more financial support from the federal government. However, many asylum seekers can't get federal help if their claims haven't been fully granted, leaving dozens of them stuck in limbo with nowhere to sleep.

Ssali Asuman Najib, who told CBC News he left Uganda because he and his family faced persecution for opposition to the government, said Friday he has been forced to sleep outside and is waiting for government assistance.

"We sleep outside here. We stay here as we wait for the government to help us," he said.

"What we expected, it's not what we're seeing."

Toronto's shelters are full, mayor says

In a statement, Mayor Olivia Chow said city senior staff and deputy ministers from different ministries of the provincial and federal government had a "productive" meeting on Friday to talk about next steps in resolving the situation.

"The city, provincial and federal governments all see and understand the urgent need to address the immediate crisis, and to develop and implement longer term solutions so that newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers have the support and shelter they deserve," Chow said.

Chow added all parties agreed to bring specific actions to a crisis management table next Tuesday.

The mayor said she is continuing to work with city staff to communicate to the federal and provincial governments the urgency of the situation and "my commitment to providing refugees secure shelter and a pipeline to permanent housing."

That would include, she says, $157 million for what the city is spending for existing refugee shelter spaces, support with additional housing and personnel, and a significant expansion of a rent supplement program so people can be moved into housing.

In an earlier statement, Chow said Toronto's shelters are full. She said the city provides shelter to about 3,000 refugees a night, a number that makes up more than a third of the city's shelter population.

Feds 'turned their backs on us,' city official says

Gord Tanner, the general manager of Toronto's Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, previously told CBC News that the federal government provided Toronto with over $70 million throughout 2022, which covered about 98 per cent of the city's costs on this file last year.

"Then they turned their backs on us," said Tanner, who added he has thus far not been encouraged by the conversations the city has had with the federal government.

LISTEN | Refugees decry lack of shelter space:

Matthew Krupovich, spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), told CBC News in an email that the federal government appreciates the pressures Toronto is currently facing.

"Co-operation between all orders of government is fundamental in finding solutions for addressing this challenge. This requires collaboration between multiple departments at each level of government to address housing, employment and social issues," he said.

"It is important that we work together to fulfill our international obligations with respect to asylum claimants, while continuing to work in close collaboration to provide support and develop shared solutions."

The federal government says it has provided $700 million since 2017 in funding to provincial and municipal governments through the Interim Housing Assistance Program, which included approximately $215 million to the City of Toronto.

The federal government also announced Friday funding of over $2 million to help employment centre JVS Toronto deliver online, pre-arrival services for new immigrants. The government says that includes information about Canadian workplaces and services for refugees to help them prepare for jobs in Canada.