City Council “We need to increase support from the federal government.”
The Toronto City Council rejected the city’s recommendation on the 8th to keep the warming center open 24 hours a day until mid-April.
Previously, the city health commission recommended that the city of Toronto declare a public health crisis related to the lack of space in the warming center and the saturation of shelters for the vulnerable, and to operate 24 hours a day without holidays until April 15.
However, instead of extending the warming center, the city council asked the Ontario government to provide population-proportionate shelters to local governments, and the federal government to financially support the Toronto warming center and those seeking shelter.
City Councilman Michael Thompson argued that extending the operation of the Toronto Warming Center would not solve the problem of space shortage as homeless people from other cities would flow into Toronto.
He said simply declaring a crisis does not change the situation, and that financial support from the federal government is desperately needed to solve the problem.
On the other hand, city councilor Alejandra Bravo, deputy chair of the city’s health commission, said the crisis was right in front of our eyes and needed immediate action.
Four warming centers in Toronto were saturated during the recent -30 degree cold wave. Downtown shelters are reaching their limits as record numbers of homeless people seek shelter.
According to City of Toronto data, more than 10,000 people were homeless in December last year alone, and an average of more than 100 people a day were rejected from shelters because of overcrowding.
The city estimated that it would cost $400,000 a year to operate just one warming center with a capacity of 50 people.
Meanwhile, these shelters cater not only to the homeless, but also to asylum and refugee seekers, whose numbers are expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels. Asylum and refugee applicants using Toronto shelters surged from 530 in September 2021 to 2,390 in December last year.