City staff pitch plan to save frontline shelter positions
Proposed solution to preserve positions is a temporary one and will result in vacancies in other parts of the system, report says.

thestar.com
By EMILY MATHIEU and JENNIFER PAGLIARO
April 6, 2017

City staff have found a way to save 10 frontline positions in Toronto’s strained shelters, but the proposed solution is a temporary one and will result in vacancies in other parts of the system.

Those positions were cut after direction from Mayor John Tory to find city-wide savings and approved by city councilin February and would have been lost through attrition, or not filling the positions once people resigned or retired.

Five of the jobs, council heard during debate, would come from one of the 10 city-run shelters, which serve about 1,500 people.

To keep the 10 positions in place, staff are proposing using additional revenues from mortgage renewals of social housing properties and elsewhere. But the majority of the just over $1 million needed to fill the gap in the budget comes from keeping vacant six administrative positions that are currently unfilled.

That will create $629,800 in savings, what staff noted is not sustainable and just a bridging measure to next year’s budget.

The report detailing the proposed plan was released prior to Thursday’s meeting of the city’s community development and recreation committee and if approved will then be sent to city council at the end of the month.

Councillor Joe Cressy, who tried unsuccessfully to fund the frontline positions at council, said he was pleased staff have recommended bringing the positions back online, as the capacity crisis in the shelter system has been worsening every year.

Increased poverty, a strained housing market and global instability have only made the issues worse, he said.

“Now we have to turn our mind to the fact that we’re at 97 per cent capacity and things are going to get worse not better unless we invest,” he said.

“When you’re dealing with a vulnerable population, a bed is a stop-gap,” and frontline staff provide the supports those vulnerable people rely on to move into more stable living situations, said Cressy.

“Increasing beds without increasing staff is like increasing hospital beds without increasing nurses.”

At council in February, Paul Raftis, general manager of the city’s shelter, support and housing administration division, said it was fair to categorize the loss of the positions as fewer hands to help, though he expected it would have a “minor” impact on service.

Cressy and the committee had asked Raftis to report back on the impact posed by the proposed loss of the 10 positions.

In their report for the committee, staff noted they only suggested cutting frontline staff to meet a budget reduction target of 2.6 per cent that was directed by Tory, to departments city-wide.

They also note that pressure on the shelter system has increased since then, despite the addition of new beds, putting capacity at 97 per cent in March.

In 2015, council directed the city’s real estate division to help shelter and housing staff find 15 temporary and permanent shelter sites needed to ease the pressure in the shelter system through 2020. This followed a 2013 directive by council to get shelter capacity down to 90 per cent.

On Tuesday, Toronto’s entire shelter system was at 93 per cent capacity, with 4,874 of 4,533 spots filled. Shelters for women were at 97 per cent, men’s at 93, youth at 98 and family shelters were at capacity, according to city data. Close to 700 spots for families in motels, the city’s solution to manage the current overflow in that part of the system, were 80 per cent full.

Councillor James Pasternak, committee chair, said he will support reinstating the frontline positions as proposed. He also noted that incoming refugees put “unexpected pressures” on shelter capacity.

This winter, to ease that pressure, city staff opened up a temporary shelter for single male refugees, with 36 beds.

“The 10 positions are reinstated without increasing the annual budget to shelters and staff have done a great job of looking for ways to make it work,” said Pasternak.

“We’re better prepared for our refugee influx, we’re better prepared for the extreme weather conditions that could occur next winter and we’re better prepared to handle the capacity rates.”

Cressy and Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, in a joint letter submitted to the committee in March, said that this winter the need for shelter was so great that people were being turned away from Out of the Cold programs.

The volunteer run, city-funded cold-relief programs are held at various faith based organizations across the city, offering an average of 100 spots a night.

The program runs throughout the winter and is scheduled to shut down in mid-April.