Refugee shelter to cost taxpayers nearly $1M per month

Torontosun.com
Nov. 14, 2019
Sue-Ann Levy

A former North York hydro site now being used as a refugee shelter is costing taxpayers at least $1-million per month, the Toronto Sun has confirmed.

The city is paying $42,000 per month to the Times Group Corp. to use the 5800 Yonge St. site, which opened its doors on Tuesday.

City spokesman Andrea Gonsalves also confirmed the city has been paying the monthly rent to the owner since January of this year even though the site sat vacant until this week.

But that’s not all. Gonsalves said it is costing the city another $45,000 per month to provide heat and light to this 80,000-square-foot building, about two-thirds of which is being used to house some 200 refugees, 120 of them female and another 80 male.

Homes First Society Patricia Mueller told the Toronto Sun during a tour of the facility last Friday that the owners of the building felt the need to “give back” to the community.

The owners didn’t attend the tour, but were quoted in subsequent media stories as saying their company is bringing in a “lot less” than it would have if they’d rented it as a commercial property.

They purchased the building in early 2018 for $122.5 million.

Gonsalves said the cost per day to house each refugee is $140. At 200, that amounts to at least another $840,000 per month.

Mueller told the Toronto Sun Wednesday they have 40 clients with another 60 to arrive Thursday and 20 on Friday. They will be up to full capacity next week when the remaining 80 arrive, she said.
She added that everyone “loves the site.”

During last Friday’s tour, Mueller said she has named the facility the “Willowdale Welcome Centre” and that it is the first of its kind in Toronto–a housing program specifically for newcomers.

The Sun earlier this year came across the plans for the building earlier this year, noticing an obscure $3-million line item in the 2019 budget under new and enhanced priorities -- described in the budget as costs to transition motel clients to 5,800 Yonge St.