Facing an ‘unprecedented’ shelter crunch, city proposes extending leases at temporary sites

The city plans to close ‘up to five’ sites this year, with the rest extended to at least April 2024, as Tory cites ‘tremendous cost’ on city hall.

Thestar.com
Jan. 5, 2023
Victoria Gibson

Toronto city staff are asking to extend most of the city’s temporary, pandemic-era shelter leases into 2024, in the face of a capacity crunch that’s seen more than 100 people per day turned away.

While the city initially outlined a two-year plan, early last year, and began phasing out its then-27 temporary, pandemic-era shelters, a new report tabled for the city hall economic and community development committee’s next meeting says staff are now recommending that up to five of the 23 remaining sites close this year, with the rest extended until at least April 2024.

The estimated cost to extend those leases and licenses is “up to” $25 million, the staff report said. When the extensions are combined with the other contracts and associated costs from operational funding to site restoration, the report estimates a total cost of $317.2 million -- a cost that will be subject to city council’s final approval through its forthcoming budget process.

While the head of Toronto’s shelter department recently described the temporary system as a financially unsustainable emergency fix -- and Tory, on Wednesday, told reporters the temporary sites were placing a “tremendous cost” on city hall -- staff acknowledged in a news release Wednesday that Toronto is also currently facing “unprecedented” pressures on its homeless services, citing factors at play including a lack of affordable housing and a “volatile economy,” with soaring inflation and income supports that staff see as insufficient.

That pressure has been evident in the city’s own shelter statistics for some time, as people facing homelessness and sector workers have raised alarm about the capacity squeeze. As of November, an average of 168.3 callers to Toronto’s shelter intake line were turned away per day, as just 21.5 calls on average resulted in someone finding a bed. That same month, 9,711 people were considered “actively homeless” in Toronto, up from 9,199 people one year prior.

Meanwhile, as 2022 drew to a close, the city was in the throes of closing down a large temporary site at 45 the Esplanade, on the heels of two other closures, at 195 Princes’ Boulevard and 1684 Queen St. E. A fourth site, at 65 Dundas St. E, had its capacity reduced late last year after the city purchased the former hotel to convert it into long-term rental units.

At each of the three fully shut sites, fewer than 16 per cent of occupants at each location wound up in housing through the closure process, the new report said. (Based on occupancy at the time intake shut, the given figures suggest around 85 people were housed.) Most moved to other shelters, it said, as about 90 people between all three sites left for unknown locations.

A small number went to other facilities like health centres, and on the Esplanade, the city’s data suggests one person died between the time intake closed and the shelter’s last day of operation.

Asked Wednesday which hotels the city is eyeing for closure in 2023, Tory said he’d seen a prioritized list, but declined to offer further details -- noting their decisions were based on factors such as property owners’ willingness to keep leasing sites out.

“The use of hotels ... was always meant to be something that was temporary,” he said.

The city, in an email, said it was not naming potential closure locations publicly as negotiations are still underway with property owners.

Tory noted the city’s aim of building more affordable housing, including homes with support services -- something city staff have also repeatedly pointed to as the solution to its strained emergency system. Operating supportive housing is also cheaper than shelters, staff have said.

But in the short term, as that kind of housing remains in short supply, homeless service sector workers and advocates have raised concern about closures tightening the squeeze.

Diana Chan McNally, a community worker with All Saints Toronto, was glad to see staff propose the extensions. But she was dismayed by the figures on occupants of shuttered sites who left for unknown locations. “Frankly, anyone who ends up just who knows where, that’s a failure -- every one of those people who did not end up in adequate shelter or housing.”

Chan McNally wants to see a more consistent approach to finding housing for Toronto shelter occupants, before a site is put on a ticking clock. She worries about anxiety among occupants of remaining sites, without a clear sense of which facilities will close next. While city officials have pointed to the financial toll of the temporary sites, she labelled it a “moral cost” -- noting that without enough affordable housing, the alternatives included hunkering down in the TTC.

“To not do exactly what we need to -- to invest in decent, healthy, safe shelter space until we get the housing built -- is literally abandoning Torontonians,” she said.

The staff report is set to be considered by the Economic and Community Development Committee on Jan. 11 -- and, if advanced, by city council at its meeting that begins Feb. 7.