Budget committee commits funding for additional shelter beds, falling short of advocates demands

Council must still approve funding for three-year plan that would add 1,000 beds total. Those beds won't come soon enough, advocates say.

Thestar.com
Jan. 23, 2018
Jennifer Pagliaro

Toronto’s budget committee voted to fund a plan to open a 1,000 shelter beds in three years while keeping respite centres open beyond the winter as needed.

That plan, presented by staff at the final committee meeting before the budget is forwarded to council for approval, was endorsed in a motion from Mayor John Tory’s hand-picked budget chief Gary Crawford on Tuesday.

“Our residents want us to build a city, but they also appreciate that we strike the right balance -- that we tighten spending, that we find the efficiencies and we don’t hike taxes sky high,” Crawford told reporters at a lunch break.

As part of striking that balance, Crawford vowed: “We’re committing to trying to increase shelter spaces ... We are doing our best to ensure that we are meeting the need.”

But in order to include that and other unfunded items in the budget, motions approved at committee rely on reserve funds, a hot housing market and stretched tax revenue that critics say creates an ongoing unsustainable situation in a growing city.

Adding an additional 240 beds in 2018 won’t be enough, advocates say.

On Tuesday, a prominent group of Canadians, including author Margaret Atwood and director Sarah Polley, released an open letter demanding council fund 1,000 beds to be opened in 2018.

“Every year, we find ourselves in crisis, with our shelter system collapsing under the growing demand for space,” the letter reads.

The move comes after weeks of sustained activism that saw Tory reverse course on the number of beds needed. Though he voted against an urgent motion in December to open 1,000 beds as soon as possible, he signed onto a Jan. 16 open letter with other council members requesting council consider just that.

The preliminary budget presented by staff already had funding for 121 new beds in 2018. But funding for 880 additional beds has to be directed by council.

The open letter signed by Tory also requested that operations of the necessary respite centres and drop-ins remain open beyond the scheduled April 15 closing. Funding that would allow respite centres to stay open as needed was also included in the budget approved by committee Tuesday.

Advocates have long been ringing alarm bells over the lack of space in the shelter system. The city has never met the council-backed target of 90 per cent capacity, which would ensure no one is ever turned away.

With all the new beds the committee agreed to fund put in place by the end of the year and if the occupancy rate remains at today’s levels, capacity in the system would be 89.6 per cent -- just at the city’s target.

Those numbers do not include the some 700 respite spaces that are full nightly -- winter drop-ins and warming centres where people sleep on the floor, on mats, or rest in chairs.

When those spaces are included in the count, the permanent shelter system is often operating beyond 100 per cent capacity and would be even with the new beds.

On Monday night, the city’s 5,686 shelter beds were at 95 per cent capacity and there were an additional 771 people using winter services.

Crawford continued to call the 2018 plan a “good news budget” that keeps taxes at the rate of inflation without significant cuts.

His motion provides funding for items like the a low-income TTC pass, two-hour time-based transfers on the TTC using Presto, and additional youth hubs in libraries. A separate motion from Councillor Frances Nunziata provides for funding of additional child care spaces and the TransformTO climate change action plan. Those motions covered almost all of the items originally left out of the budget.

Funding largely comes from $13.8 million pulled from reserve funds, relying on an additional $10 million forecast to come from the Municipal Land Transfer Tax and $8.8 million in increased assessment growth.

City staff have explained that the city’s services are not growing with its ballooning population, which critics of Tory’s administration say leaves the city trying to do more with less.

“Once again we’ve seen the way we’ve done it is unsustainable,” said Councillor Gord Perks. “We’re falling behind in the critical things we need to do.”