The shelters are full and the system is in collapse.
We have already won rapid tests and N95 masks for shelter residents!
We have forced the City to open up additional space in the system.
But much more is needed!
Take action and share the tool kit today!
Press Release
Thursday, January 20, 2022
Time: 11:00 am
Location: Streets to Homes Assessment and Referral Centre, 129 Peter St (at Richmond)
The City of Toronto shelter system is in collapse. It is often unable to accept new residents, or even answer the phone and the City is incapable of meeting the basic needs of unhoused people inside and outside of the shelter system.
There are 50 shelters currently in outbreak, unable to accept new residents. There have been 2,292 COVID cases in the shelter system, 20% of which have in the last two weeks. The system is also burdened with longstanding and unresolved systemic issues of violence, theft and discrimination, in addition to COVID-19 safety issues – making many people feel unsafe accessing shelter beds and staying outside instead. These people are often criminalized by the City. In 2021, 132 people died in the shelter system. There were 46 suspected or confirmed fatal overdoses in the shelter system in the first three quarters of 2021, the same as all of 2020 and 4.6 times higher than in 2019. There were 1,037 suspected non-fatal overdoses in the first three quarters of 2021. The collapse of the shelter system is systemic and requires multiple interventions to address.
The City tells housed people to isolate away from others if symptomatic; yet, it has adopted in situ recovery for shelter residents – even in congregate spaces. Recovery beds have been cut to 60. “Recovery beds are now only ‘accessible’ to the most vulnerable – but the site is consistently full so the there are no spaces available. Shelter residents are especially vulnerable to COVID. Forcing COVID positive people, particularly those who are symptomatic, to isolate in situ can be dangerous. The lack of recovery beds puts everyone at risk,” says Laura MacDonald, a registered nurse at Regent Park Community Health Centre. “At the same time, the lack of beds in the shelter system over all is a major health concern – especially in cold weather.”
Shelter, Housing Justice Network Steering Committee Member Lorraine Lam says, “the City says everything is fine – that it doesn’t need help. But the system has been in crisis for years. When it turns people away from shelters and stops answering the phone, when sick, COVID positive people are forced to sleep outside and others are left to recover in congregate settings, it is obvious everything isn’t fine. That is why we are calling on both levels of government, the United Nations, the Red Cross and other international humanitarian aid organizations for emergency assistance; it is also why we are calling on Toronto residents to donate survival supplies.” Lam continues: “We are calling on people who can, to donate items that include: tents, sleeping bags, winter clothing, masks, rapid tests and gift cards. The City has failed to meet the basic needs of its unhoused residents but the community is continuing to come together to support our neighbours.
Key Demands:
Shelters are full. The City has stopped answering the phone or keeps people on hold for long periods when people try to call to access a shelter spot. COVID is sweeping through the system. Meanwhile, the City has cut recovery beds down to 60. COVID positive people who are sick and want a bed have been forced to sleep out in the cold. Multiple people die due to overdose each month. Encampment residents are criminalized.
We commend the City of Toronto for announcing its plan to distribute N95 masks to shelter residents and make rapid tests available. We are also glad to see emergency space opened in community centres. However, it will only be a small percentage of the more than 2,300 beds that are urgently needed. Further, congregate must only be an emergency measure on the way to opening more non-congregate beds – mats or cots on the floor are not real beds and COVID is airborne. Unfortunately, the shelter system is in such crisis that these measures are nowhere near enough.
✓ Provide residents N95 masks – not just workers.
✓ Access to Rapid Tests.
We are meeting at 129 Peter Street the Streets to Homes Assessment and Referral Centre – because it the manifestation of the collapsed system. It used to be open 24 hours a day to for people to stay at as they waited for a bed. It is now closed to in person intake and referrals and open only in extreme cold weather.
Come listen to a panel of speakers talk about the crisis in the system and what needs to be done about it.
Please bring survival supplies if you can. These include: warm winter clothing, camping gear (tents, tarps, insulated sleeping pads, hunting pillows/seats), cell phones/phone cards, rapid COVID-19 test kits, aerosol protective masks (N95, KN95), coffee/food/grocery gift cards. Make sure all items are clean and in good condition.
Wear a mask, please socially distance, be COVID responsible, and dress warmly.
by Muriel Draaisma, Kayla Hounsell
As 34 homeless shelters grapple with COVID-19 outbreaks, an isolation centre for unhoused people with the virus is 95 per cent full and that means the facility will accept only complex cases.
City officials have directed shelter staff to develop plans that will enable unhoused people infected with the virus to isolate “in situ,” which means remaining in place at the shelters in which they are staying.
Homeless advocates say people who try to access a bed at the isolation and recovery centre are not having any luck and they are urging the city to enlist outside help, including from the federal government, to manage the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in shelters.
They say the city needs to create space in the isolation centre. And they say they believe the shelter system may be collapsing because of worker burnout, staff shortages and the recent number of deaths in the shelter system.
It was -20C this morning, people can’t access shelter beds and the warming centres weren’t open. Even with warming centres opening tonight, the City’s plan is wholly inadequate.
Last night, the adult emergency shelter system was at 97% capacity, and the family sector at 99% capacity and there were 29 shelters classified as being inactive COVID-19 outbreak. “Even though unhoused people are at increased weather-related risk of injury at this temperature and especially vulnerable to COVID-19, the City has not opened sufficient beds,” says Lorraine Lam of Shelter & Housing Justice Network (SHJN).
“There are about 375 fewer shelter spaces today than there were before the pandemic began – even with the 200 spaces from the City’s Winter Plan,” says A.J. Withers, lead author of SHJN’s Emergency Winter and Shelter Support and Infrastructure Plan. They continue, “the City’s real winter plan is violent evictions, full shelters and dozens of people turned away every night. We told the City the shelters would be full and the system would be on the brink of collapse this winter that’s why we put together a real winter plan with real solutions.” Continue reading