Some advocates are calling it a huge shame. They say asylum seekers are among the homeless sleeping on the streets of Toronto. Others are calling it a human rights disaster.
Added to the issue itself is the question of why so many people are being left stranded and who will pay to shelter them. The city of Toronto and the federal government in Ottawa, which is responsible for asylum seekers, have been squabbling over the financial bill.
It’s not uncommon to see some homeless people on the streets, but the numbers are growing.
"People need to understand: this is an emergency," said city councilor Paul Ainslie. "187 people alone died — died in our shelter system last year. From December to mid-March, we turned away ten thousand people in our shelter system."
Ainslie has called for the issue to be declared an emergency and to make 24-hour respite sites a priority.
Greg Cooke is an outreach worker with Sanctuary Toronto. He said in March, for example, 120 people were turned away each day from homeless shelters. He too wants the issue declared an emergency, but the money for it is not forthcoming.
"We’re asking the city government to take leadership in this," Cooke said. "Hamilton, Ottawa, the region of Niagara have already done that, where basically, we keep asking the province and the feds for additional funds to make sure to address the housing crisis and we’re just not seeing that money."
Cooke said by declaring the issue an emergency, it would compel the provincial and federal governments to act.
In addition, asylum seekers have been flowing into Toronto, overstretching the city’s shelter system. Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie said Ottawa has not provided the city with the money it needs to cope, with what she calls, an unprecedented demand for shelter space from asylum seekers and those claiming refugee status. McKelvie said, in the past year and a half the number of asylum seekers in the shelter system has ballooned by 500% from 530 a night in September of 2021 to more than 2800 through May of this year.
"The city’s emergency shelter system shouldn’t be the first stop for individuals seeking new beginnings in our country," McKelvie said. "Appropriate housing and support services should be in place. And Toronto cannot do it without federal funding. We are asking the federal government to provide Toronto with the same financial considerations as other municipalities such as Peel, and Niagara, where it funds and operates asylum seeker-specific hotels."
McKelvie said Toronto needs nearly $100 million to continue offering shelter support to asylum seekers.
The issue also came up before mayor-elect Olivia Chow in one of her first news conferences.
"The challenges that we all face together as the next step is to how do we make sure that what’s being built here will be good housing, good jobs, and services for the rest of them, but also some part of it making sure it's affordable," said Chow.
Chow also criticized the federal government for not taking responsibility for housing refugees it allows into the country. Chow said a third of the clients in the overflowing shelter system are refugees and that’s a "federal responsibility."
However, Chow, who is to be sworn in on Wednesday, said she’s hopeful after a recent talk with prime minister Justin Trudeau adding there is a commitment there.