City not doing enough to keep homeless safe during extreme cold, advocates say
Posted January 29, 2022 9:22 pm.
Last Updated January 29, 2022 9:24 pm.
Being outside for just a few minutes during an Extreme Cold Warning is painful, so one can only imagine what it would be like to sleep outdoors.
Yet that’s the reality for many experiencing homelessness. Advocates say the city needs to do more with such frigid temperatures in effect with wind chill values between -25 to -30 degrees.
“We saw more than 50 people sleeping outside in this incredible weather,” says Street Pastor Doug Johnson Hatlem with Sanctuary Toronto.
Johnson has been delivering sleeping bags to those experiencing homelessness over the past couple of days.
“Some were sleeping on crates and almost didn’t have anything until we gave them a sleeping bag. It’s heartbreaking that in such a wealthy city, we haven’t solved this problem that people aren’t sleeping out in arctic weather,” adds Johnson.
The City says there are more than 400 new shelter and warming centre beds available this winter.
“Last week, the City opened two of its community centres – Warden Hilltop and Masaryk-Cowan – as 24-hour respite sites to help respond to demand for emergency shelter space due to the cold weather and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” the City said.
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It adds, “the City’s Streets to Homes outreach teams hand out blankets, sleeping bags and warm winter clothing. During extreme cold weather, Streets to Homes dispatches additional 24/7 teams to connect with people living outside and encourage them to come indoors.”
The city also tells CityNews it is currently providing shelter to more than 7,500 people each night. But according to the latest city data from Jan. 27 — many of these shelters are at over 99 per cent capacity, including warming centres which are at 100 per cent.
“Toronto shelters were running at over 90% capacity before this pandemic began and so when you add on these extra layers it is super dangerous for people who are on the streets to not have access to shelter,” says Dr. Naheed Dosani, who is also the health equity lead with Kensington Health.
Dr. Dosani says he’s been seeing devastating impacts on people living on the streets in this extreme cold weather due to inadequate care.
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“We have people dealing with frostbite, people who are sleeping out on the street in the cold because they don’t have access. It can be a very challenging and frankly dangerous scenario for people to be in. It can cause people to get very sick. It can cause people to develop frostbite and it can even cause people to develop serious illness. There have been circumstances of people heading to the hospital just to obtain warmth,” adds Dosani.
Both Dosani and Johnson say the city needs to do better.
“We also have to think about not just the number of spots available in terms of warming centres but where they are located in the city because people are experiencing homelessness in different ways. It’s not all homelessness in the downtown core. Homelessness also exists in suburban areas like Scarborough for example,” says Dosani.
The City has setup warming centres in the following locations: 129 Peter St., 5800 Yonge St., Exhibition Place, Better Living Centre, 195 Princes’ Blvd., and the Scarborough Civic Centre, 150 Borough Dr. If a centre is full, a TTC shuttlebus is transferring people between centres in the evening hours up until 2 a.m. But that’s if there’s space available at another centre.
“The answer to homelessness is housing not shelters but you do need shelters in a situation like this. There are buildings throughout the city that could be used to get people inside,” Johnson says.
