Hidden camera footage obtained from Cathy Crowe reveals conditions inside one of Toronto’s 24-hour respite centres recorded on Jan. 19, 2019.
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Bursting at the Seams
For the last two years, a quarter of the homeless deaths in Toronto have occurred in city-funded shelters. The overcrowding in shelters affects the conditions and safety of those in the shelter system.
Not only does the lack of shelter space mean more people out on the streets, it also leads to unsafe conditions for those inside shelters. Cathy Crowe, a street nurse and long-time homeless advocate in Toronto called the issue “urgent, [...] there’s bedbugs, scabies, colds and flus.”
“Nobody would want to be in that position. So then you have people staying outside because they know very well what it's like inside,” says Crowe.
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“The shelter system is bursting at the seams.”
Cathy Crowe, Street Nurse
and Homelessness Advocate
Recently, Toronto shelters have dealt with Norwalk virus and group A streptococcus (Strep A) outbreaks. The Strep A outbreak lasted 18 months at Seaton House, Toronto’s largest homeless shelter, and caused staff to stop accepting new people. One man died as a result of the outbreak.
A 90 per cent occupancy limit was imposed by city council, but Crowe says, “overall they've never met it, not once.”
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According to City of Toronto data from 2018, Toronto’s shelters and emergency respite centres regularly exceed the limit, with women’s and family shelters often operating at full capacity.
The overcrowding is so extreme that disaster relief structures are being used to shelter those in immediate need. An emergency dome has been set up to act as a 24-hour respite site, but even that is close to full.
In a declaration submitted by Toronto city councillors Kristyn Wong-Tam and Gord Perks the two say “that disaster relief structures being put into use are not enough and we require an emergency response from all levels of government. The City has the capacity to shelter over 7,000 people, and yet we are far from meeting the need.”
Toronto homeless population: 8,715 (as of April 2018)
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Toronto total shelter capacity: 7,426 (as of March 2019)
Statistics courtesy of the City of Toronto
Disaster relief facilities like the dome, originally intended for hurricanes or floods, were never meant to be used for long-term housing.
Advocates are calling for affordable housing policies to meet the rising level of homelessness in the city.
“No one should have to suffer the indignity of dying cold and alone in the city streets because they can’t find shelter in a province like Ontario, one that we know has so much wealth,” says Rima Berns-McGown, Ontario NDP critic for Poverty and Homelessness.
“We need to start making decisions to share it more equitably.”