By Fred Alvarado
Fred is community journalist with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE

RPTV Weekly News Show Episode 64 (Oct 16th to Oct 26th)
In this weekly news show hosted by RPTV reporters Fred Alvarado, Kedar Ahmed, Gabriel Meissner and Jabin Haque, we present news that impacts on Toronto's Regent Park and the surrounding areas.

Episode 64 features segments on:
0:00 Intro;

• 01:17 TDSB Trustee Deborah Williams hosts Ward-10 Forum at Nelson Mandela Park Public School;
• 13:07 City of Toronto housing report proposes a generational change of the housing system;
• 20:42 City unveils winter 2023/24 homelessness strategy as shelter system already at capacity; 36:59 Downtown Toronto neighborhood divided over city’s plan to open new respite center;
• 44:44 Citadel Dance Program 2023-24 provides dance classes to children in Regent Park;
• 54:03 2 men charged with second-degree murder in connection with shooting in the area of Sherbourne and Dundas;
• 55:20 Events and Jobs in Regent Park.

This week’s lead story:

The City of Toronto unveiled their winter 2023/24 homelessness strategy as the shelter system is already at capacity.

On October 17th City of Toronto unveiled a winter services plan that includes four warming centres, adding 180 beds into existing shelters, and a 24-hour respite site providing another 40 spaces, which will open on Nov. 15 and remain open until April next year.

The city’s plan to add 180 extra beds into existing shelters relies on reducing space between beds in most shelter programs to the pre-pandemic distance of 0.75 meters. Last year, the winter shelter plan included 230 additional spaces to bridge the gap from November to April.

Starting in mid November, warming centres will open when the temperature drops to -5 C, marking a departure from the previous threshold, which was set at -15 C.

The four warming centres will be located at
* 136 Spadina Road,
* 75 Elizabeth Street,
* 15 Olive Avenue and
* 885 Scarborough Golf Club Road.

The city budgeted $660 million for emergency shelter in Toronto this year, a figure that has now grown to $741 (seven hundred forty-one million dollars).

Even before the coldest weather hits, city officials are acknowledging their winter plan may not be enough.

For years, Toronto has struggled with an escalating homelessness crisis. Last September, 8,200 people were using the shelter system on an average night, a number that’s since risen to 9,102 as of October 15th.  

Both men’s and women’s emergency shelters are completely full.

Gord Tanner, General Manager of the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration for the city, said Toronto is seeing “unprecedented pressure” on the shelter system due to an inflated cost of living, insufficient affordable housing supply, and an increase in the number of refugee claimants arriving in Toronto.

Tanner noted that 278 people on average were turned away daily from shelters in September for lack of space. “This is an escalating and deepening crisis,” Tanner told reporters, as he and City Councillor Alejandra Bravo, Chair of the Economic and Community Development Committee, echoed the city’s call to higher levels of government for aid, while appealing for any Toronto organization with extra space to contact city officials.

According to city hall, more than 1,500 people per night are currently being accommodated outside of the city’s shelters, in churches, community organization spaces, hotels and Red Cross facilities.

About 40 per cent of the people in shelters are refugee claimants and the city doesn't have a clear picture of how many more Toronto residents might need shelter space as temperatures continue to drop.

Tanner added that the federal government must immediately establish a reception centre for refugee claimants when they first arrive in Canada.

“Right now there is not a centralized place for them to go. So what do they do? Some go to a church. Some come to 129 Peter Street. Some don’t know where to go and that is unacceptable,” Tanner said.

“We need a reception centre that we can properly support and fund and we will partner with the federal government to do that but that is desperately required in this situation as we head into winter."

At the time, Immigration, Refugees and CItizenship Canada said it already allocated an extra $97 million in funding to Toronto this summer to help provide interim housing for asylum claimants.

"There is no long-term solution on the horizon without help from higher levels of government," Tanner said. The city has been calling repeatedly for federal support to help cover its $1.5 billion budget hole.

The 2023-24 winter plan is the first under the administration of Olivia Chow, who stepped into the mayoral seat earlier this year and was immediately confronted with the shelter crisis, as a crowd of asylum seekers were sleeping on a downtown sidewalk waiting for available beds.

And now let’s go to the press conference at City Hall with Gord Tanner, General Manager of the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration for the city and City Councillor Alejandra Bravo, Chair of the Economic and Community Development Committee.