City staff urge Toronto to close up to 5 temporary homeless shelters this year

City staff are proposing that Toronto decommission up to five temporary homeless shelters this year as a part of a new plan unveiled on Thursday, but advocates worry the move will put a strain on those experiencing homelessness.

The plan identifies two of the five temporary homeless shelters to be closed by May 15: the Better Living Centre on Princes' Boulevard and the former Days Inn hotel on Queen Street East. The Better Living centre, to be closed April 30, has been operating for 17 months. The other locations will be identified in the coming months, the city says.

According to a staff report, the two closures will mean the city will lose 231 spaces for unhoused people this spring: 187 at the Better Living Centre and 44 at the Days Inn.

As public health guidelines change, the city says it wants to make plans to "transition" out of these sites.

The report also recommends the city extend the leases of 12 of its hotel shelters in two stages until April 2023, with most of the properties to be extended in the first stage until December 31, 2022.

The city's economic and community development committee will consider the report on March 24, while city council will consider the matter on April 6.

Toronto has used the temporary shelters to augment its existing shelter system during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Gord Tanner, acting general manager of the city's shelter support and housing administration.

The plan allows the city to close temporary homeless shelters gradually over two years, he said, giving the city "significant time" to work with shelter residents to help them find permanent housing or another shelter space.

"We're not able to quickly move to decommission these sites overnight," said Tanner, adding the city has to work out details with the shelter hotel operators before it can release more information.

"Some of the negotiations are still underway with the property owners," he said.

Homeless advocates, for their part, say the plan is concerning because it means the loss of shelter beds and worry it will be difficult to offset the loss. They also say the plan will create stress and anxiety among shelter hotel residents because temporary homeless shelters are closing on a series of different dates.

Dr. A.J. Withers, a steering committee member of the Shelter and Housing Justice Network and adjunct faculty in critical disability studies at York University, said the plan is not clear and is "unjust."

"There's not really a plan here. They're continuing to try and shamble together things with a shelter system that is in collapse. They continue to scramble with an overly full system that they're piecing together from a variety of different, totally inadequate places where there are really inhuman conditions," Withers said.

"The city is just kicking the can down the road without a real plan to deal with what's actually going on in our streets and in our shelters."