Moss Park Armoury deal done to open space for city’s homeless

Weeks after homeless activists demanded it, Moss Park Armoury will open as a temporary respite centre for Toronto’s most vulnerable citizens.

Toronto Liberal MP Adam Vaughan told reporters at city hall Friday that Ottawa is giving the City of Toronto round-theclock access to the east downtown National Defence site for two weeks.

The site, sheltering 70 to 100 homeless people from the cold, will act as a “bridge” to city use of a downtown provincial site as an emergency respite centre, Vaughan said.

He would not identify that “more permanent” site, referring questions to the Ontario government, which has not yet divulged any details.

Officials said final details on the agreements were still under discussion late Friday afternoon. The city offered no time for when people can seek shelter at Moss Park Armoury but that’s not expected to happen before Monday.

Environment Canada on Friday predicted an overnight low of -25 C that, with the wind, would feel like a flesh-freezing -37 C.

Toronto had asked Ottawa, through the province, to give it round-theclock access to Moss Park Armoury until April 15.

“My understanding is the province has come up with an alternative that meets the city needs,” Vaughan said. “This allows us to keep the armouries if needed in our back pocket for additional resource support if that’s required . . . What matters is getting people in out of the cold.”

Cathy Crowe, a street nurse among frontline workers long calling for armoury use to prevent injury or even death if people are turned away from packed shelters in the bitter cold, said Friday of the Moss Park Armoury: “Open it fast and the mayor should ask for Fort York now, not in two months.”

Councillor Joe Cressy, who supported colleague Kristyn WongTam’s failed Dec. 6 motion to ask Ottawa to open the two armouries, said of the news: “It gets us over a two-week hurdle but it doesn’t get us until mid-April so it’s all hands on deck,” trying to find safe, suitable space for people.

Wong-Tam’s motion failed when Mayor John Tory and a majority of councillors opposed it.

Tory says he now supports armoury use because city staff have warned him another temporary site, opened recently at the Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place, could soon hit capacity.

The city’s almost 6,000 spots, including shelters, drop-in centres and motels, are constantly at near-capacity, and full in categories such as family shelters. That means dangerous temperatures are further straining an already strained system.

In response to the cold, the city on Thursday opened emergency warming centres at Metro Hall and Regent Park community centre with chairs but not beds.

Council also rejected Wong-Tam’s bid for 1,000 new shelter beds, opting instead for 400 new “spaces,” about half of which have now been introduced.

“It’s clear that we’re not prepared and we could have been in much better position if we had taken action sooner,” Wong-Tam said in an interview. “We wouldn’t have had to be opening warming centres during the middle of a crisis. It’s not as if the mayor and council and shelter support and administration staff weren’t warned — they just didn’t take action soon enough.”

As of Friday afternoon, there had been no reports of homeless Torontonians injured because of the cold. With files from Samantha Beattie and Alanna Rizza.