‘What we need is the will to open those spaces’

City council has committed to funding first year of plan to create 1,000 new shelter beds over 3 years

As Toronto moves toward the creation of 1,000 new shelter beds a coalition of faith leaders are calling on city councillors and their constituents to welcome those emergency facilities with open arms.

That starts with a new shelter planned for Davenport Rd. near Dupont St. in the city’s Annex neighbourhood, they said.

“This winter has clearly revealed the depth of the shelter crisis, with hundreds sleeping in inadequately resourced emergency warming centres most nights,” said Anglican Bishop Jenny Andison, with The Interfaith Coalition to Fight Homelessness.

Andison delivered her statements alongside more than a dozen faith leaders and councillors Joe Mihevc and Joe Cressy during a press conference Thursday.

On Monday, city council committed to funding the first year of a plan to create 1,000 new shelter beds over three years. A motion by Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam directing staff to try to expedite the creation of those emergency beds this year carried with Mayor John Tory’s support.

If designed to hold 100 people or less that means finding at least nine more properties that either meet or can be converted to meet emergency shelter standards, which requires 3.5 square metres of sleeping space per person.

They also, city zoning rules say, must be on arterial roads or minor arterial roads.

“We have the money, what we need is the will to open those spaces,” said Cressy, who challenged councillors to “do the right thing” and support shelter expansion, even at the risk of generating pushback from community members.

The Davenport Rd. site is being used as a winter drop-in for up to 100 people and the plan is to transform it into a 90 bed shelter this spring, news welcomed by former Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson, a longtime area resident, along with The Annex Residents’ Association.

“This winter has clearly revealed the depth of the shelter crisis, with hundreds sleeping in inadequately resourced emergency warming centres most nights.” ANGLICAN BISHOP JENNY ANDISON THE INTERFAITH COALITION TO FIGHT HOMELESSNESS

The Davenport Triangle Residents Association (DATRA), which represents 50 properties backing onto Designers Walk Ln. has railed against Cressy’s support of the shelter, stating in a newsletter that the Annex “has more than its share of ‘social problem’ housing and it is time for the rest of the city to share the burden.”

On Thursday, in written response to questions sent to the DATRA email account, an unnamed member wrote that the group maintains the building could be better used and their association president planned to attend an open house at the site that evening.

Andison is Area Bishop of YorkCredit Valley, Diocese of Toronto, which provides services in the Annex.

“Sharing our lives with people who are on the margins of society enriches us as well,” she said.

For more than three decades, mosques, synagogues, churches, temples and faith-centres have hosted the Out of the Cold program, a volunteer-led initiative where people can get food and space to sleep, often on mats.

Close to 70 people used one site of the program over Wednesday night and about 640 used 24/7 drop-ins and warming centres. The almost at capacity emergency shelter system held about 5,850 people, including 1,596 in motel beds.

Interfaith coalition spokesperson Rafi Aaron said the 23 signatories on a statement in support of Davenport site represented the largest group of faith leaders to back an emergency shelter in the city.

“The shelter crisis and the epidemic of homeless deaths in our city have been years in the making” said Aaron, reading from a coalition statement.

Aaron is also co-chair of the Beth Sholom/Beth Tzedec Out of the Cold Shelter, out of the Beth Sholom Synagogue.

At that program people receive food, tokens, can participate in art workshops and can now be assessed by two Concurrent Disorder Specialists, or people trained to recognize and offer support for people who could be dealing with combinations of mental health and addiction issues.

“We need to make dramatic changes in the way we think about housing the homeless,” said Aaron, who the new program has already resulted in people being housed. With files from Jennifer Pagliaro