City to open isolation site, nine shelters
Board of health hopes move stifles outbreak among the homeless
The city is taking steps to help prevent homeless people from contracting COVID-19 and help those who have been infected, including opening nine new shelters and setting up Canada’s first dedicated isolation and recovery sites.
“As chair of Toronto’s board of health, I can tell you that job No. 1for us right now is making sure we take care of the homeless,” Coun. Joe Cressy said Tuesday afternoon in an interview in which he laid out the city’s plans.
The city has opened nine new shelters for homeless people with more than 350 spaces to help improve social distancing. The shelters are across the city, Cressy explained, including in recreation centres and motels the city has taken over. He declined to identify the locations of the isolation and recovery facilities, for confidentiality reasons.
“We’re taking this step so people aren’t as crowded in our shelters,” Cressy said.
The city is planning to open a 10th shelter with space available if and when it’s needed.
The city is also opening an isolation site for people awaiting COVID-19 test results, the firstever for Canada, after being referred from provincial testing centres. When it’s fully up and running, the new site will have 40 rooms for isolated individuals/households awaiting results.
Health-care practitioners have explained to the Star in the last few days that this is a growing problem: Where do the homeless go after being tested for COVID-19?
The city is also creating a 400person COVID-19 recovery facility for homeless people who test positive. Cressy described it as a “24-hour, wraparound health support facility.” The site is a partnership between the provincial government and the Inner City Health Associates, a group of more than 100 physicians working in more than 50 shelters and drop-in centres across the city.
Cressy said the plan is to move homeless people to the isolation facility after they have been tested to await their results. They will be transported in the city’s fleet-services vehicles.
The city couldn’t immediately provide a dollar figure for the new services for the homeless impacted by COVID-19.
Costs are being tracked for the “significant increase in services” and talks are ongoing with the provincial and federal governments to determine how the new measures will be paid for, Mary-Anne Bédard, general manager of the city’s Shelter, Support and Housing Administration, told a media briefing Tuesday afternoon.
Her department is also working with the province to prioritize COVID-19 test results for Toronto’s homeless population.
As of Tuesday morning, there were two positive cases of COVID-19 in the shelter system, one last week, the other this week. They are not connected and there is no evidence of an outbreak in the shelter system, the city says.
Both individuals are recovering in isolation. The Shelter, Support and Housing Administration and Toronto Public Health are working together to trace their contacts to monitor, test and isolate those who develop symptoms.
The city is also taking other steps to help the homeless as the virus spreads. There is strong infection prevention and control, the city is purchasing specialized cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment and installing curtains to help increase social distancing.
In addition, the city is instituting a Rapid Housing Access Initiative aimed at making access to housing for those living in shelters a priority. The initiative will use housing allowances as well as vacant units in Toronto Community Housing.
Fifteen households are now matched with housing units and are set to move in this week, the city said in a release. Fifty more units have been identified for move-in in the coming weeks, the city said.
The city also announced initiatives to assist vulnerable renters including those in Toronto Community Housing.
Bédard told the media briefing that no shelters in the city have had to close due to the virus.