Toronto’s Exhibition Place is receiving a new 24-hour respite site to provide more space and help support people experiencing homelessness this winter.
On Wednesday, the city released an update to its Winter Services Plan and it confirmed that the Better Living Centre at the Exhibition Place would act as a shelter site until March 2024. The city says the site will welcome approximately 40 people per day through referrals between Dec. 21 to Dec. 26, and once fully operational, the site will have capacity for 240 people.
The city notes that many of these spaces will already be accounted for as it will refer people from existing outdoor locations, however it will add “critical capacity” for January and February during the coldest months of the winter season.
Additionally, the winter respite program at Covenant House will also remain open until April 15, 2024 and continue to provide 30 spaces for youth experiencing homelessness.
“…The City has confirmed expanded operating hours at drop-in programs this winter. Approximately 140 extra operating hours have been added at 10 City-funded drop-in locations throughout the city for the duration of the winter season,” the city said in a press release.
READ MORE: Toronto to create 650+ shelter spaces for unhoused individuals this winter
In addition to those updates, here are the other elements provided in the city’s Winter Plan:
- 180 additional spaces in the shelter system
- A 24-hour winter respite site with capacity for approximately 50 individuals identifying as males is open
- Activating three Warming Centres when temperatures reach minus five degrees Celsius or colder. A fourth site will be available soon, for a total of 180 Warming Centre spaces
- Began to tenant 101 of 275 housing units expected to come online through the winter
- Additional street outreach teams encouraging people to come indoors when temperatures reach minus 15 degrees Celsius
- Opening 30 additional surge spaces when temperatures reach minus 15 degrees Celsius
Despite these actions, the city recognizes that the demand for shelter spaces continues to rise throughout this season and that the plan may not be enough to meet the demand.
The city says the reason behind this growing call is due to insufficient affordable housing supply, increasing living costs, inadequate wage and income supports and an increasing number of refugee claimants arriving in Toronto.
“Since September 2021, the City has seen the number of refugee claimants in the emergency shelter system increase by more than 653 per cent. In November 2023 alone, the shelter system admitted 685 new refugee claimants,” the city said.
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The city says Toronto’s shelter system is the largest in Canada, but regardless, it still sees around 200 people turned away from the city’s shelter system every night due to a lack of capacity.
Moreover, there are currently 467 families with children (including 322 refugee claimant families) waiting on the family placement list who are living in temporary shelters until space becomes available in a family shelter program.
As of December 17, the city is supporting 11,181 people in total, with 9,370 people in the shelter system and 1,811 people outside the shelter system in bridging hotels and programs supported by the Canadian Red Cross.
