Toronto shelters busy, but some emergency warming centres closing for now

Toronto's city shelters remain at 95 per cent capacity and hundreds are still using winter respite stations, but several warming centres will be closed on Monday night as the city gets reprieve from extreme cold.

The extreme cold weather alert has been lifted, but city officials say Sunday was another busy night for its shelter system, including at facilities that have just opened in recent days.

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At Metro Hall which will not be open tonight 31 of the 50 available spaces were used. At Regent Park Community Centre, which will remain open, 59 of the 180 cots were taken up.

The Moss Park Armoury, set to be open for two weeks, was about half-full, while the Better Living Centre, which can now handle 200 people, was just under that.

The city said every winter respite site was busy but had space available.

An overflow warming centre that was hastily set up at the Wellesley Community Centre on Saturday night wasn't used and has since been closed.

Meanwhile outreach teams tried to get people off the street, but only one of the 20 people they spoke with accepted.

The weather is expected to be milder this week. Monday's high is expected to be 1 C, and the temperature is set to climb to 6 C by Thursday, according to Environment Canada. However, more cold air is expected to arrive by next weekend.