Overcrowded Peel shelters 'a warehouse for people': non-profit head

After losing his job, Brampton resident Gagandeep Singh found himself scrambling for work and struggling to keep up withrent and other bills.

He says he ran out of money and became homeless in November, andhe's been living in tents in Bramptonparks since then.

"When you get homeless, you lose everything," Singh said."You miss home."

Singh, who moved to Brampton from India in March 2023, says he waited to get a shelter bed for five months and lost his bed within days since the shelterwas "overflowed."

That's the case for hundreds of people in Peel who are vying to get a spot in the shelter system, which is running "drastically" over capacity at 350 per cent, according to the region's March news release, which is the latest data publicly available. A regional spokesperson did not respond to a request for more recent data.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown told CBC Toronto the region does not have the dollars to expand its shelter system and has had to dip into its reserves until money from other levels of governments arrives.

"We are underfunded based on population," Brown said.

The overflow in shelters has led to a growing number of encampments across Peel, including in parks across a floodplain alongside Etobicoke Creek Trail.

Brampton cleared that in June and moved all 52 people living in that encampment into a motel shelter. The mayor said the encampment was cleared due to the high-risk location, however a councillor who represents the area said this month the evictions followed a number of complaints from residents in the area.

Moving homeless people into motels where there's security and access to social workers is part of a new initiative by Peel Region. However, the region says it will cost over $8 million this year alone, and right now it doesn't know where the money will come from.

Singh was not one of those who moved into a motel. Instead, he either sleeps in a tent or at a Brampton church, relying on the non-profit Regeneration Outreach Community for meals.

Ted Brown, the CEO of that organization, said removing people from encampments amid a shortage of shelter space will worsen the situation for people already in precarious circumstances.

His organization feeds 4,000 people weekly a 70 per cent increase compared to last year, it says something it'sstruggling to keep up with.

"It's bad out there," Brown said. "We don't anticipate that in the next year it will get any better. Only worse."

Clients share 'horror stories,' says non-profit head

Brown from Regeneration says the lack of funding has deteriorated conditions at the shelters run by Peel Region.

He said the lack of wrap-around services at six shelters in the region has his clients sharing "horror stories" with him.

Even though his organization does not encourage people to live in encampments, Brown says given the state of Peel shelters, he himself would choose to live in a tent over a shelter.

"We hear stories of drug use that happens there. Women who are having their periods and there's no products available for them there's a lack of towels, there's a lack of sheets," Brown said.

"It's a warehouse for people."

Regional staff did not respond to CBC Toronto's questions about those assertions but shared a report about the lack of funding for wrap-around services.

Peel stands last in provincial funding for social services compared to Toronto, Ottawa, York, Durham, Waterloo and Hamilton, according to a May report by non-profit research company Blueprint, which was commissioned by an association of Peel charities called Metamorphosis.

That report shows an annual shortfall of $868 million from the province in social services, includingresources for housing,homeless people, mental health, shelters and transportation.

Mayor Brown says he is in talks with the provincial and federal governments about funding the region's shelter services.

"We're not worth less than a resident that lives in Toronto or Ottawa," Brown said.

He says the region is running a "significant deficit" as it waits for money to trickle down from other levels of government.

In an email, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Social Services said the departmentis spending $700 million on homelessness prevention but did not specify how much of that will go to Peel.

The region is spending $12 million from its tax supported capital reserve to build a dorm-style temporary shelter and a reception centre for asylum claimants both of which would require $11 million annually to operate, per a July regional staff report.

The new hotel shelter spaces will cost the region $50 million.

Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada reimbursed the region with some $22 million last year under the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) for asylum seekers, and said it is processing payment claims for the first quarter this year.

"To ensure that federal funding builds on investments from partners, IHAP funding in 2026-27 will be conditional on provincial and municipal investments in permanent transitional housing solutions for asylum claimants," Isabelle Dubois, a spokesperson for IRCC, said via email.